One of the many contingencies being floated by Senate Republicans regarding the impending election of Roy Moore, expulsion after the fact, is fraught with legal peril, a former House general counsel wrote for Politico.

Stan Brand writes that the Senate, after what would certainly be months of grueling hearings, could use "disorderly behavior" as the mitigating factor to expel Moore, who has been accused by nine women of wide-ranging sexual misconduct.

Two problems there, one bigger than the other, Brand writes:

For one, senators would need two-thirds vote to expel him.

However, more important is that Moore's alleged misconduct happened before he was a senator, meaning overturning the will of the people, who were well aware of his alleged improprieties, but voted him in anyway.

In the end, the Supreme Court case Powell v. McCormack dictates that as long as a candidate fits the qualifications — age, citizenship, residency — undoing the will of the people is not and should not be an easy undertaking, Brand writes.

"Can the Senate get away with expelling Moore regardless of these precedents? Maybe. Moore might have a tough legal case to make. But so would the Senate," Brand writes.

"The Powell case looms as an important warning that the power to expel might not be expansive enough to empower the Senate to disregard the will of the electorate — however distasteful it finds the conduct at issue."