By Asha Rangappa 

Dear Listener,

The impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump ended as expected on Saturday, notwithstanding a brief emotional roller-coaster over whether witnesses would be called (they weren’t). Forty-three senators voted to acquit Trump. A recent analysis by the publication Just Security found that 30 of the 43 senators who voted to acquit based their decision — either in whole or in part — on their belief that the Senate lacked jurisdiction to try a former president. Their rationale highlights a troubling pattern we are seeing from Republicans — a refusal to comply with decisions that they simply don’t agree with.

The legal question concerning jurisdiction had been voted on by the Senate last week, with 56 senators finding that trying a former president was constitutionally valid. That vote should have been binding on the senators. After all, jurisdiction is about a tribunal’s power over a claim or a person: If the proceeding moves beyond that question, then jurisdiction, by definition, exists — senators wouldn’t have the power to vote on anything else, like calling witnesses or acquitting the president, if it didn’t. Unfortunately, unlike in a court of law, such decisions in an impeachment aren’t enforceable; impeachment trials are more or less a free for all, beyond the explicit text of the Constitution. But by hanging their hats on this issue, the majority of senators who acquitted the president were not only engaging in legal sleight of hand, they were thumbing their noses at a basic ground rule of democracy.