Sorry Wyoming, You Can’t Recall Liz Cheney

Moments after Liz Cheney voted on behalf of the people of the state of Wyoming to Impeach President Trump there were calls for her to resign.

Petitions went up online immediately to recall her. As of early Friday morning 01/15/21 that petition has over 24,000 signatures. But the petition won't mean a thing. She can't be removed.

To quote Liz, "I'm not going anywhere."

Our constitution does not provide a way to remove a member of Congress before their term ends.

It was not a forgotten issues. Our founding father actually debated including a prevision for removal. But they decided against it.

Regarding a member of congress it the constitution reads: "are to pay themselves, out of the treasury of the United States; and are not liable to be recalled during the period for which they are chosen."

In years past there have been attempts to amend the Constitution to allow recall but all attempts have failed.

There have been attempts to go around the Constitution by various states. Those too have failed.

Arkansas amended their state constitution in 1992. But that attempt is a long shot and twists the meaning of the 10th amendment to achieve its goal. The 10th Amendment states that "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

Arkansas attempted to argue that because the Constitution didn't provide for a recall the state could. But the Supreme Court held that the state's amendments were unconstitutional. "In keeping with the complexity of our federal system, once the representatives chosen by the people of each State assemble in Congress, they form a national body and are beyond the control of the individual States until the next election," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote.

So Wyoming might be mad as hell at Liz right now, but she is correct, she's not going anywhere.