BOSTON, MA – The Campaign to Impeach Donald Trump Now, a growing national movement for an impeachment investigation of President Trump, announced today that Justice Fernande (Nan) R.V. Duffly, who retired last summer from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, has joined its Legal Advisory Board. The campaign, launched on Inauguration Day and led by two public interest organizations, Free Speech For People and RootsAction.org, is calling on Congress to start this investigation based on the President’s direct and ongoing violations of the two anti-corruption provisions of the US Constitution and based on the President’s apparent interference with a criminal investigation by his improper attempts to influence, and his ultimate firing of, FBI Director James Comey.
In addition to Justice Duffly, the campaign also announced today three other new members of its Legal Advisory Board: Eva Paterson, President of the Equal Justice Society and longtime civil rights attorney and leader; University of Denver Law Professor Nancy Leong; and Vermont Law School Professor Jennifer Taub. On Friday, May 12, 2017, the campaign announced that Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe, one of the nation’s most prominent constitutional law professors, had joined its Legal Advisory Board.
“The US Constitution extends rights and freedoms to the people that are protected by limits placed on those in power, including the President,” says Justice Duffly. “Congress must act now to investigate mounting evidence that the President has abused his power through violations of the foreign and domestic emoluments clauses, and obstructed or interfered with the administration of justice. The strength of our democracy depends on it.”
“As an African-American lawyer, I have relied on the rule of law to protect our society against bigotry, unfairness, and race-based tyranny,” says Eva Paterson. “The three branches of our government are part of the structure of our democracy. We, the People, are also part of the structure of our democracy. As we observe part of the national legislature abdicating its sacred obligation to be part of the checks and balances that protect us from tyranny, we the People, must stand up and fight for our country. Black folks have always had to fight for our rights and we will join the rest of the woke part of our country in waging this critical battle. The country we lose may be our own.”
“A president who fires an official for investigating possible wrongdoing by the president threatens our entire constitutional system of checks and balances,” says Professor Leong. “Regardless of party, those of us who care about the future of our country need to start talking seriously about impeachment.”
“If a corporate CEO behaved the way Donald Trump has, any respectable board of directors would fire him,” says Professor Taub. “It’s time for Congress to step up and begin an impeachment investigation.”
Nearly one million Americans from across the country have already joined the campaign at www.impeachdonaldtrumpnow.org. In addition, nine communities, including the city councils of Los Angeles, California, and Cambridge, Massachusetts, have passed resolutions calling for this impeachment investigation, and many other communities are expected to vote on such resolutions in the coming weeks.
Other members of the campaign’s Legal Advisory Board include: Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig; former Montana Supreme Court Justice James Nelson; University of Tulsa Law Professor Tamara Piety; former Temple University Law Professor David Post; George Washington University Law Professor Catherine Ross; Cornell University Law Professor Steven Shiffrin; and Vermont Law Professor James Gustave Speth. The biographies of the Legal Advisory Board Members can be found here.
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