Kevin Luo's Government Blog

What is Nancy Pelosi's role in Congress? Pelosi is the speaker for the House. This role places her in charge of managing discussions in the House. What is President Trump alleged to have done? Trump behaved improperly during a conversation with the president of Ukraine, asking him to work with Giuliani to investigate Biden's son's business in Ukraine.  What is Nancy Pelosi's goal, since she does not want to impeach the president? Pelosi's goal is to amend the Justice Department's decision stating that sitting presidents cannot be indicted when a law is passed that clarifies the procedure for indictment. She wants to make clear how and when sitting presidents can be indicted. Also, she fears that pursuing impeachment will damage support for moderate Democrats, jeopardizing the Democrat's House majority. What does Pelosi say has harmed Congress's ability to investigate the Executive Branch? The White House's lack of cooperation and declaration of ...

How much of the House must agree to impeach a judge? How much of the Senate must agree to remove a judge? A majority of the house (at least 1/2) is needed to approve an indictment to impeach, and a and a 2/3 supermajority of the Senate must convict the judge for him or her to be removed. Has this process ever been used before for the Supreme Court?  How many times? This process has been used for the Supreme Court before. Only one Supreme Court justice, Samuel Chase, has ever been impeached, and the motion to impeach him was part of a motion by Jefferson's Democratic-Republicans to remove a political enemy, though ultimately he was acquitted. Where in the Constitution does it set up the impeachment process? Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution allows the President, Vice President, and any civil officers to be impeached for "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors." What are the reasons for the impeachments of the 5 most recent judicial impeachment...

1. What was the Iowa Democratic Party's plan for changes to this year's Iowa Caucus? They wanted to introduce a virtual caucus via phone, while also retaining the regular one. 2. Why has the Democratic National Committee decided to recommend rejecting these plans? The DNC felt that the phone system was vulnerable to hacking. 3. Why had the Iowa Democratic Party recommended these changes? They had received criticism staying that their caucus should be more accessible to voters who cannot show up in person. 4. Why is it so important that Iowa is the first contest?  How do they influence the nomination process? The early contests show which candidates have momentum, establishing the media narrative of winners and losers. It essentially eliminates certain candidates from the running. 5. Why are caucuses controversial as a nomination process? They are complicated events in which voters have to partition themselves into groups based on the candidates they support. This m...

How much of the US population lives in a state or district with access to legal marijuana? Over one quarter of the US population lives in a state or district with access to legal marijuana. Where in the US were the first places to make marijuana fully legal? Washington and Colorado were the first places. In the states where marijuana is legal, what differences might there be state to state?  And how are Vermont and DC different? There are variations in the amount of marijuana that one can legally possess, and those from outside the state face stricter limits. In DC and Vermont, it is not legal to buy or sell marijuana, though it is still legal to grow it. What is the difference between marijuana legalization and marijuana decriminalization? Legalization removes all government enforced punishments, allowing for legal sale and home-growing of cannabis. Decriminalization only removes jail or prison time for possession of small amounts of marijuana, though other punishments, such...