Marissa Pittman’s Government Blog

1.What is Nancy Pelosi's role in Congress? Nancy Pelosi is the Speaker of the House. 2. What is President Trump alleged to have done? Allegedly, President Trump sought help with election interference from Ukraine in the upcoming 2020 presidential election. 3. What is Nancy Pelosi's goal, since she does not want to impeach the president? Instead of impeaching President Trump, Speaker Pelosi is suggesting that laws governing presidential indictments. 4. What does Pelosi say has harmed Congress's ability to investigate the Executive Branch? According to the House Speaker Pelosi, the White House’s lack of cooperation and declarations of executive privilege harm Congress’s ability to investigate the Executive Branch. 5. How did the Director of National Intelligence (who works for the president) violate the law? Declining to share the whistleblower’s complaint to Congress, Joseph Maguire violated the law. 6. What is Adam Schiff's role in Congress? Ada...

Blog 1.4 1. How much of the House must agree to impeach a judge? How much of the Senate must agree to remove a judge? According to the article, “a majority of the House must approve an indictment to impeach, and a two-thirds supermajority of the US Senate must convict for the judge or justice to lose their office”. 2. Has this process ever been used before for the Supreme Court?  How many times?  The process has only been used once, but they were not impeached. 3. Where in the Constitution does it set up the impeachment process? Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution establishes the impeachment process. 4. What are the reasons for the impeachments of the 5 most recent judicial impeachments? In 1986, Harry Claiborne was impeached for falsifying income tax. Now representing Florida, Alcee Hastings was impeached for receiving bribe of $150,000. Walter Nixon was removed due to perjury.In 2009, Samuel Kent was accused of perjury and for lying about sexual ab...

Blog 1.3 1. What was the Iowa Democratic Party's plan for changes to this year's Iowa Caucus? This year,  the Iowa Democratic Party’s Plan was to start a “virtual caucus” in addition to the one in February. 2. Why has the Democratic National Committee decided to recommend rejecting these plans? Due to an influx in the prevalence of hacking, the DNC has decided to recommend rejecting these plans. 3. Why had the Iowa Democratic Party recommended these changes? They wanted to make the caucuses inclusive to those that could not attend in person.  4. Why is it so important that Iowa is the first contest?  How do they influence the nomination process? According to David Redlawsk, “Iowa doesn’t decide who will be president, but it decides who will not”. Essentially, it helps weed out candidates. 5. Why are caucuses controversial as a nomination process? Caucuses demand a myriad of time, so it becomes difficult for people with disabilities or evening com...

Blog 1.2 “Marijuana Law Issues” 1. How much of the US population lives in a state or district with access to legal marijuana? According to the article, “ more than a quarter of the US population lives in a legal marijuana state.” 2. Where in the US were the first places to make marijuana fully legal? Washington state and Colorado were the first places to make marijuana legal for both medical and recreational uses.  3. In the states where marijuana is legal, what differences might there be state to state?  And how are Vermont and DC different? Some states, such as Vermont and DC do not allow marijuana sales for recreational use; however, they do all marijuana to be gifted to people and for residents to grow it. Some states have enabled possession limits and growth limits as well. 4. What is the difference between marijuana legalization and marijuana decriminalization? Legalization means that there is a “removal of all government-enforced penalties for posses...