WI US Senate Could Ostracize

How would politics of the early republic play out if the Senate could Constitutionally vote to exile one person every year in the Athenian fashion?

EDIT
Emphasis added for clarity.
 
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I’ve thought more than once that maybe that should be something that is brought back, but the question is, who would the Senate be able to ostracize and would anybody be immune?
 

RousseauX

Donor
How would politics of the early republic play out if the Senate could vote to exile one person every year in the Athenian fashion?
this sounds like something that's unconstitutional and the founding fathers explicitly tried to prevent: it's basically something like an act of attainder in which english parliaments could declare someone guilty of a crime with a simple majority vote. Which is forbidden in two separate parts of the constitution.

it would be really interesting though if for whatever reason this is allowed
 
this sounds like something that's unconstitutional and the founding fathers explicitly tried to prevent: it's basically something like an act of attainder in which english parliaments could declare someone guilty of a crime with a simple majority vote. Which is forbidden in two separate parts of the constitution.

it would be really interesting though if for whatever reason this is allowed
Imagine Senator Bilbo (Dixiecrat-MS) being ostracized for most of his political career. :D:p
 

Skallagrim

Banned
Wouldn't the majority faction always vote to just exile the most promising political figures of the opposing faction? In many ways, this is what it amounted to in ancient Athens.
 
Wouldn't the majority faction always vote to just exile the most promising political figures of the opposing faction? In many ways, this is what it amounted to in ancient Athens.

A very, VERY good point & why we can't
have it now- the person we'd want to be
exiled never would be(although there is
just a chance that even Senate Republicans
would go along with a Democratic move to
ostracize Ted Cruz. Remember a little while
ago someone- I can't remember who but it
WAS a Republican- said if Cruz was stabbed
& killed on the Senate floor there wasn't a
single member of the Senate who would step
forward & say they saw who the criminal was)

But to reiterate- of course you're right Skall-
agrim. For example, I can all-too-easily see
the Senate of the 1850's IOTL voting to exile
Charles Sumner...
 
this sounds like something that's unconstitutional and the founding fathers explicitly tried to prevent: it's basically something like an act of attainder in which english parliaments could declare someone guilty of a crime with a simple majority vote. Which is forbidden in two separate parts of the constitution.
I think that is a philosophical argument that pretty much relegates this to ASB without a much different lead up to the Revolution. Good point RousseauX!
 
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