Opinion: The Spider and the Fly
When majority of the Senator-Judges in a vote of 10-13, opted to abide and comply with the Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) issued by the Supreme Court, it was not an indication of a total obeisance to the “supremacy” of the highest court in the land. It was borne out of respect to the 1987 Constitution, in recognizing the power of the Supreme Court to interpret, enforce and uphold the fundamental law of the land. It is because the courts, ultimately the Supreme Court are the official, (but not necessarily the only,) interpreters of the Constitution. It was also a wise move to avert the so-called “Constitutional Crisis.” Moreover, according to Chancellor James Kent; “Where there is no judicial department to interpret and execute the law, to decide controversies and to enforce rights, the government either perish by its own imbecility, or the other departments of the government must usurp powers for the purpose of commanding obedience, to the destruction of liberty.”
Be that as it may, the impeachment tribunal appears to be on the right course, but it seems that it will only obey the TRO at this instance. If the Supreme Court will issue another TRO to suspend or enjoin the impeachment proceedings by legal injunction, that would be another story. I am sure that the impeachment tribunal will not yield to the Supreme Court, as it would be clearly an intrusion to its Constitutional mandate, “to try and decide all cases of impeachment.” The Senator-Judges will move heaven and earth to proceed with the trial to its fateful conclusion.
The power of judicial review by the Supreme Court, now includes “the duty to determine whether or not there has been a grave abuse of discretion, amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part of any branch or instrumentality of the Government.” The most nagging legal question is: If the Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, is considered a branch or instrumentality of the Government, is that within the purview of the power of judicial review? Let us leave this question to our legal luminaries.
This event of paramount importance, reminds me of a story about the Spider and the Fly. “Won’t you come into my parlor?” said the spider to the fly. The tricky spider is very clever, isn’t he? He knows that the fly will be caught and the spider will be able to scamper along and have a nice meal! A spider can be caught as easily in his own web as a fly is. The reason this doesn’t happen is that the spider is “at home” in his own web and he knows his way around. When the web was spun originally, the spider made sure there would be “safe” threads to use, threads he could touch without sticking to them.
By way of analogy, we could speculate that the Spider is the Supreme Court and the impeachment tribunal is the Fly. But under the prevailing intense political circumstances, one could surmise that although the spider is a tarantula, the fly here is not an ordinary fly, it is s stinger that is capable of inflicting severe wounds to the spider by piercing its poisonous secretions. In other words, the impeachment tribunal could “fly in the face” of the Supreme Court. Needless to say, the impeachment court is not naive nor is it deficient in wisdom or informed judgment. Meanwhile, the spider is trying to lure the fly. Will the fly take the bait? This analogy is merely speculative and it does not purport to predict future events in the impeachment trial, which are beyond our control.*
