As a matter of policy, we do not regularly call for the removal of public officials.
Having considered our mission, our commitment to nonpartisanship, and our policy to take a position on impeachment only where officials pose a "grave and imminent threat to civil liberties," our board resolved that Trump committed impeachable offenses and violated his oath.
President Trump has violated his oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution.
He poses a grave and imminent threat to civil liberties by engaging in an extended pattern of bad-faith conduct designed to subvert the results of a democratic election.
The president's pattern includes:
- Repeatedly making false statements about 'voter fraud' designed to undermine the election
- Pressuring officials in several states including MI, PA, and GA, to interfere with the results of the election, including a January 2 taped phone call
- Seeking to disenfranchise people of color by targeting many of these efforts at jurisdictions with predominantly Black or Brown populations
- Directing Vice President Pence to block Congress' certification of the Electoral College results
- Urging an unruly mob to riot at the United States Capitol on January 6, in an effort to prevent the certification of the Electoral College results and to intimidate members of Congress from carrying out their constitutional duties
The ACLU national board recognizes that officials have a right to pursue good-faith challenges to election results.
But the pattern of conduct by the president displayed an unfounded, unconstitutional, bad-faith effort to undermine the results merely because the president lost.
Because our democracy rests on a commitment by representatives to let the people decide, these unprecedented acts constitute high crimes and misdemeanors that pose a grave and imminent threat to civil liberties and the foundations of our Republic, warranting Trump's impeachment.