Editor’s Note: Jerry Goldfeder’s Impeachment Sidebar addresses various legal issues relating to the impeachment process. This is his third installment.

Ben Franklin’s famous admonition to a passerby as he left Independence Hall in 1787 was simple, yet it still resonates. When asked, “Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?,” his response was, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”