Pelosi has the right to submit trump to an Involuntary Psychiatric Evaluation

[tomhagen]

https://www.salon.com/2019/12/27/pelosi-has-the-right-to-submit-trump-to-an-involuntary-evaluation-yale-psychiatrist-bandy-lee/

Yale psychiatrist who has repeatedly sounded the alarm about President Donald Trump’s mental health has cautioned that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is not doing enough to respond to the danger it poses.

Bandy X. Lee, a professor of psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine who serves as president of the World Mental Health Coalition, began warning about the dangers posed by the president’s mental health before his election. Lee then edited the book "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President" and convened a conference on the president’s mental health at Yale shortly after the president's inauguration. She was recently joined by psychiatrists across the country in calling for the Judiciary Committee to convene a panel of mental health experts to weigh in on the ongoing impeachment proceedings.

[FM123]

1. Yes! Yes! Yes! Please do this Speaker Pelosi!

[MousePlayingDaffodil]

2. This is stupid . . .

Speaker Pelosi has no such "right," nor is there any "law" that she (or anyone else) can invoke in order to cause Trump to be submitted to an "involuntary" psychiatric evaluation.

I'm not sure what purpose Salon thinks is served by running nonsense like this.

[exboyfil]

8. Yep

I am not even sure a law to this effect would be ruled Constitutional. Two mechanisms exist (impeachment and 25th).

[comradebillyboy]

3. More purile nonsense from Salon.

[elleng]

4. Been wondering what kind of 'right' she's referring to.

'“As a coworker, she has the right to have him submit to an involuntary evaluation, but she has not,” Lee told Salon. "Anyone can call 911 to report someone who seems dangerous, and family members are the most typical ones to do so. But so can coworkers, and even passersby on the street. The law dictates who can determine right to treatment, or civil commitment, and in all 50 U.S. states this includes a psychiatrist



"The advantage of a coworker starting this process is that a court can mandate a mental capacity evaluation before the dangerous person returns to work," Lee continued. "The committing physician is preferably the patient's treater, but does not have to be."'

There is THIS, The Twenty-fifth Amendment (Amendment XXV) to the United States Constitution says that if the President becomes unable to do their job, the Vice President becomes the President,' certain folks have a LEGAL right, and even an obligation, but as they appear to be somehow subdued by him, it seems unlikely.

'Section 4
Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.'

[Girard442]

5. Congress could hypothetically insist the POTUS be examined...

...as part of a process weighing whether he should be 25thed, with the proviso that refusal to be examined will lead directly him being booted.

Don’t hold your breath.

[Fiendish Thingy]

6. As a retired MH professional who has had to have clients involuntarily committed...

I have to say Bandy Lee has lost it, jumped the shark, etc.

She was fine in outlining Trump's unstable mental health, but when she started "translating" his tweets and letters, and suggesting Pelosi could have him committed, she has crossed the line of credibility. Not that Trump's conduct doesn't warrant a mental health exam, but to suggest Pelosi could trigger an involuntary assessment is preposterous.

I wonder if Lee is speaking out for attention, or is expressing her own unresolved distress at Trump's continued crimes (something which most of us only express privately or anonymously)?

In any case, as a mental health professional who has had to take the serious step of having clients committed, I can no longer take her seriously.

P.s. Did you mean to post this in the video section?

[bitterross]

7. While, perhaps, technically correct, unlikely to ever happen.

I don't disagree that she has the right to hold hearings on his mental health and find that he's unfit for office. How that would become an article of impeachment is not clear. I can't work out how that translates to bribery, treason or high crimes and misdemeanors.

His obvious lack of fitness due to his mental disorders comes under the 25th Amendment. His loyalists around him will never invoke that amendment though. Never.

[mopinko]

9. dr ronnie jackson had an affirmative duty to report his mental unfitness. trump corrupted him.

it is a slam dunk impeachment article, imho.