Thread by @JMHendersonSr

Here's an idea:

#Democrats in Congress order their Sergeant at Arms to arrest non-cooperating Executive Branch officials.

#Trump orders #SecretService, #USMarshals, #FederalProtectiveService and other federal police officials to protect Executive Officials from arrest.

Barricades are set up around federal buildings.

Armed forces face off against each other on either side.

Do you think it can't happen?

After Lincoln's assassination, President Andrew Johnson fired Secretary of War Stanton.

Stanton did not take being fired at all well.

In fact, he barricaded himself in his office at the War Department FOR THREE MONTHS.

In fact, Stanton barricading himself in office began the first Presidential impeachment, which arose because Congress contended that the President was without constitutional authority to remove a member of the Cabinet that had been confirmed by the Senate.

Congress impeached Johnson over his firing of Stanton, but the Senate failed to convict Johnson and he completed his term as Lincoln's successor. Just a half-century later, the constitutional question that precipitated the impeachment and the barricade of Stanton was resolved.

In Myers v. US, in 1926, #SCOTUS concluded that the Tenure of Office Act was an unconstitutional restriction on the power of the Executive.