The Hermeneutic Cascade: Why a Selective Reinterpretation of “All the Members” Cannot Be Confined to Impeachment
The Hermeneutic Cascade: Why a Selective Reinterpretation of “All the Members” Cannot Be Confined to Impeachment Amiel Gerald A. Roldan™ September 17, 2026 The Constitution of 1987 deploys the phrase “all the Members” (or its close variants “all its Members,” “all the Members of the Senate,” “all the Members of both Houses”) with deliberate consistency across the architecture of separation of powers. It appears in provisions governing the election of chamber officers, the suspension or expulsion of members, the override of presidential vetoes, the grant of tax exemptions, the resolution of electoral ties, the concurrence in amnesties and treaties, the declaration of presidential disability, the rules of the Commission on Appointments, and, finally, conviction upon impeachment. The premise under examination is precise: one cannot alter the denotation of “all the Members” solely for the impeachment threshold without thereby unsettling the identical linguistic formula wh...
