Litigation

Impeachment in the Air?

By Charlie Hall

Partisan impeachments of judges are the atomic bomb of American politics–and as a Washington Post article today notes, groups on both sides of the aisle are talking with increasing openness about launching a first strike. By the Post’s count, two conservative and two liberal justices are being discussed for possible impeachment, including Chief Justice Roberts.

Robert Barnes, Supreme Court reporter for the Post, writes:

None of the complaints is gaining traction, but they do seem to indicate a desire to do something about the court’s rulings or recent developments that some say violate testimony given at justices’ confirmation hearings.

“These are sulphurous times,” said Dennis Hutchinson, a Supreme Court scholar at the University of Chicago law school. “And the only stick you can wave at a federal judge is impeachment.”

The article cited Justice at Stake Executive Director Bert Brandenburg, who in recent weeks has cautioned against separate impeachment calls issued by two congressmen, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) and Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.). In an Oct. 27 statement quoted by the Post, Brandenburg said:

“Almost every American, liberal and conservative, has been angered by particular legal rulings, but that’s because we ask courts to settle tough legal disputes. It is reckless to threaten judges with ouster simply because we don’t like a particular decision.”

Barnes’s article notes that targeted justices include Chief Justice Roberts (attacked by DeFazio for allegedly misrepresenting his judicial philosophy in confirmation testimony); Justice Sonia Sotomayor (also for confirmation testimony); Clarence Thomas (for his confirmation testimony on allegations of sexual impropriety); and even Elena Kagan, who as the article notes, “has heard a total of four cases.”

Only one Supreme Court justice, Samuel Chase, has ever been impeached, in 1805, and he was acquitted. To learn more about judicial impeachment, see this Justice at Stake web page. For previous Gavel Grab articles on impeachment, click here.

Full post as published by The Gavel on November 01, 2010 (boomark / email).