Federal Judiciary

Rethinking Impeachment

By Curt Levey

Adding to a growing chorus of left-wing whacko voices, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D ? NY) called today for the impeachment of Ninth Circuit Judge Jay Bybee, who headed DOJ?s Office of Legal Counsel when it produced the ?torture memos? released last week. Frighteningly, Rep. Nadler chairs the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties. Said Nadler of OLC?s memos,

It was not an honest legal memo. It was an instruction manual on how to break the law.

What struck me is that if you change two words in Nadler?s description ? ?memo? to ?opinion? and ?break? to ?subvert? ? you have a perfect description of what the Supreme Court?s liberal justices do regularly when they write opinions in ideologically charged cases.

Assuming arguendo that the Nadler is right, any damage done to American law by Bybee?s memos has since been undone. Sadly, the same cannot be said of the damage done to the Constitution by liberal Supreme Court justices.

I?ve never supported impeaching judges for bad or even disingenuous legal reasoning ? the charge against Jay Bybee. But if Nadler and his Democratic colleagues promise to apply such a standard even-handedly, I might be persuaded to change my mind.

read more

Full post as published by ConfirmThem on April 20, 2009 (boomark / email).