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US House votes to impeach federal judge

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The US House of Representatives voted Thursday to impeach federal judge Thomas Porteous of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. The case will now proceed to the US Senate where a two-thirds majority is required to convict Porteous of committing high crimes and misdemeanors while in office, specifically perjury and accepting bribes from lawyers. The investigation of Porteous was opened by the US House Judiciary Committee in 2008. The committee unanimously approved a resolution creating a task force to conduct the inquiry, which was the first of a sitting federal judge in nearly 20 years. After an investigation by a special committee, the Judicial Conference found "substantial evidence" that Porteous had signed false financial disclosure forms, falsified statements in a personal bankruptcy proceeding, made false representations to secure a bank loan, and violated criminal laws and ethical rules by soliciting and receiving "cash and other things of value" from lawyers in a bench trial over which he was presiding. Porteous's decision in that case, In re Liljeberg enters v. Lifemark Hospitals, was later partially reversed by the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which last week publicly reprimanded Porteous. The US Constitution gives the House the power to impeach "all civil Officers of the United States" on suspicion of "high Crimes and Misdemeanors." Thirteen federal judges have been impeached, of which seven have been convicted.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on March 11, 2010 (boomark / email).