In October 2018 , U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was approved by a very narrow 50 - 48 Senate right to vote , after an bitter confirmation appendage fueled byallegationsof intimate wrongdoing and charge that he had given untruthful testimony .
But even after he was swear in , the disputation never stopped swirling around Kavanaugh . Anonline petitionurging the House to reinvestigate Kavanaugh and excrete articles of impeachment against attracted almost 176,000 signatures .
Allegations Against Kavanaugh
And now that Kavanaugh has served as SCOTUS on the " Highest Court in the Land " for not even 12 months , new hearsay of sexual allegement are swirling around him once again . On Sept. 14 , 2019The New York Timespublished an excerption of a fresh book " The Education of Brett Kavanaugh : An Investigation , " by Times reporters Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly . It includes details of a previous accusation from Deborah Ramirez , which she cover during Kavanaugh ’s confirmation hearings in 2018 .
At that sentence , Ramirez accused Kavanaugh of exposing himself to her at a Yale company when he was a freshman , though Kavanaugh has repeatedly denied the allegation . According to the book , Ramirez ’s attorney provide the F.B.I. a listing of as many as 25 multitude who could possibly sustain her story , but none were interview . One of those , according to The Times story , could have possibly have been a freshman classmate of Kavanaugh ’s , Max Stier . The Times describe expose thatStier state senator and the F.B.Iabout a story that would confirm Ramirez ’s allegations , but the F.B.I. never enquire .
This novel allegation could threaten to wrack Kavanaugh ’s confirmation . Several democrats , including 2020 presidential candidate Senator Kamala Harris ( D - Calif. ) , Senator Elizabeth Warren ( D - Mass. ) , Julián Castro and Bernie Sanders ( I - Vermont ) , all have call for his impeachment .
Can a Supreme Court Justice Be Impeached?
But if you ’re not a chronicle or constitutive constabulary expert , at this point you might be wondering : Can a Supreme Court DoJ really be impeached ? Does it work like a presidential impeachment ? And has it ever actually happened before ?
The solution to all three question is yes . Article II Section 4of the U.S. Constitution provides that the president , vice president and all " civil officers " — such as federal judges and Supreme Court justices — can be impeached , stress and take away from office fortreason , bribery or other unspecifiedhigh criminal offence and infraction .
But the impeachment clause has only been used once against aSupreme Courtjustice , and that was more than two C ago . As an history from theU.S. Senate Historical Officedetails , Justice Samuel Chase , an appointee of George Washington , was a staunch federalist with a brash manner who made no secret of his political panorama , even after President Thomas Jefferson ’s Democratic - Republican Party took restraint of Congress in 1801 . At Jefferson ’s urging , the Housevoted 73 - 32 to impeach Chase .
The eight counts accused Chase — who like other justices of that time , also doubled as a electric circuit justice and sometimes presided over expansive panel deliberation — of refusing to dismiss coloured juror , excluding defence witnesses in politically sensible case , and afford " an inflammatory political harangue " to a federal tremendous jury in Baltimore . In February 1805 , Chase went on trial in the Senate , where his attorneys argued that his conduct did n’t justify remotion from the bench .
" Chase and his defenders ( the Federalists in the Senate ) reason that ( 1 ) Chase had break no laws ( on the theory , totally faulty but always try by impeached officials , that only an chargeable offense was impeachable ) ; and more important ( 2 ) that the accusation against Chase really came down to his professional opinions about the role of the judge in the court , and his decisions during particular trials , " Randall Calvert , the Thomas F. Eagleton Professor of Public Affairs and Political Science at Washington University in St. Louis , writes in an email .
" Many of Chase ’s action and decisions would be beyond the picket today , but were not so unusual in their day , " Calvert tell . " In peculiar , many Federalist politician think one responsibility of the judge was to head the multitude and protect the Constitution from their mistakes and excesses . While controversial , then , his actions were not widely view as being as absurd as they would seem today , when the judge is expected to be a much more achromatic figure in the court . "
In March of 1805 , Chasewas comport , when none of the eight tally get the required two - thirds support in the Senate .
The Effects of Impeaching a SCOTUS
But the impeachment of Chase still had a unfathomed impression , by helping to establish that judicial impeachment should be confined to cases of alleged corruption or other illegal conduct — while also impose an unofficial taboo against justices engaging publicly in partizan body process . " After that , no one was impeached for the way they adjudicate instance , but justice terminate turn over political opinions , " explain John Harrison , a Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Virginia , who back in the 1980s serve on a Justice Department military commission that studied the issue of impeachment . " Both sides pay off something out of it . "
That did n’t completely stop Supreme Court justices from engaging in politics , as long as they did n’t express their views in royal court . Justice Smith Thompson actually run for New York governor in 1828 , even though he was still on the court . ( He suffer . ) Another DoJ - turned - candidate , Charles Evans Hughes , resigned from the court to consort unsuccessfully against Woodrow Wilson in the 1916 presidential election , and then returned to the tourist court when he was appointed chief justice by President Herbert Hoover in 1930 . President Franklin Roosevelt came close to choosing Justice William O. Douglas as his run mate in 1944 , as this 2003 article from The Nation point .
But since Chase , no Supreme Court DoJ have been impeached , though article have been voted against 13 Union judges , according to theHouse website . Seven were tried , convicted and remove from office , while three resigned from federal agency before a verdict could be hand over . Three were acquit .
The Impeachment Protocol Today
The impeachment and trial of a Supreme Court judge essentially would follow the same process seen in the judicial cases , according to Harrison . The pillowcase would start with an investigation in the House Judiciary Committee , leading to a vote by the full House on impeachment articles , which would then be presented to the Senate .
Once the Senate had the flush , it could take to appoint a committee of senators who would get wind witnesses and gather up documents . The House would appoint impeachment coach — fundamentally , prosecuting officer — and the justice and his or her attorneys would participate in the process and have the chance to call their own witnesses as well . " It looks just like a criminal trial , " Harrison explains . In the end , the committee would compile a record , without make a testimonial on the charge , and then ahead it to the full Senate , which could see extra testimonial before voting .
or else , the Senate could opt to hold the entire test before the full sleeping accommodation , Harrison says . subsequently , senators sometimes will write notion explicate their votes , just as the justices do after decide cases .
In the improbable event that Kavanaugh ever is criminate , there will be a sure caustic remark . As thisNew York Times articledetails , as a untested lawyer , Kavanaugh helped to craft independent counseling Kenneth Starr ’s example for impeaching former President Bill Clinton , who ultimatelywas acquittedby the Senate in 1999 .
