Question: can Supreme Court Judges Be Impeached?

[Dinger]

I think yes, but I'm not sure.

[bluerum]

1. I think so. But am not a judicial scholar so I don't know of any

specific cases.

[Dinger]

4. I Was Wondering If It Is Possible

I know of no specific cases. Possible constitutionally? If so, other federal judges would be included as well I imagine.

[grytpype]

2. y

[Ioo]

3. Yes - US Senate can Impreach a SC Justice

[Dinger]

7. Is There A Particular Section Of The Constitution That Addresses This?

I'll try & look it up. I imagine you can all pretty much guess where I'm going with this.

[Pab Sungenis]

5. Yes, but it's never been tested.

Article II Section 4: "The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors."

Supreme Court Justices are civil officers. While no Supreme Court Justice has ever been impeached, judges from lower courts have been a number of times.

[Dinger]

9. Hmmmmmm, Thanks! (nt)

[Benhurst]

11. On the contrary, Justice Samuel Chase was impeached by the

by the House of Representatives in late 1804. He was tried by the United States Senate, but was acquitted of all charges on March 1, 1805.

[sweetheart]

6. power comes from the barrel of a gun

Anything can be impeached.

[rosesaylavee]

8. Yikes

:scared:

Are you talking rule of law or rule of a gun?

[sweetheart]

14. "the rule of justice"

And the second amendment to keep no official above common law.

[rosesaylavee]

16. Whew.

For a minute there I thought you were going to ask us to start sharpening our pitchforks... hopefully rule of law will preclude our use of force or the "barrel of a gun".

I agree. No one is above the law.

[madrchsod]

10. google-"impeach douglas"

old jerry ford is the first entry....

[SeaBob]

12. Petition

To: U.S. Congress
IMPEACHMENT RESOLUTION

Whereas, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was the guest of a Kansas law school two years ago and went on a hunting trip arranged by the school's dean within weeks of hearing two cases in which the dean was a lead attorney.

Whereas, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and one of his children were guests of the Vice President on Air Force Two and then went hunting with the Vice President, shortly after the Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal of a decision against the Vice President.

Whereas, Federal law provides that any justice shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might be questioned.

Whereas, the American Bar Association Code of Judicial Conduct provides in Canon 1 that a judge shall uphold the integrity and independence of the judiciary and, in Canon 2, that a judge shall avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all of the judge's activities.

Whereas, Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution of the United States provides that judges shall hold their offices during good behaviour.

Whereas, Article 1, Section 3 of the Constitution of the United States provides that the Senate shall have the sole power to try impeachments, and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two thirds of the members present.

Whereas, by his actions, Justice Scalia has tarnished the integrity of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Be it resolved, the legislative branch of our government shall forthwith seek diligently to determine if there is cause for the impeachment of Justice Scalia.

Be it resolved, if the U.S. House of Representatives determines that there is cause for the impeachment of Justice Scalia and if the U.S. Senate by a vote of at least two thirds of the Members present convicts Justice Scalia, then in accordance with the Constitution Justice Scalia be impeached, removed from office and disqualified to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States.

We, the undersigned, urge the Members of Congress to show their support for the proposed Impeachment Resolution by signing their names.


BY SIGNING THIS PETITION, YOU ARE REQUESTING YOUR SENATORS AND YOUR U.S. REPRESENTATIVES TO DETERMINE IF THERE IS CAUSE FOR THE IMPEACHMENT OF ASSOCIATE JUSTICE SCALIA.

WE, THE SIGNERS BELOW, UNDERSTAND AND ACCEPT THE ABOVE CONDITIONS.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

Sincerely,
The Undersigned

This petition can be found at http://www.petitiononline.com/1776imp/petition.html

[acmavm]

13. There are only 477 signatures. There should be thousands.

[hootinholler]

20. Another languishing resolution...

WHY am I not surprised?

Check the link in the sig.

-Hoot

[Biernuts]

17. Pure Bullshit - you want Ruth Ginsburg recused from any case where

the ACLU has participated? There's a sure-fire way to lose important cases. As a former ACLU counsel, she would have an inherent conflict of interest?

You are as bad as the conservatives who want to screw with liberal judges.

Leave the courts alone - ALL of them.

[Dinger]

22. The Issue Isn't Recusal, But Impeachment

My question was IF it can be done. Should it? Oh yeah, hell yeah!

[AndreaCG]

18. Not to mention his son was on the Bush payroll

when he ruled on Bush v Gore.

Thomnas can be impeached for this too.

Won't happen, though.

[Dinger]

23. Nice To Know It's Possible : ) (nt)

[MrCoffee]

21. Yeah, none of those are impeachable offenses.

[Peace Patriot]

15. Absolutely! For "high crimes and misdemeanors," like the Prez.

So you've got to catch them with their pants down (or pockets stuffed). So to speak.

We also have the Constitutional right (via Congress) to "pack the Supreme Court"--that is, to ADD justices, to nullify the effects of Bush having packed the court with Bush Cartel toadies and fascists. FDR tried this, in order to stop the Supreme Court (which had been packed with Coolidge-Hoover era judges) from nixing badly needed New Deal programs. FDR had a perfect right to do it (via Congress), but he got a lot of political flak from the right, and backed off. However, his pressure--threat of packing--caused one justice to re-think things, and change his vote . Thus, Social Security was saved!

The Constitution does not specify the number of justices at 9. That's an arbitrary number. It can be changed.

We can also, by Constitutional amendment, give them term limits, make them electable, and curtail them in various ways. We could also, I believe--with no amendment needed--sick a Special Prosecutor on them, to monitor their every hunting party--seeking impeachment material.

Finally, we, the people, the ONLY sovereigns in this land, can (via Congress) invalidate the 2004 election, and all Bush appointments that have been made since that time. The 2004 election has unique illegitimacy, in that the election results were completely NON-TRANSPARENT--"tabulated" by Bushite electronic voting corporations, using TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code, with virtually no audit/recount controls. This alone should invalidate that election--but there is also a mountain of evidence that it was stolen.

We, the people, the ONLY sovereigns in this land, can theoretically do ANYTHING we need to do, to protect our interests, direct policy, and demand accountability. We can dismantle bad actor corporations, and seize their assets for the public good. We can ban all private money in political campaigns, provide a percentage of the federal budget for candidate access to voters, and reclaim some of our public airwaves for political debate.

But all reforms, including these, are premised on the mechanism of our sovereignty--our votes--and our vote counting process has been gravely compromised by Bushite electronic voting corporations. We have first to get rid of these election theft machines, and return to vote counting that everyone can SEE and that everyone understands.

One way to do that is by MASSIVE Absentee Ballot voting this fall--to put max pressure on state/local election officials concerning these secret voting counting systems. FLOOD election officials with MOUNTAINS of paper AB votes to deal with, and render the machines obsolete. Boycott the machines! Don't vote on them!

AB votes are NOT "safe"--and will NOT insure accurate vote counts this November--but if enough people vote AB (and many are--it's up to 50% in Los Angeles!), we can create sufficient panic and crisis in this election theft industry to FORCE reform NOW.

We MUST restore transparent vote counting, in order to deal with the multiples disasters that the Bush junta has created. We need true peoples' representatives in Congress--not these Bush "pod people" and the Democratic colluders who vote with them. We need to elect a president in 2008 who is beholden to US, and not to Diebold and ES&S*.

------------------------------

*
DIEBOLD: Until recently, headed by Wally O'Dell, a Bush-Cheney campaign chair and major fundraiser (a Bush "Pioneer," right up there with Ken Lay), who promised in writing to "deliver Ohio's electoral votes to Bush-Cheney in 2004"; and

ES&S: A spinoff of Diebold (similar computer architecture), initially funded by rightwing billionaire Howard Ahmanson, who also gave one million dollars to the extremist 'christian' Chalcedon Foundation (which touts the death penalty for homosexuals, among other things). Diebold and ES&S have an incestuous relationship; they are run by two brothers, Bob and Todd Urosevich.

These are the people who "counted" 80% of the nation's votes in 2004, under a veil of corporate secrecy--as the result of legislation engineered by the biggest crooks in the Anthrax Congress, Tom Delay and Bob Ney (now indicted or resigned in bribery scandals). The so-called "Help America Vote Act"--HAVA--a nearly $4 billion eleectronic voting boondoggle for Bush's buds at Diebold and ES&S, by which they fast-tracked these extremely insecure and insider hackable voting systems all over the country.

[Jack Rabbit]

19. Yes.

Federal judges have been impeached and removed from time to time.

It doesn't happen too often, since impeachment is supposed to be an extreme remedy, except in cases of Democratic presidents engaged in a tacky tryst.

[Mz Pip]

24. I remember

the "Impeach Earl Warren" movement from decades ago. So I think it's possible, but not real likely.

Mz Pip
:dem: