Can You Impeach a Supreme Court docket Justice?

There’s a small however rising name from the left to question a number of Supreme Court docket justices who efficiently voted to overturn Roe v. Wade. Following the excessive court docket’s June 24 ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Ladies’s Well being Group, which undid a long time of abortion-rights progress, many advocates and progressive politicians are demanding the impeachment of the justices who, it is being claimed, misled of their affirmation hearings. However is it potential to question a justice? And what does the method appear like?

Is There Precedent For Impeaching a Supreme Court docket Justice?

The regulation does permit for the impeachment of federal judges underneath Article I of america Structure, per the Brennan Center for Justice at New York College’s Faculty of Regulation. There would first should be a majority vote within the Home of Representatives, and it could then transfer to trial within the Senate, the place a two-thirds vote is required to convict and take away the decide or, on this case, justice.

The impeachment of a justice is exceedingly uncommon and, in truth, has solely occurred as soon as earlier than. After being appointed to the Supreme Court docket in 1796, Justice Samuel Chase was impeached by the House in 1804 on account of alleged political bias. Chase was a stalwart Federalist, which means he believed in a centralized nationwide authorities, which threatened the beliefs of then-President Thomas Jefferson, whose Jeffersonian Republican Occasion was in opposition with the Federalist Occasion.

Although the Home claimed Chase had “behaved in an arbitrary, oppressive, and unjust approach” in a previous case, the Senate didn’t meet the two-thirds majority after six Jeffersonian Republicans crossed social gathering strains to facet with 9 Federalists. In 1805, Chase was acquitted, and he continued to serve on the Supreme Court docket till his demise of a coronary heart assault in 1811 at age 70.

On What Grounds Are Some At the moment Calling For Impeachment of Supreme Court docket Justices?

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is without doubt one of the voices main the politicians calling for impeachment. The New York consultant believes justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh knowingly mischaracterized their Roe v. Wade stances of their respective affirmation hearings in 2017 and 2018. “I imagine mendacity underneath oath is an impeachable offense,” she mentioned in an interview with NBC. “It sends a blaring sign to all future nominees, that they will now mislead duly elected members of america Senate with a purpose to safe Supreme Court docket confirmations and seats on the Supreme Court docket,” she mentioned.

“If we permit Supreme Court docket nominees to lie underneath oath and safe lifetime appointments to the best court docket of the land after which concern, with out foundation, rulings that deeply undermine the human and civil rights of nearly all of People, we should see that by way of,” Ocasio-Cortez added. “There have to be penalties for such a deeply destabilizing motion and hostile takeover of our democratic establishments. To permit that to face is to permit that to occur.”

Ilhan Omar is in settlement. “Congress additionally has the authority to question Members of the Supreme Court docket and has achieved so earlier than,” the Minnesota consultant tweeted. “We’d like an impeachment investigation into Clarence Thomas’s role in the January 6th coup, in addition to into Gorsuch, Alito, Barrett, and Kavanaugh’s testimony on Roe throughout their affirmation hearings.”

Ocasio-Cortez used feedback made by senators Susan Collins and Joe Manchin — each of whom voted to substantiate the aforementioned justices after which expressed feeling misled following the overturning — to bolster her argument for impeachment. “This resolution is inconsistent with what Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh mentioned of their testimony and their conferences with me,” Collins mentioned in a statement.

Manchin, in the meantime, mentioned he was “deeply disenchanted” by the court docket’s resolution to overturn Roe in a statement, including: “I trusted Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh after they testified underneath oath that additionally they believed Roe v. Wade was settled authorized precedent and I’m alarmed they selected to reject the soundness the ruling has offered for 2 generations of People.”

What Did Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh Say About Roe v. Wade in Their Affirmation Hearings?

Gorsuch and Kavanaugh each outlined Roe v. Wade as a precedent of their affirmation hearings. “I might inform you that Roe v. Wade, determined in 1973, is a precedent of the US Supreme Court docket. It has been reaffirmed,” Gorsuch said in 2017. ” decide will think about it as precedent of the US Supreme Court docket worthy as therapy of precedent like every other.” Gorsuch was much less keen, nevertheless, to explicitly outline it as an excellent precedent or settled regulation.

In his confirmation hearing the next yr, Kavanaugh mentioned Roe v. Wade was “settled as a precedent.” He added, “The Supreme Court docket has acknowledged the proper to abortion for the reason that 1973 Roe v. Wade case. It has reaffirmed it many instances.”

When pressed by Senator Richard Blumenthal about Donald Trump’s remark about in search of Supreme Court docket nominees who would overturn Roe v. Wade, Kavanaugh said, “I’m not going to touch upon what he had mentioned . . . I’m not positive the precise phrases you simply used are in line with what he mentioned, however no matter he mentioned publicly will stand within the file.”

The previous president’s comments in question got here throughout a presidential debate towards Hillary Clinton. “I’m pro-life,” he mentioned on the time, earlier than sharing his plan to permit particular person states to find out abortion entry and nominate conservative justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade: “That may occur, routinely in my view.”