Although an appointment to the United States Supreme Court is a lifetime appointment, the U.S. Constitution includes language that allows a justice to be impeached and forcibly removed from office. Article 3, Section 1 of the Constitution states, "The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour..."
Constitutional Language
Article 2, Section 4 of the Constitution states: "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." Because federal judges are considered civil officers, they are subject to this rule.
Article 3 mentions good behavior of judges, without defining it. According to the Congress.org website, produced by CQ-Roll Call Group, this is taken to mean that the reasons for impeachment of a federal judge aren't limited to criminal acts.
Impeachment Process
The impeachment process begins in the House of Representatives, with passage of articles of impeachment by a majority vote. The articles of impeachment state specific allegations of wrongdoing. The second step in the process is a trial in the U.S. Senate on the allegations. To convict someone who has been impeached, a two-thirds majority vote is required by the Senate. If convicted by the Senate, the accused is immediately removed from office.
Impeachment of Samuel Chase
The Federal Judicial Center lists federal judges who have been impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives. No Supreme Court justice has been convicted and removed, and only one has been impeached. The House impeached Justice Samuel Chase in 1804. The impeachment accused him of basing court decisions on political bias and misconduct. The Senate acquitted Chase in 1805 and he returned to duty.
https://legalbeagle.com/6596992-rules-removing-supreme-court-justice.html
: by Peter Hasson
: The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee was
: overheard Wednesday discussing Democrats’ plans to
: investigate and try to impeach Supreme Court Justice Brett
: Kavanaugh.
: New York Democratic Rep. Jerrold Nadler took a series of phone
: calls while riding the Acela train from New York to
: Washington, D.C, not knowing that The Federalist’s Mollie
: Hemingway was also on the train and within earshot.
: Nadler is set to take over as judiciary chairman as a result
: of Democrats flipping the House in Tuesday’s midterm
: elections.
: Nadler claimed in one call that “there’s a real indication
: that Kavanaugh committed perjury,” claiming the justice
: misled about when he first heard about the second of
: several unproven allegations against him.
: Nadler claimed Kavanaugh was “asked at a committee hearing
: under oath when he first heard of the subject, he said,
: ‘When I’d heard of The Atlantic article.’ But there is an
: email chain apparently dating from well before that from
: him about ‘How can we deal with this?’”
: Nadler appeared to confuse The Atlantic with The New Yorker,
: which first reported the second allegation.
: The congressman’s claim echoed a misleading NBC News article
: that left out crucial context about Kavanaugh’s answer —
: one of several Kavanaugh stories that NBC got wrong.
: Nadler reportedly said, when his interlocutor objected to his
: plan.
: “The worst-case scenario — or best case depending on your
: point of view — you prove he committed perjury, about a
: terrible subject and the Judicial Conference recommends you
: impeach him. So the president appoints someone just as
: bad,” Nadler added.
: Nadler rejected the caller’s suggestion that Democrats
: investigate Kavanaugh quietly.
: “You can’t do it quietly because word will get out that the
: FBI or the committee is reaching out to witnesses,” he
: said.
: Nadler also assailed the FBI’s background investigation
: probing the allegations against Kavanaugh.
: “They didn’t even do a half-ass job,” Nadler said. “They
: didn’t interview 30 witnesses who said, ‘Interview me! I’ve
: got a lot to say!’” the congressman added.
: An extensive investigation by the Republican-led Senate
: Judiciary Committee found “no evidence” to support the
: Kavanaugh accusations.
: Nadler’s communications director Daniel Schwarz claimed
: Hemingway’s story was “an absolutely false and deliberately
: inaccurate report,” in an emailed statement to The Daily
: Caller News Foundation.
: Schwarz did not return a follow-up inquiry asking him to point
: to specific quotations or passages in Hemingway’s report
: that he thought were inaccurate.
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