How to Remove a Supreme Court Judge From Office
Impeachment isn’t just about presidents. The constitution allows other officials to be impeached , including justices of the Supreme Court. No judge of this court has been successfully removed from office by impeachment – yet .
The process follows the same two steps as for presidents. The House of Representatives may vote by simple majority to impeach a judge or other federal official. The Senate then conducts a proceeding similar to a trial, then votes on whether or not to convict. If two-thirds of the Senate votes in favor of conviction, the judge is removed from office.
In addition to being impeached for “high treason, bribery, or other serious crimes and misconduct,” judges “must be impeccable in their office.” According to the Brennan Center , 15 federal judges, including justices, have been impeached – some successfully, some not. The most common grounds for impeachment were “false statements, favoritism towards litigants or special appointees, drunkenness in the dock, and abuse of the power of contempt.”
In 1801, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase was impeached after then President Thomas Jefferson accused him of bias in his decisions. The House of Representatives voted to impeach, but the Senate voted to acquit.
In 1969, Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas was threatened with impeachment after accepting a $ 20,000 a year legal consultancy contract from a family fund of a financier who was under investigation for securities violations at the time. later it came almost to the Supreme Court. … Fortas resigned prior to impeachment proceedings . This post was originally published in September 2018 and was updated in October 2020 to add a new photo in the header.