in World News Does Congress Need to Impeach Judges to Make Them Behave?
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The Constitution offers a ‘good behavior’ remedy that Congress hasn’t used.
Members of Congress are currently filing resolutions to impeach federal judges who are blocking the work of the Trump administration.
But what does the Constitution actually say about how long a federal judge may serve on the bench?
ART III, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution states, “The Judges, both of the supreme & inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behavior…” It does not say that the judges will hold their offices until they resign, die, or commit “a high crime or misdemeanor.” It just says that they stay on their bench while their “behavior” is good.
Now if a federal district judge had previously served on the board of directors of an organization when it received tens of millions of dollars in federal funding and he or she issued an order requiring that the federal spigot feeding that organization could not be closed instead of recusing himself, would that be considered “good behavior?”
Such a case recently came up when District Judge John McConnell Jr. blocked a funding freeze by the Trump administration without disclosing his role on the board of Crossroads Rhode Island: a nonprofit which had received $128 million in government funding during his tenure.
Rep. Andrew Clyde (R – Georgia) announced that he was drafting articles of impeachment against the judge. Rep. Eli Crane (R – Arizona) just filed a resolution for impeachment regarding another federal judge. Others may be filed as well. Thus, the standard of proof in such events needs to be revisited.
The Constitutional provision of “good behavior” is quite different from the provisions that discuss “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Good behavior does not seem to have such a low threshold that asks a judge to only avoid criminal conduct. It instead anticipates that judges are to be held to a much higher standard than government executives. The Constitution also does not use the words “lifetime appointment.”
Desiring simplicity, the founders did not dictate that those reviewing conduct of a judge or justice should be severely restricted to only that which met all the elements of a criminal charge. The Constitution’s founders wanted judges who could not be swayed by money, politics, or personal advancement.