Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: You Gotta Be Kidding Me; LiteKeeper
Judges: Should they be Elected or Appointed? by David Barton

...As part of that plan, the Framers took care to ensure that judges were accountable to the people at all times. Although federal judges were appointed and did not face election, the Founders made certain that federal judges would be easily removable from office through impeachment, a procedure that today is widely misunderstood and rarely used. While the current belief is that a judge may be removed only for the commission of a criminal offense or the violation of a statutory law, [3] it was not this way at the beginning. As Alexander Hamilton explained, "the practice of impeachments was a bridle" [4] — a way to keep judges accountable to the people. And what did the Framers believe were impeachable offenses?

According to Justice Joseph Story, a "Father of American Jurisprudence" [author of "COMMENTARIES ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES"]:

The offences to which the power of impeachment has been and is ordinarily applied. . . . are what are aptly termed political offences, growing out of personal misconduct, or gross neglect, or usurpation, or habitual disregard of the public interests. [5]

Under the Framers, impeachment occurred whenever a judge attempted to carry a personal agenda through the court; but today impeachment has become what Justice Story warned that it should never be: a power "so weak and torpid as to be capable of lulling offenders into a general security and indifference." [6] The federal judiciary, because it now enjoys a level of insulation from the people that the Framers never intended and to which they today would vehemently object, is unafraid to reshape American culture and policy to mirror its own political whims and personal values...

95 posted on 11/25/2003 2:17:36 PM PST by an amused spectator (How ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm, once they been to the Internet?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies ]


To: an amused spectator
"...As part of that plan, the Framers took care to ensure that judges were accountable to the people at all times. Although federal judges were appointed and did not face election, the Founders made certain that federal judges would be easily removable from office through impeachment, a procedure that today is widely misunderstood and rarely used. While the current belief is that a judge may be removed only for the commission of a criminal offense or the violation of a statutory law, [3] it was not this way at the beginning. As Alexander Hamilton explained, "the practice of impeachments was a bridle" [4] — a way to keep judges accountable to the people. And what did the Framers believe were impeachable offenses? According to Justice Joseph Story, a "Father of American Jurisprudence" [author of "COMMENTARIES ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES"]: The offences to which the power of impeachment has been and is ordinarily applied. . . . are what are aptly termed political offences, growing out of personal misconduct, or gross neglect, or usurpation, or habitual disregard of the public interests. [5] Under the Framers, impeachment occurred whenever a judge attempted to carry a personal agenda through the court; but today impeachment has become what Justice Story warned that it should never be: a power "so weak and torpid as to be capable of lulling offenders into a general security and indifference." [6] The federal judiciary, because it now enjoys a level of insulation from the people that the Framers never intended and to which they today would vehemently object, is unafraid to reshape American culture and policy to mirror its own political whims and personal values..."

I know. The Senate has a chance to fix all this, but if it doesn't..........a future President will.

100 posted on 11/25/2003 2:36:21 PM PST by You Gotta Be Kidding Me
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 95 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson