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No, you can't impeach for incompetence.

The prevention is making sure that judges who are appointed to the bench are judges that take the law seriously.

If the folks appointing judges are people who believe, for example, that committing perjury is fine if it is done as a political expedient, then you can expect those same people will appoint judges who have the same contempt for the written law.

Justice Kennedy, in his own chilling, callous terms:

" -- The prohibition against "cruel and unusual punishments," like other expansive language in the Constitution, must be interpreted according to its text, by considering history, tradition, and precedent, and with due regard for its purpose and function in the constitutional design."

His words above are true enough, [if you disregard "expansive"] . -- And if we then ignore his idiotic opinions that follow:

[ " -- To implement this framework we have established the propriety and affirmed the necessity of referring to "the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society" to determine which punishments are so disproportionate as to be cruel and unusual. ... The beginning point is a review of objective indicia of consensus, as expressed in particular by the enactments of legislatures that have addressed the question. This data gives us essential instruction. --" ]

"We then must determine, in the exercise of our own independent judgment, whether the death penalty is a disproportionate punishment for juveniles."

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Now if Kennedy were capable of using unbiased judgment, he could see that our Constitution does not consider death a disproportionate punishment.

Obviously; -- it should be up to a jury to decide if age or mental abilities preclude a death penalty in the particular case at hand.

We should bar lawyers from serving on the USSC. -- Letting them argue before it is damage enough to our Republic.

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Fido969 wrote: No, you can't impeach for incompetence.

Kennedy's 'incompetence' is getting very close to total disregard for Constitutiuonal principle.
-- But practically speaking, in todays political climate, there is no way he would ever be impeached.