"Chief Justice Rehnquist said in his report on Friday that it had been clear since early in the country's history that "a judge's judicial acts may not serve as a basis for impeachment."
It seems most of our posters have gone off half-cocked. BTW -- have we any lawyers here -- and what do you think Rehnquist was saying?
"a judge's judicial acts may not serve as a basis for impeachment."
It means that should Rehnquist actually believe the above statement to be true, he needs to be removed simply because he is delusional.
It is a rather uncomplicated statement, and there is absolutely no reason to consider it otherwise.
"A judges judicial acts" ... ie: Actions taken by a judge in the performance of his duties. (to hell with gender, to you obsessive p/c addicts)
"may not serve as a basis for impeachment" ... Now forget the may meaning may, or may not. That's bogus.
It means a justice can not be impeached for anything he does in the performance of his duties. Period ... end of story.
The man is delusional!
The old chief justice is merely replying to comments about irritation over the decision by citing history.
When early attempts were made to impeach a SC judge for the "political" unpopularity of a decision the judge made that was clearly political, the attempts failed as he was acting within the confines of his duties.
In that age, thought crimes, promoted by rationalists today, didn't exist. You were judged on your actions.
What the Chief Justice doesn't say is what he would think the likelyhood of an impeachment effort failing if the issue was not the popularity of the decision, but instead, the violation of the oath of office to defend the Constitution.
As US law and the Constitution wasn't the basis of the action as stated in the Majority opinion, an arguement can be made that members joining the opinion acted outside their oath and duty, certainly a high crime to me.
I think his statement is correct in an historical context alone. I also think that he doesn't understand the opinion the conservatives have of the action in general.