Senate to hold rare impeachment trial for judge

Politico ^ | 12/6/10 | SHIRA TOEPLITZ

[kingattax]

Even as the Senate hits crunch time in the final days of a lame duck session, the chamber will have to divert its attention for a full day Tuesday to hear a rare impeachment trial of a federal judge.

The House voted to impeach Louisiana Judge G. Thomas Porteous on all four counts of “high crimes and misdemeanors” in March – charges that include accepting cash gifts from attorneys who argued in his court.

[AuH2ORepublican]

“In addition, the Senate also voted 94–2 to bar Porteous from holding federal office in the future. So no one need worry about him getting elected to Congress, as impeached judge Alcee Hastings did.”

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Ilya Somin, the author of the post on Volokh Conspiracy, was quickly bitch-slapped by Eugene Volokh himself for claiming that Porteous would be ineligible from serving in Congress. Check out the update to the same post that you linked:

“UPDATE: Senior Conspirator Eugene Volokh points out that it’s not entirely clear that the Senate has the power to ban impeached and convicted judges from running for Congress. He discussed the issue in some detail in this 2009 post. I tend to think that the Senate ultimately does have that power. But Eugene’s analysis shows that the issue is a lot more debatable than I initially thought.”

Translation: Ilya Somin doesn’t know what he’s talking about. That Congress is not a n office of honor, trust and profit under the U.S. is not a “debatable” point, it’s a well established one. Some scholars may disagree with it, but they are a distinct minority.

Besides, the Senate did not even purport to disqualify Porteous from ever serving in Congress. The 94-2 vote was on a “Motion to Forever Disqualify G. Thomas Porteous, Jr. to Hold and Enjoy Any Office of Honor, Trust, or Profit Under the United States.” Somin thought that the Senate meant to disqualify Porteous from serving in Congress, but it’s only because Somin obviously is not very well versed on this subject.