Many critics of Brett Kavanaugh have said that, if he is confirmed as the ninth justice of the Supreme Court, his openly partisan statements during his testimony before the Senate Judicial Committee and the accusations of sexual assault against him should be considered grounds for possible impeachment.
In a U.S. Senate vote of 50-48 (mostly along party lines), Saturday Kavanaugh was confirmed to fill the Supreme Court seat vacated by Justice Anthony Kennedy, who retired on July 31. Shortly thereafter, President Trump tweeted, “Later today, I will sign his Commission of Appointment, and he will be officially sworn in.” But assuming Democrats decide to put their money where Kavanaugh critics’ mouths are, how likely is it that impeachment will happen?
The truth is, not very. In fact, in the entire history of the U.S. Supreme Court only one justice has ever actually been impeached: Samuel Chase, in 1805.
The constitution does allow elected or civil officials to be impeached on grounds of “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” But the barriers to actually bringing impeachment charges forward, much less securing a conviction (remember, impeachment is just another way of saying someone has been charged with a crime) are high. And those barriers came into play in the case of Chase.
Chase was appointed to the court in 1796 and during his early years as an associate justice developed reputation for open partisanship in favor of the Federalist Party, and specifically the policies of President John Adams. This put Chase in direct opposition to the executive branch after Thomas Jefferson, whose Democratic-Republican party bitterly opposed the Federalists, was elected president in 1800.
Jefferson already disliked Chase for openly political statements he often made while presiding over lower court cases. (Until the late 1800s, Supreme Court justices also served as lower court judges.) But things worsened after Chase, according to the Federal Judiciary Center, went so far as to open a grand jury charge in a U.S. circuit court that ardently criticized a law passed by the Democratic-Republican-controlled congress.
Jefferson seized on those statements as evidence of Chase’s inappropriate political bias and his allies in the House of Representatives agreed. Chase was eventually served with eight articles of impeachment, one related to his grand jury charge and the other seven focused on alleged improper behavior when he resided over in lower court cases.
Chase was tried in the Senate for 22 days. But, before you start drawing possible examples for the present day — think again. On March 1, 1805, he was acquitted. He would serve on the Supreme Court for the rest of his life, dying in 1811 after 25 years on the bench.
Impeachment is a tough process. First, the House Judiciary Committee must conduct an investigation and recommend charges. Second, a majority of the House Judiciary Committee must approve articles of impeachment, which then would face a vote by the full House membership. Next up would be the trial in the Senate where a two-thirds majority vote is needed to convict. Only then would the official in question be dismissed from office (and possibly be forbidden from holding a position in government in the future).
If Democrats decide they want to make Kavanaugh the second-ever SCOTUS justice to be impeached, they’ll find it much harder going than it was in Jefferson’s day. His Democratic-Republicans enjoyed more than a two-thirds majority in the Senate and weren’t able to pull it off. Right now, Democrats control neither the house nor the Senate. And “blue wave” or not, Democrats are not expected to regain control of the Senate this year.
In other words, Kavanaugh is likely on the Supreme Court to stay.
22 'Rediculous' Typos From Trump's White House, From 'Attaker' to 'Unpresidented' (Photos)
You can't have "the best words" if you can't correctly spell them. Even more serious than the Trump administration's beef with CNN is its beef with grammar, as is evidenced by a score of tweets and official White House documents that are riddled with spelling errors, misused words and downright gibberish. Here are 21 of the worst (and most laughable) offenses.
"Innaccurately"
Oh, the irony! The White House tried to call out the Congressional Budget Office for inaccuracy but inaccurately spelled the word "innaccurately."
White House/Twitter
"Honered"
Before "covfefe," there was "honered." Of course, newly-inaugurated Trump meant to tweet that he was "honored," but that's not what happened.
Twitter
"Unpresidented"
According to Huffington Post, Trump Twitter-slammed China for seizing a U.S. underwater drone in December 2016. He also made up a word in the process. By “unpresidented,” we can assume he meant “unprecedented.”
Twitter
"San Bernadino"
The White House got a few things wrong with this list of “unreported” terror attacks. First, many of the incidents actually had been reported. Second, “San Bernardino” was spelled incorrectly.
White House/Twitter
"Attaker"
In the same report, the WH managed to misspell “attacker” 23 times in a row. That has to be some sort of record.
White House/Twitter
"W.E.B. DeBois"
The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) botched the name of legendary civil rights activist, W.E.B. DuBois. It’s DU Bois, as in “DU” they realize the epic mistake they made?
Twitter
"Deepest apologizes"
Apparently, the DOE did catch the gaffe and subsequently tweeted out an apology… sort of.
Twitter/The Washington Post
"Columbia"
This is a common spelling error that also tripped up Steve Harvey in the past. For the record, when referring to the country, the correct spelling is "Colombia."
White House/Twitter
“Possibility of lasting peach”
According to a White House press release, one of Trump’s objectives during his most recent visit to Israel was to “promote the possibility of lasting peach” between Israelis and Palestinians. Who needs peace when you can have peaches?
White House/Twitter
“Couple with changes”
Another typo from the same press release. This time, someone left off the “d” in the word “coupled.” Hence, we have “A new approach, couple with changes.”
White House/Twitter
"Councel"
After Trump tweeted this misspelling on May 18, Merriam-Webster reported that "councel" was their most-searched word of that day.
Twitter/The Hill
"Tapp"
President Obama did not "tapp" Trump's phone at any time during his two terms in office, because there is no such word as "tapp" in the English language.
Twitter
Too vs. To
This was not a tweet. This was Donald Trump's official inauguration portrait... with an egregious typo printed front and center.
Library of Congress
"Teresa May"
This mistake doesn’t seem too critical… until you consider the fact that Teresa (sans “h”) May is the name of a British porn star, not the British Prime Minister. The latter spells her first name with an "h."
White House/Huffington Post
"Hear by"
He should have typed "hereby." Of course, POTUS received a lot of flack for this one, among his many other botched spellings.
Twitter/Pro Publica
"Educatuon"
Failure took the form of a White House Snapchat on April 17. There's no excuse for this one.
White House/Snap
"Thr" and "Gas"
Trump displayed poor spelling in his attempt to shade two credible news outlets via Twitter.
Twitter
"Amoung"
"Amoung," many other things, he will also not use spellcheck.
Twitter
"Predisent"
This was a statement made by Trump's lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, in an official White House document.
White House/Twitter
"Rediculous"
Once again, Trump unleashes a grammatically incorrect Twitter rage at his arch nemesis, CNN.
As Merriam-Webster so nicely put it, "heal (to become healthy again) heel (a contemptible person)."
Twitter
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Welcome to the White House: where the words are made up, and spellcheck doesn’t matter
You can't have "the best words" if you can't correctly spell them. Even more serious than the Trump administration's beef with CNN is its beef with grammar, as is evidenced by a score of tweets and official White House documents that are riddled with spelling errors, misused words and downright gibberish. Here are 21 of the worst (and most laughable) offenses.