With impeachment seeming likely to proceed this week, it’s time for a journey in the wayback machine to impeachments past.  We start, not with presidential impeachments but with the second impeachment of a federal judge.

In 1800, the Democratic-Republicans won the presidency (along with the House and Senate).  By that time, most (if not all) sitting judges were Federalists.  In fact, just before John Adams left the White House, the lame duck Federalists created several new judicial positions and quickly filled them (which in part led to the case establishing judicial review of unconstitutional laws — Marbury vs. Madison. 

Now, customs and the procedural rules governing trial were very different back then.  Supreme Court justices also had responsibilities for the federal circuits (the forerunner of today’s Court of Appeals) including presiding over trials when the Supreme Court was not in session.   And, in instructing the juries at the end of a trial, it was normal for judges to discuss all types of issues (including political issues) rather than limiting themselves to the law that applied to the case.  Needless to say, that meant that there were a lot of federal judges who frequently made disparaging comments about the President and Congress to juries (as well as making legal rulings that the Democratic-Republicans did not like).  As federal judges generally have life-time tenure unless they resign or are impeached, some members of Congress thought that the best solution was to start impeaching judges.  After successfully removing one district court judge who was probably no longer fit to serve for health reasons, Congress turned their attention to Associate Justice Samuel Chase. Continue Reading...