Thursday, March 16, 2017

How to Hold Activist Judges Accountable

There have been countless complaints about the current state of our judicial system, with so many activist judges illegally legislating from the bench. And it has been impossible to fix it because judges are appointed for life, and the Constitution allows only one method of removal - for lack of "good behavior".

And while it would appear that illegally legislating from the bench is bad behavior, the  courts have declared (again, illegally) that only "high crimes and misdemeanors"  can constitute bad behavior. Such a declaration by the court is a case of the fox guarding the hen house.

To remove a judge, the judge must be impeached by a simple majority of the House, and a two-thirds majority of the senate.

This entire debacle is easily fixed - Congress, the only body with the authority to do so - should pass a law that clarifies what constitutes bad behavior of judges, and should include "legislating from the bench" as an impeachable offense.

Today, the difficult part would be getting the law passed through the Senate, and getting 60 votes for any impeachment. But thanks to Harry Reid, the "nuclear option" could be used, and only a simple majority would be required in the senate.

The law should state that a judge shall be reprimanded for a first offense. A second offense within three years would result in impeachment.

While this would not fix all the issues with rogue judges, it would certainly provide the People with a method for protecting themselves from them.

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