# Impeachment of SCOTUS judges **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [February 22, 2025, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-of-scotus-judges/1014672 "2025-02-22T19:18:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2025, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-of-scotus-judges/1014672/1 "2025-02-22T19:18:54Z")
Of all the techniques that Republicans have used to stack the court, most notably McConnell refusing to hold a confirmation hearing for Garland, why haven’t they tried to outright impeach a liberal justice? ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2025, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-of-scotus-judges/1014672/2 "2025-02-22T19:44:50Z")
Because they don’t need to. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2025, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-of-scotus-judges/1014672/3 "2025-02-22T19:45:37Z")
No need, yes. And they also don’t have the votes in the Senate. And it would be hard even for them to come up with a plausible excuse. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2025, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-of-scotus-judges/1014672/4 "2025-02-22T19:56:22Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > And they also don’t have the votes in the Senate. And it would be hard even for them to come up with a plausible excuse. It would be trivial to come up with an excuse:Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson are all ‘diversity hires’; Jackson doesn’t even know the difference between women and men from her confirmation hearing testimony. Obviously these women are unqualified and have an agenda to pollute young minds with liberal and contrarian minority opinions. But seriously, Reoublicans don’t have the votes to either impeach or remove, and barring a ‘blue wave’ midterm election and two conservative justices retiring or keeling over thereafter, they have a firm majority. Which must be a slice of hell for these three justices, especially Brown who is actually highly qualified and barring a radical change in the composition of the court will never have an opportunity to have significant influence in decisions. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2025, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-of-scotus-judges/1014672/5 "2025-02-23T01:18:11Z")
To what end? You have a firm majority. A unanimous vote means even the liberals agree with it. All the Pubs would do is ruin the mirage that SCOTUS is impartial. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2025, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-of-scotus-judges/1014672/6 "2025-02-23T12:31:30Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > All the Pubs would do is ruin the mirage that SCOTUS is impartial. To the degree anyone over there is using conventional political logic I agree with this as a crucial idea. But I do question how much there’s any actual conventional political logic still in use in the Fascist upper echelons. They won fair and square and they’re consolidating their victory apace. Like all votes involving totalitarians, it’s one man, one vote, one time. There won’t be more voting (that actually matters) any time soon. No matter how much the trappings of democracy remain in place as camouflage. As @Stranger_On_A_Train said, the Fascists don’t have the votes to pull off an impeachment cleanly. If the Dems really fold in 2026 (a very distinct possibility) we may see those SCOTUS judges summarily fired as part of the executive branch’s natural authority. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2025, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-of-scotus-judges/1014672/7 "2025-02-23T12:42:29Z")
Plausibility is the least important factor in conservative ideology. Remember when Mitch McConnell justified blocking Merrick Garland, then rammed through Amy Coney Barrett? They don’t even attempt a fig leaf any more. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2025, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-of-scotus-judges/1014672/8 "2025-02-23T13:58:51Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > . . . why haven’t they tried to outright impeach a liberal justice? Two reasons. (1).They are smart enough not to hand the Democrats a Senate impeachment trial win. (2) Trump has not instructed them to A related question – Why didn’t the Democrats ever try to impeach a conservative justice? There’s just one answer to that – respect for the judiciary. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2025, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-of-scotus-judges/1014672/9 "2025-02-23T15:36:56Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > A related question – Why didn’t the Democrats ever try to impeach a conservative justice? March 12, 1804 Kind of. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2025, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-of-scotus-judges/1014672/10 "2025-02-23T15:43:52Z")
Impeachment is pretty much a fiction. It only works (and even then, it’s an overly cumbersome process that takes _years_) when it’s some nobody district court judge who got caught with his hand in the till. The process as designed is simply incapable of handling anything bigger than that. Republicans impeaching a Supreme Court justice wouldn’t advance any of their goals because impeachment can’t do ~anything of substance (good or bad).