Will Trump's Illegitimate SCOTUS Picks Be Impeached For Lying To Get Confirmed?

Trump's controversial and unpopular 3 Supreme Court appointees, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett all lied to get confirmed. Once that could no longer be denied, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, dramatically rushed out to reporters today reaching for their smelling salts. Murkowski told reporters that Alito's leaked opinion "rocks my confidence in the court... I think there were some representations made with regards to precedent and settled [law]. Comments were made to me and to others about Roe being settled and precedent." Collins issued a statement saying that "If this leaked draft opinion is the final decision and this reporting is accurate, it would be completely inconsistent with what Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh said in their hearings and in our meetings in my office." I bet she wouldn't vote to impeach either.

So What specifically were the lies? And is it worth impeaching the 3 justices who were, in any case, appointed by an illegitimate "president" who wasn't elected put was "Put-in" the White House. Lying to the Senate to be confirmed should be enough for an impeachment.

Amy Coney Island Baby was the least deceptive and, compared to Kavanaugh and Gorsuch, was pretty clear that she had every intention of voting to overturn Roe at the first opportunity. Trump admitted that that was the primary reason he nominated her. Still, she did try to mislead senators by telling them she would take stare decisis (precedent) into account, even though it was obvious she was full of shit.

"[W]hat I will commit," she said, "is that I will obey all the rules of stare decisis, that if a question comes up before me about whether [Roe-reaffirming Planned Parenthood v] Casey or any other case should be overruled, that I will follow the law of stare decisis, applying it as the court is articulating it, applying all the factors, reliance, workability, being undermined by later facts in law, just all the standard factors."

Neil Gorsuch was more deceptive, claiming "I would tell you that Roe v. Wade, decided in 1973, is a precedent of the U.S. Supreme Court. It has been reaffirmed. The reliance interest considerations are important there, and all of the other factors that go into analyzing precedent have to be considered... It is a precedent of the U.S. Supreme Court. It was reaffirmed in Casey in 1992 and in several other cases. So a good judge will consider it as precedent of the U.S. Supreme Court worthy as treatment of precedent like any other."

Brett Kavanaugh, who may have been drunk for his confirmation, sounded a lot like Gorsuch only more overtly deceptive: "I said that it is settled as a precedent of the Supreme Court, entitled the respect under principles of stare decisis. And one of the important things to keep in mind about Roe v. Wade is that it has been reaffirmed many times over the past 45 years... "And as you well recall, senator, I know when that case came up, the Supreme Court did not just reaffirm it in passing. The Court specifically went through all the factors of stare decisis in considering whether to overrule it, and the joint opinion of Justice Kennedy, Justice O’Connor, and Justice Souter, at great length went through those factors."

Although 15 federal judges have been impeached-- and 8 found guilty and removed-- no Supreme Court justice has been removed through impeachment. To impeach one-- or 3-- the House would have to do it with a majority and then the Senate would decide on guilt or innocence by a 2/3s majority, making it virtually impossible. Among the federal judges impeached and removed were:

• John Pickering (1803)- mental instability and intoxication.

• West Hughes Humphreys (1862)- waging war against the U.S.

• Mark Delahay (1873)- intoxication (resigned before the trial)

• Robert Archbold (1912)- taking bribes

• George Washington English (1926)- abuse of power (resigned)

• Halsted Ritter (1936)- corruption

• Harry Claiborne (1986)- income tax evasion

• Alcee Hastings (1988)- bribery and perjury

• Walter Nixon (1989)- perjury

• Samuel Kent (2009)- sexual assault (resigned)

• Thomas Porteous, Jr. (2010)- taking bribes and committing perjury

Of the 112 Supreme Court justices, only one, Samuel Chase, has ever been impeached (1804),although Abe Fortas was forced to resign (1969) on threat of impeachment. According to History.com, Chase was a Federalist appointed by George Washington and he "irked Thomas Jefferson and his Republican allies in Congress, and was impeached on politically motivated charges of acting in a partisan manner during several trials. However, in 1805 Chase was acquitted by the Senate, a decision that helped safeguard the independence of the judiciary."

For Congress to impeach Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch and Coney Island Baby next year, the Democrats would have to expand their majority in the House by a few votes, to make up for a couple of conservatives-- like Cuellar if he were to be reelected-- who could be expected to vote against impeachment. And, the hard part, the Democrats would have to sweep the Senate elections in November-- after nominating progressives, like Morgan Harper in Ohio today, and not coservatives or political cowards like Tim Ryan.

This is a next-to-impossible scenario but Democratic incumbents like Mark Kelly (AZ) and Raphael Warnock (GA) would have to be reelected in toss-up states and Democratic challengers would have to win in red states by defeating Ron Johnson (WI), Marco Rubio (FL), Chuck Grassley (IA), Rand Paul (KY) and win the open red seats in Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Alabama. and they would still be one or two votes short (depending on Manchin or Sinema). Perhaps-- but no one knows-- if independent Evan McMullin beats right-wing fanatic Mike Lee, he would vote with the Democrats, but who knows? And then we would still need a miracle-- Gary Chambers beating John Kennedy in Louisiana. DO you believe in miracles? Use the 2022 Senate thermometer on the left to express that. Just click on it and contribute what you can to any of the candidates on the page. Each is a strong progressive, absolutely committed to Choice. Take Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson, running in Wisconsin to replace anti-Choice fanatic Ron Johnson. This morning, the said "Reproductive choice and women's rights are on the ballot this Fall. I will beat Ron Johnson and Democrats will have a real majority in the U.S. Senate. And then we will eliminate the filibuster, expand the Supreme Court, and codify Roe. Enough is enough."