Eight Men Out. Make that Nine.

Abstract

The Constitution provides that all civil officers of the United States are potentially subject to removal from office by impeachment. The impeachment procedure has been infrequently used in our nation's history. Only nineteen people - two presidents, a cabinet member, a senator, a justice of the Supreme Court, and fourteen federal judges - have ever been impeached by the House of Representatives and brought up for trial before the Senate. Is it possible that there are officials of the United States government who have openly defied the authority of the Constitution and who therefore present an open-and-shut case for impeachment and removal from office? This article suggests that there are indeed, potentially at least nine of them - the Justices of the United States Supreme Court.

Keywords: Supreme Court, Impeachment, Justices, Senate, constitution

JEL Classification: K10