The Indianapolis journal., 1902-07-28
AS TO THE IMPEACHMENT OF

Some OF the labor leaders are threaten
ing TO institute proceedings for the i'm
parchment of Judge Jackson, OF West Vir-
ginia, on account Of his recent orders
against the striking miners. If they think
the judge has been guilty Of an impeach-
able offense they have the same right as
other citizens to raise the question, but
they would soon discover that they had
undertaken a long and difficult fight. The
attempt to impeach a United States judge
has been made three times in our history,
and has succeeded only once To insure
the success of the proceeding clear case
must be made Of corruption or judicial mai
feasance. An erroneous judgment or
wrong decision would not furnish any
ground for it.
The Constitution provides that a federal
judge may be impeached and removed from
office for treason, bribery or other high
crimes and misdemeanOrs." AS the Con-
stitutiOn further provides that the party
convicted shall, nevertheless. be liable and
subject to Indictment. trial. judgment and
punishment according to law" the pre-
/
indictable one. Whether this be so or not
IL takes majority of the House to present
articles of impeachment and two-thirds
of the Senate To convict. The labor lead
ers would probably find it difficult to con-
vince such a proportion of the members Of
the House and Senate that Judge Jackson's
recent orders furnished just ground for
impeachment.
The first attempt to impeach a federal
/ judge was in 1903. against Judge Pickering.
/ of the United States District Court for New
! Hampshire. The House presented four ar
! ticles, charging him with decisions con-
! trary TO law. and with drunkenness and
! profanity on the bench. He did not ap-
pear at the trial, but his son did and at
tempted to prove his fathers insanity. The
managers on the part of the House main
tanned in reply that the insanity was a
consequence of his habitual drunkenness.
He was convicted and removed.
/ In 1904 Judge Samuel Chase one of the
| ablest Of the justices of the Supreme
| Court, though an arbitrary one, appointed
| by Washington and one of the great men of
the revolutionary period, was impeached by
the House on account of his conduct Of
certain trials under the sedition law and
for a charge to a grand jury. He was a
| Federalist. and the proceeding was mainly
political. There were eight articles of i'm
parchment and none received a two-thirds
majority vote of the Senate. Judge Chase
resumed his seat on the bench and held it
| till his death in 1911.
In 1880 Judge Peck, United States district
/ judge of Missouri. was impeached for al
legged arbitrary conduct in furnishing for
contempt of court an attorney who had
published criticism of his opinion in a land
case. On the trial the vote of the Senate
was 21 guilty, "a not guilty, and Judge
Peck was acquitted.
These the only cases in which i'm
| peachment proceedings have been instituted
against federal judges, and they show that
it requires a strong and clear case to make
! such a procedure successful. If the labor
leaders should attempt it against Judge
jackson they would probably discover be-
fore they had gone far that they were
wasting energy which could be much more
profitably employed in some other direc-
tion.