Pickering (1803): U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire (impeached by House and convicted by the Senate)
Samuel Chase (1804–5): Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (impeached by the House in 1804 and acquitted by the Senate in 1805)
CourtSpeak: Modern View on Life Tenure of Supreme Court Justices
Chief Justice William Rehnquist (2004): “By guaranteeing judges life tenure during good behavior, the Constitution tries to insulate judges from the public pressures that may affect elected officials. The Constitution protects judicial independence not to benefit judges, but to promote the rule of law: judges are expected to administer the law fairly, without regard to public reaction….
“A natural consequence of life tenure should be the ability to benefit from informed criticism from legislators, the bar, academe, and the public. When federal judges are criticized for judicial decisions and actions taken in the discharge of their judicial duties, however, it is well to remember [a principle that has] long governed the tenure of federal judges…. Congress’ authority to impeach and remove judges should not extend to decisions from the bench. That principle was established nearly 200 years ago in 1805, after a Congress dominated by Jeffersonian Republicans impeached Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase…. The political precedent set by Chase’s acquittal has governed the use of impeachment to remove federal judges from that day to this: a judge’s judicial acts may not serve as a basis for impeachment. Congress’s authority to impeach and remove judges should not extend to decisions from the bench….”
James H. Peck (1830): U.S. District Court for the District of Missouri (impeached by the House and acquitted by the Senate)
West H. Humphreys (1862): U.S. District Court for the Middle, Eastern and Western Districts of Tennessee (impeached by the House and convicted in the Senate)
Mark H. Delahay (1873): U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas (impeached by the House and resigned before trial in the Senate)
Charles Swayne (1904): U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida (impeached by the House and acquitted in the Senate)
Robert W. Archbald (1912): U.S. Commerce Court (impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate)
George W. English (1926): U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Illinois (impeached by the House and resigned from office)
Harold Louderback (1933): U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (impeached by the House and acquitted by the Senate)
Halsted L. Ritter (1936): U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida (impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate)
Harry E. Claiborne (1986): U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada (impeached by the House and convicted in the Senate)
Alcee L. Hastings (1988): U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida (impeached by the House and convicted in the Senate)
Walter L. Nixon (1989): U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi (impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate)
Only one U.S. Supreme Court justice, Samuel Chase, has ever been impeached by the House of Representatives. The Senate acquitted Chase in March 1803. In 1969, Justice Abe Fortas resigned from the U.S. Supreme Court after facing a threat of impeachment.
Samuel Chase is the only Supreme Court justice to be impeached by the House of Representatives. The Senate, however, acquitted him in March 1803. Hulton Archive/Getty Images.
What happened with the impeachment of Samuel Chase?
Samuel Chase had a distinguished political history. He had signed the Declaration of Independence. He had served as the chief judge of Maryland’s highest state court. However, Chase landed into trouble when he became a Supreme Court justice. His troubles occurred when he rode circuit and served as presiding judge in some key cases. For example, Chase apparently conducted himself in a very partisan manner during the sedition trial of James Callender. He also attacked President Thomas Jefferson, saying the president had engaged in “seditious attacks on the principles of the Constitution.” The House of Representatives impeached Chase 72–32 on eight charges in March 1804. However, the Senate acquitted Chase in 1805. On one charge, the Senate voted 19–15 to convict Chase. But Chase was acquitted on even this charge because there needed to be a two-thirds vote for conviction (or 24 votes). Many view the acquittal of Justice Chase as essential to the principle of an independent judiciary.
JUDICIARY ACT OF 1789 AND THE LOWER FEDERAL COURTS
Why is the Judiciary Act of 1789 so important?
It is important because it created the federal judicial system in the United States. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote in her book The Majesty Of the Law: Reflections of a Supreme Court Justice that the Judiciary Act of 1789 “stands as the single most important legislative enactment of the nation’s founding years.” The Judiciary Act is important because it created the federal court system. The U.S. Constitution called for the creation of a “supreme court” and the “inferior courts” but it was Congress that did the creating when it passed the Judiciary Act of 1789.
Who was the principal author of the Judiciary Act of 1789?
Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut was the principal author of the Judiciary Act of 1789. A member of the Philadelphia Convention of 1787, Ellsworth became a U.S. senator when the Senate first convened in 1789. He was elected chair of the committee designed to follow the dictates of Article III of the new Constitution to create a federal judicial system. William Paterson from New Jersey, another member of the 1787 Convention and an original U.S. senator, also assisted in the drafting of the Judiciary Act of 1789. Both Ellsworth and Paterson later became justices on the U.S. Supreme Court. They both were classmates at the College of New Jersey (later Princeton College) before they entered politics.
What type of federal court system did Congress create in the Judiciary Act of 1789?
Congress passed the Federal Judiciary Act of 1789, which filled in many of the blanks in Article III of the Constitution. For example, Article III simply stated that there would be “one supreme court” and such “inferior courts” as Congress deemed necessary.
The Judiciary Act created a three-tiered system of federal courts, which still exists into the twenty-first century. The Act created a U.S. Supreme Court (of six justices), federal circuit courts, and federal district courts. There were 13 district courts, consisting of the districts of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, South Carolina, and Georgia. In each district, there would be a district court and a district judge that would hold four annual sessions.
The Judiciary Act also called for three circuit courts—the Eastern, Middle, and Southern Circuits. The Eastern Circuit consisted of the districts of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New York. The Middle Circuit consisted of the districts of Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The Southern Circuit consisted of the districts of Georgia and South Carolina. Each circuit court would consist of panels of three judges—a local district court judge and two U.S. Supreme Court justices.
