CT Blue

Kavanaugh’s perjury is back in the news, and there’s some interesting speculation hereabout a way to get rid of Kavanaugh if and when we get a presidential administration that will back such an effort, not a sure thing even if the Democrat wins. (Squinting at you, Joe)

Apparently, a few years ago, some right-wing law professors wrote a law review article in which they expressed the opinion that you need not impeach a judge to get rid of him (I’ll stick with masculine pronouns, since we’re talking about Kavanaugh). The constitution, they point out, states that a judge serves “during good behavior”, meaning, they state, that a judge can be removed by the judicial department itself upon a showing of bad behavior, such as, those newly interested in the article point out, lying at one’s confirmation hearing about one’s sexual escapades, etc.

Now, since the original proponents of this theory are right wingers, they will no doubt patiently explain that their theory only applies to liberal judges, but let us put that caveat aside for the moment.

Since Kavanaugh was approved by the Senate, I’ve cherished an iota of hope that a Democratic administration would play hardball and bring perjury charges against him. Were he convicted, his status as a judge would be somewhat confused, I suppose. If, indeed, he had to be impeached to be removed, then we would end up with the anomalous situation of a sitting Supreme Court judge in prison. Whether he could continue his work as a judge from that venue would be an open question, unless he could in fact, be removed as the professors suggested. Congress could, perhaps, merely pass a law providing that conviction of certain crimes would be prima facie evidence of a lack of good behavior. In fact, as the linked article points out, the 1790 Congress did just that.

Of course, even if he could not be removed from his office, were he breaking rocks in prison, he might resign “voluntarily” were it made clear to him that he could, upon submission of said resignation, leave the hoosegow.

My guess is that this is all speculation, as charges will never be brought, and if they are, the judges hearing the case will find a way to let him off the hook. We have entered an era in which we can expect judicial decisions that are hyper-partisan (in a Republican direction) for years to come. The present Supreme Court, for instance, can’t seem to find its way clear to stopping the genius’s unconstitutional exploits, but it will have no trouble distinguishing its own cases to trim the sails of his potential Democratic successor.