DNC Deputy chair Keith Ellison told attendees at a Supreme Court Community Forum in Minneapolis Monday that Democrats could theoretically impeach Supreme Court justices if the party regains a majority following the 2018 midterm elections.
Transcript is as follows:
ATTENDEE #1: Assuming the Democrats retake the House and Senate in November. Would the first matter of business to be to the separation of powers, is there any possibility that the legislative branch will remove a Supreme Court justice? I know it’s constitutionally possible. I also know it’s never been done.
ELLISON: You have to find some evidence, of like, corruption, something like that.
ATTENDEE #2: Unless you could find evidence that someone was corrupt or potentially out of there mind or something, it would be very inappropriate. I don’t out of my mind, I just disagree with you really, I think that would be really inappropriate and a real threat to judicial independence. I think once someone is on the court, that’s basically it.
ELLISON: I will say that there have been no court judges that have been impeached. And I will say there were some things that came up with Justice Thomas that were very concerning to me in terms of his impartiality, so I agree that it could theoretically happen.