Supreme Court justices should be impeached for 'lying under oath' to Congress, says Congresswoman

Brett Kavanugh was sworn in before for his Senate confirmation hearing.

The most recent Justices of the Supreme Court appointed by Donald Trump lied under oath when they said they would abide by precedent-setting rulings such as Roe v. Wade, which they overturned last week.

Appearing on Meet the Press, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y) on Sunday said some conservative Supreme Court justices who struck down federal abortion protections last week should be impeached for “lying under oath” during their confirmation hearings.

Trump justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett joined conservative justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts in a 6-3 ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, an abortion-rights precedent that stood for nearly 50 years.

“This will go down as one of the worst decisions in the history of the Court,” said U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii.

These are the same God-fearing justices who blurred the separation of church and state in two  decisions issued recently. Last week, they ruled that religious schools are entitled to receive federal funds and in a separate case issued today (June27, Monday), that teachers could lead students in prayer. 

“I believe lying under oath is an impeachable offense,” said Ocasio-Cortez in Meet the Press.

The New York Congressmember focused on statements of Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) that they were misled by some Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch, when they expressed their support of precedent during during their confirmation hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“This decision is inconsistent with what Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh said in their testimony and their meetings with me,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

Impeachment of any of the Justices would be a difficult task.

Under Article I of the United States Consti­tu­tion, the House of Repres­ent­at­ives has the power to impeach federal judges and the Senate the power to hold a trial to determ­ine whether removal is appro­pri­ate. The House can impeach a judge with a simple major­ity vote. However, a judge may only be removed from office follow­ing a trial and a vote to convict by a two-thirds major­ity of the Senate.

While the House might be able to get enough votes to impeach, the Senate, with its 50-50 split between Republicans and Democrats, would find it nearly impossible to get16 Republicans with enough conscience and guts to go against the GOP and vote for the good of the country in order to impeach the lying justices.

Impeachment has histor­ic­ally been limited to cases of seri­ous ethical or crim­inal miscon­duct.  Of the 15 federal judi­cial impeach­ments, the most common charges were making false state­ments, favor­it­ism toward litig­ants or special appointees, intox­ic­a­tion on the bench, and abuse of the contempt power. Only one judge has been convicted by the Senate. In 2010, Judge G. Thomas Porteous Jr. was removed from the bench after being found guilty of bribery and making false state­ments. 

“They lied,” Ocasio-Cortez asserted, according to an NBC transcript. “If we allow Supreme Court nominees to lie under oath and secure lifetime appointments to the highest court of the land and then issue — issue without basis, if you read these opinions — rulings that deeply undermine the human civil rights of the majority of Americans, we must see that through.”

“There must be consequences for such a deeply destabilizing action and the hostile takeover of our democratic institutions,” Ocasio-Cortez added. “And what makes it particularly dangerous is that it sends a blaring signal to all future nominees that they can now lie to duly elected members of the United States Senate in order to secure Supreme Court confirmations and seats on the Supreme Court.”

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