Judicial Impeachmet

1. A majority of the House must approve an indictment to impeach and two-thirds supermajority of the US Senate must convict for the judge or justice to lose their office. 
2. The House has, in the course of federal history, impeached 13 judges, and the Senate has convicted and removed eight. Of those convicted, seven were district judges.
3. Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution provides for the removal of “the President, Vice President, and all civil Officers of the United States … on Impeachment for and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.
4. Focusing on the five most recent cases in which judges were impeached, from 1986 to present, impeachment and removal typically comes in cases of clear, criminal wrongdoing. Harry Claiborne was impeached and removed in 1986, two years after receiving a two-year prison sentence for falsifying income tax returns. Alcee Hastings, who has since become a representative from Florida, was removed in 1989 for receiving a $150,000 bribe to reduce prison sentences for members of the mob. Walter Nixon was removed in 1989, three years after receiving a five-year prison sentence for perjury. Before his impeachment in 2009, Samuel Kent pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and sentenced to 33 months in prison for lying about his sexual abuse of female employees. G. Thomas Porteous stood accused of accepting bribes from lawyers with business before him, and of failing to recuse himself from cases involving people who allegedly bribed him.
5. Kavanaugh and Thomas both have enthusiastic supporters in the Senate, and it’s doubtful that enough Republicans would defect to make removal viable.
6. The precedents in this country, as they have developed, reflect the fact that conduct which may not constitute a crime, but which may still be serious misbehavior bringing disrepute upon the public office involved, may provide a sufficient ground for impeachment. What constitutes an impeachable offense is less than completely fair so it may be whatever the House and Senate think it is.