Bob Barr: “in reviewing what we can do with regard to activist Federal judges who usurp the authorities of the legislative or…”

“in reviewing what we can do with regard to activist Federal judges who usurp the authorities of the legislative or executive branches, I was impressed by an article written on March 20 in the Washington Times by Paul Craig Roberts who said, there is no clearer, sounder, and firmer grounds for impeachment of judges than the violation of the constitutional oath, and there is no clearer, sounder, or firmer evidence that this oath has been violated than when judges violate the separation of powers and usurp the political functions of government. This has been understood by everyone since the day the Constitution was written. As one professor noted, in the constitutional design of the Founding Fathers, especially Alexander Hamilton's discussion of the Federal judiciary in the Federalist Papers, the ultimate recourse in the event the judiciary usurps legislative powers is impeachment by Congress. This has been thoroughly understood in every period of our history. Writing in the Harvard Law Review in 1913, Wrisley Brown, whose investigation led to the impeachment of Judge Robert W. Archibald, said impeachment is a political remedy to a political problem. It is directed against a political offense, it culminates in a political judgment, it imposes a political forfeiture, it is a political remedy for the suppression of a political evil with wholly political consequences.”