Jeff Bingaman: “the Senate has found G. Thomas Porteous, Jr. guilty of the charges contained in four articles of impeachment and removed…”

“the Senate has found G. Thomas Porteous, Jr. guilty of the charges contained in four articles of impeachment and removed him from office as a Federal district judge. In addition, it has adopted a motion disqualifying Mr. Porteous from ever holding any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States. Although I voted guilty on all four articles of impeachment, I voted against the motion to disqualify Mr. Porteous from future office. Although the Constitution clearly gives the Senate the power to disqualify a person from holding future federal office upon impeachment, I do not believe that sanction was justified in this case, viewed in light of previous judicial impeachments. Under our Constitution, impeachment is a remedial measure, not a penal one. Its purpose is to not to punish wrongdoers, but to protect our government against official misconduct by removing corrupt officials from office. As Justice Story put it, impeachment "is not so much designed to punish an offender, as to secure the state against gross official misdemeanors." The Framers of our Constitution borrowed the idea of impeachment from Great Britain. But in Britain, in the centuries before the adoption of our Constitution, impeachments were used to punish as well as to remove from office. Impeachment by the British Parliament could result in fines, imprisonment, and even death. The Framers of our Constitution wanted none of that.…”