There has already been talk on the winger fringe that Obama should be impeached just because the Repubs don't like him. So it's not too far a leap from there to call for judges to be impeached if they make rulings Congress doesn't like. Well, leave it to David Barton to go there.
According to PFAW's Right Wing Watch, Barton said on today's edition of Wallbuilders Live that Congress has the right to hale a judge before the House Judiciary Committee if s/he makes a "bad" ruling, force him or her to defend it, and then begin impeachment proceedings.
Barton: There have been 97 impeachment investigations across history with judges; you've had 13 impeachments taken off the court. And the more often you have an impeachment investigation, the less often you have to remove a judge because, what Thomas Jefferson says, impeachment is a scarecrow - you sit out there in the middle of the field and that will scare them off.
Green: Because all the other judges are watching that, going 'I don't want that to be me.'
Barton: You betcha. For example, take the judge in California that says, oh no, having 'under God' in the Pledge of Allegiance, completely unconstitutional.
What you do is you convene a hearing in Washington DC, Congress says we want you to come appear before the judiciary committee and explain to us exactly what your thinking is that says we can't acknowledge God when that's in the Declaration and in the Constitution. What are you thinking?
And other judges see him getting called before Congress to be accountable and they go 'oh my gosh, we're not going to touch that.' Exactly!
The full show, if you can stand to listen, is available in Windows Audio. He argues that all three branches are accountable to the people, and Congress is the most powerful branch because it's closest to the people. Barton starts his spiel on impeachment at the 5:10 mark--but leaves out a lot of critical facts and in some cases gets things flat-out wrong.
For instance, he refers to the Founders throwing a judge off the court for being drunk. The only reference I can find to a judge being removed for drunkenness in that time was John Pickering, the first federal official in any branch to be thrown out of office by the impeachment process. Pickering had a history of drunkenness--but it had progressed to the point that he was no longer attending court on a regular basis. And when he did show up, his rulings troubled his colleagues so much that they thought he'd gone insane. So yes, his addiction to the bottle was a factor in his removal--but it had progressed to the point that he was no longer competent for the bench.
He also claims the Founders ousted a judge for cussing on the bench, and another for contradicting a ruling of Congress. I can't find any reference to a judge being thrown off the court during either of the Founders' presidencies for these reasons.
Moreover, if Barton bothered to do any research, he'd discover that the biggest impeachment case during the presidency of a Founding Father actually makes mincemeat out of his argument. Specifically, the impeachment of Samuel Chase--the only case where a Supreme Court justice has been impeached. Chase was impeached for denouncing the repeal of the Judiciary Act of 1801, as well as for seven instances relating to cases he tried (in those days, Supreme Court justices also served as trial judges in circuit courts). He was tried in 1805, and all eight articles were defeated in the Senate by lopsided margins. By all accounts, several Senators who disagreed with Chase politically voted to acquit because they felt the quality of his judging wasn't an impeachable offense. And since a good number of them took part in the Revolution, that should tell you something.