What if a Supreme Court Justice is unfit for duty and refuses to resign?
I can not figure this out anywhere on the web. I know that a Supreme Court judge, once appointed, serves as a justice for life, unless he resigns. But what if they become unfit for service, as they become seriously ill and can not function properly? Thnx in advance.
Tags: Court, duty, Justice, refuses, resign, Supreme, unfit
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on Thursday, June 17th, 2010 at 5:59 am and is filed under Justice Court.
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If they are found “unfit” they can be impeached by Congress.
Edit…I did NOT say a Justice would be impeached for being deathly ill. I said, if a Justice was found to be unfit he CAN be impeached…good God.
They can be impeached, but technically I think that is only for high crimes and misdemeanors. There is no 25th Amendment for the Supreme Court like there is for the President.
The first person IS correct. I don’t know why the thumbs down, although I don’t think the power has EVER been exercised as part of the checks and balances Congress CAN remove Supreme Court Justices.
Add: The comment was UNFIT FOR DUTY, which implies more then just deathly ill. It would imply could include things like dementia or other MENTAL issues that would raise from being ill. I will agree that just being deathly ill doesn’t get them removed(they work with 8, and that happens currently on occasion between one not being there or there being a conflict of interests).
a Supreme Court Justice cannot be impeached for being deathly ill. The court will just work around that situation same as they do when a justice retires and before another is appointed.*
They can be impeached, same as with any kind of judge.