Justice Samuel Chase was an outspoken, strongly partisan member of the Federalist Party. President George Washington appointed him to the Supreme Court with the Senate’s consent in 1796. With Jeffersonian Republicans in control of the House in 1804, they impeached Chase for refusing to dismiss biased jurors, limiting defense witnesses in politically sensitive cases, and promoting his political agenda from the bench.
Records of the U.S. Senate, National Archives and Records Administration
Resolution of the House that the Managers of the Impeachment of Samuel Chase Carry the Articles to the Senate, December 5, 1804
Congress Impeaches a Supreme Court Justice
The constitution empowers the House of Representatives to impeach and the Senate to try—and if found guilty, remove from office—the president and other federal officers for high crimes and misdemeanors. It also states that justices shall hold office only during “good Behavior.” Justice Samuel Chase, a Federalist, was impeached in 1804 and tried in 1805 for his intemperate and partisan behavior on the bench. To this date, he is the only Supreme Court justice Congress ever impeached.
I am a friend to the Constitutional independence of the Judiciary, but opposed to giving that department an oppressive and overwhelming power, destructive to the liberties of the people. I regret extremely that it has become our duty to accuse a man so eminent for talents and learning . . . of high crimes and misdemeanors.
Representative James Elliot of Vermont, Annals of Congress, House of Representatives, 8th Congress, 1st Session, March 12, 1804
Justice Samuel Chase was an outspoken, strongly partisan member of the Federalist Party. President George Washington appointed him to the Supreme Court with the Senate’s consent in 1796. With Jeffersonian Republicans in control of the House in 1804, they impeached Chase for refusing to dismiss biased jurors, limiting defense witnesses in politically sensitive cases, and promoting his political agenda from the bench.
Records of the U.S. Senate, National Archives and Records Administration
