West Virginia House Panel Votes To Impeach Entire [State] Supreme Court

N&P: Discuss governments, nations, politics and recent related news here.

Moderators: Alyrium Denryle, Edi, K. A. Pital

Post Reply
User avatar
TimothyC
Of Sector 2814
Posts: 3793
Joined: 2005-03-23 05:31pm

West Virginia House Panel Votes To Impeach Entire [State] Supreme Court

Post by TimothyC »

Bill Chappell for NPR wrote:West Virginia's House Judiciary Committee has adopted articles of impeachment against all four justices on the state's Supreme Court of Appeals, accusing the judges of a range of crimes and throwing the court's immediate future into disarray.

Approved on Tuesday afternoon, the articles of impeachment recommend that the entire bench — Chief Justice Margaret Workman, Justice Allen Loughry, Justice Robin Davis, and Justice Elizabeth Walker – be impeached "for maladministration, corruption, incompetency, neglect of duty, and certain high crimes and misdemeanors."

By law, West Virginia has five Supreme Court justices, who are elected to 12-year terms. But the bench was reduced to four in July, when Justice Menis Ketchum resigned — abruptly announcing his retirement just as impeachment proceedings were set to begin.

Many of the articles take aim at Loughry — whom a federal grand jury indicted in June on a number of serious charges that include fraud, witness tampering and lying to federal investigators.

The investigation into Loughry centered on his use of official vehicles, the expensive renovation of his Supreme Court office — and his moving of a valuable and historic "Cass Gilbert" desk from a Capitol building to his home office.

The 14 newly adopted articles accuse all the justices of overspending to remodel their offices and of failing to properly execute their administrative duties. Except for Walker, they were also accused of paying retired senior status judges more than the law allowed.

"This is truly a sad day for West Virginia, but it is an important step forward if we are going to restore the public's confidence in the judiciary," said Judiciary Committee Chairman John Shott, a Republican.

The full House is slated to vote on the impeachment articles next Monday; if approved, they would then move to the Senate. The next step would be for the Senate to hold a trial.

As for how the bench would be filled if any justices are removed or resign, West Virginia Public Broadcasting reports that next Tuesday, Aug. 14, is the deadline for arranging a special election for November. After that, it would fall to the governor to appoint any new justices.

Because Ketchum retired well before the deadline, his seat is up for a special election this fall.

The timing of Tuesday's vote to approve the impeachment articles — after a month of hearings, and one week before the Aug. 14 deadline — was quickly criticized by Democrats.

"It's a coup," said Delegate Barbara Evans Fleischauer, a Democrat who is the judiciary committee's minority chair. She added, "They dragged this out all summer long, and suddenly they put this on the agenda."

Fleischauer told NPR that she sees the timing of the impeachment as a ploy to allow Gov. Jim Justice — a former Democrat who is now a Republican — to appoint the majority of the justices on the state's highest court. Any new justices would then serve until the next election in two years' time, she said.

Shott has denied that any political maneuvering was at work, telling the Charleston Gazette-Mail, "Especially in an election year, there's going to be people who will spin it however it creates the most advantage to them. That's just part of the process."

In 2015, West Virginia voted to make its Supreme Court elections nonpartisan. But all of the current justices have been affiliated with the two main parties, and at the start of the year, the bench's unofficial makeup was 3-2 in favor of the Democrats. Loughry won office as a Republican; Walker ran as a Republican in 2008 before being elected in a nonpartisan vote in 2016. Both Workman and Davis were elected as Democrats, as was Ketchum.

Fleischauer and Shott also differ on the nature of the charges involved. While Fleischauer said she views the charges against Loughry as serious, she thinks the charges against the other three justices are "a lot different" and don't warrant impeachment charges.

On Tuesday, Shott said that after reviewing the evidence, "it became clear that a culture of entitlement and disregard for both the law and taxpayer funds have damaged the reputation of our judicial system – and that all justices had a part in violating the public's trust."

The Supreme Court of Appeals attracted public scrutiny last year, when it was reported that the justices had spent more then $3.7 million to renovate and decorate their offices, according to WVPB.

On Monday, the House Impeachment Committee and members of the media inspected the Supreme Court's offices – and paid particular attention to Loughry's accomodations. Here's a sampling of a report from that outing, from WVPB:

"Delegates lingered around the infamous $32,000 couch, touching its suede fabric and commenting on the cost of the couch and the six pillows.

" 'It looks like a regular couch to me,' Joe Altizer, counsel for the minority party, commented.

"No one sat on it.

"They also gathered in a circle around the wooden inlaid floor that was designed just for Loughry, commenting on the beauty of the wood."
The wood inlay in the office floor, we'll note, is in the shape of West Virginia, with different shades of wood used to designate its counties.

In addition to being a judge, Loughry wrote a book about political corruption in West Virginia; it was published in 2006.
"I believe in the future. It is wonderful because it stands on what has been achieved." - Sergei Korolev
User avatar
The Romulan Republic
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 21559
Joined: 2008-10-15 01:37am

Re: West Virginia House Panel Votes To Impeach Entire [State] Supreme Court

Post by The Romulan Republic »

What the fuck? The whole court?

Honestly, I'm just surprised a red state legislature would impeach for blatant corruption. Wish their compatriots at the federal level would follow their example.
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver

"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.

I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
User avatar
LadyTevar
White Mage
White Mage
Posts: 23150
Joined: 2003-02-12 10:59pm

Re: West Virginia House Panel Votes To Impeach Entire [State] Supreme Court

Post by LadyTevar »

Yes. The Whole Court. It's a clusterfuck, and been a long time piling up.
Image
Nitram, slightly high on cough syrup: Do you know you're beautiful?
Me: Nope, that's why I have you around to tell me.
Nitram: You -are- beautiful. Anyone tries to tell you otherwise kill them.

"A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP" -- Leonard Nimoy, last Tweet
User avatar
The Romulan Republic
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 21559
Joined: 2008-10-15 01:37am

Re: West Virginia House Panel Votes To Impeach Entire [State] Supreme Court

Post by The Romulan Republic »

Edit: To correct my previous post, I'm not surprised that they would impeach the Democrats on the court. Just that they had enough integrity (or at least concern for optics) to impeach the Republicans as well.
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver

"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.

I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
Post Reply