by Joe Callen
Leftist Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg just lobbed a bizarre legal grenade into the impeachment fight, and it’s causing pandemonium in Democrat (and Republican) circles today.
After House Democrats passed a totally partisan impeachment articles against President Trump without stating a single law he had broken, and without a single Republican vote in support (31 Democrats backed Clinton’s), Senate Leader Mitch McConnell said this:
“I’m not an impartial juror. This is a political process. This is not anything judicial about it.
“Impeachment is a political decision. The House made a partisan political decision to impeach,” he said. “I would anticipate we will have a largely partisan outcome in the Senate. I’m not impartial about this at all.”
Which is 100% true, and was echoed by Democrats in Clinton’s 1998 trial as a reason they could ignore Clinton’s felonies, since it was a “political matter,” not a judicial one.
Well this didn’t sit well with Ginsberg, who was asked about McConnell’s comments, and actually suggested that US Senators could be d isqualified from the proceedings if they are not impartial.
“The House indicts, and the Senate tries. Should a trier be impartial? Of course, that’s the job of an impartial judge,” she says, adding that a judge who can’t be impartial in a matter should be disqualified.
WATCH:
Reportedly, this is the first time a SCOTUS justice has EVER commented on an impeachment before the process was complete.
Does that mean Sen. Kamala Harris can be disqualified for tweeting this?
Sounds like Sen. Harris has made up her mind before formally hearing the evidence. What say you, Justice Ginsberg?
Allahpundit wrote at HotAir about Ginsburg’s careless comments.
If Schumer or Pelosi (or whoever might have standing) sues McConnell and Graham, arguing that they’ve disqualified themselves from the trial, presumably SCOTUS could choose to hear that appeal. Could Ginsburg take part in that case now, having already stated her opinion that senators have a duty to be impartial as the triers of fact in impeachment? “I would not be surprised if some members of the Senate quoted RBG’s remarks to criticize their colleagues neutrality,” Blackman noted at one point in today’s post. Indeed. Ginsburg is now a player in this dispute, inadvertently or not, not just a potential adjudicator. Way to go.
