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by c517402 3184 days ago
What does a federal judge have to do to be removed?
2 comments

Die? (Not meant as a threat!)
A Federal Judge can be a) arrested by FBI; b) impeached by their state legislatures; c) in some states dismissed by a public vote.
Are you sure about this one? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_judge#Te... The article above states, a Senate trial is required, or finding of a mental / physical disability.
Is lack of morals a mental disability?
The Senate can impeach federal judges for high crimes and misdemeanors. That power has been exercised extraordinarily rarely. I can think of only one case in my lifetime, where a judge from Mississippi was removed in the 90s IIRC.

I think Congressional oversight of the judiciary has been the very weakest part of the separation of powers doctrine laid out by the founders.

US greatly lacks that separation in between the executive branch and the judiciary for simple reasons:

1. Top tiers judges are nominated by the executive branch, there are no other way up there.

2. For a high tier judge in US, a promotion is effectively a political promotion

3. US law, as I know, has no provisions for disbarring a judge for bad judgement even if it is plainly going against the what is written in the code. Only gross miscarriage of justice (graft, proven act of conspiracy, and 3 or 4 violations of court procedures) allows for impeachment by congress

All of that makes appointing politically aligned judges too attractive for executive branch officials who want to extend their powers through them

No, but it seems that it's a prerequisite for a cabinet or agency appointment lately though.
He does seem to deserve an investigation by the FBI. He can't simply like copyright that much.
And none of these things will happen unless you get filmed throwing puppies in a wood chipper or something equally bad.
But only if the wood chipper wasn't yours to begin with (vandalism).
Be impeached or subject to other means of removal, if you'll accept this Yale Law Review article:

The Constitution authorizes the impeachment of federal judges, but it nowhere says that they can be removed only through impeachment. Nor do the Constitution’s relevant provisions easily lend themselves to any such reading.

http://www.yalelawjournal.org/forum/removing-federal-judges-...