Vol. 3, No. 8 (August, 1993), pp. 82-83.
JUDICIAL IMPEACHMENT: NONE CALLED IT JUSTICE by Mary L.
Volcansek. Champaign, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1993.
191 pp. $29.95.
Reviewed by Robert A. Carp, Department of Political Science,
University of Houston. Volcansek's justification for a new book
on judicial im-
peachment stems from the impeachment and removal from office of
three federal judges during the 1980's: U.S. Judges Harry
Claiborne (Nevada), Alcee Hastings (Florida), and Walter Nixon
(Mississippi). Prior to that time no federal jurist had been
removed from the bench by this process since the impeachment of
Judge Halsted Ritter in 1936. In the half century interval many
students of public law and government had come to think of
judicial impeachment as a moribund instrument of the past --
although to be sure, many impeachment resolutions had been
submitted to the Congress during the preceding decades. However,
virtually all of these had smacked too clearly of partisan
politics and/or personal animosity toward the Justices to have
any serious chance of success. (Earl Warren had often been
threatened with impeachment for his Court's liberal decisions on
civil rights and William O. Douglas had been likewise threatened
after his fourth trip to the alter, with a very young bride.) But
it was not until the impeachment and actual removal of three U.S.
jurists during the 1980's that it became clear to all that the
impeachment process was alive and well and a subject that needed
to be dusted off and re-studied by students of government and
public law. Such was Professor Volcansek's task.
In the first of her eight chapters she outlines the history of
the impeachment process in America and provides some examples of
its uses prior to 1936. She outlines some key questions and some
possible answers that judicial scholars have pondered for a long
time. For example, can a sitting judge (or any civil official
liable to impeachment) be prosecuted before impeachment? What in
fact constitutes "high Crimes and Misdemeanors?"
Volcansek also provides a good discussion of the Judicial Conduct
Act of 1980 which rightfully was passed to supplement the formal,
and more radical process of impeachment. In this chapter she
outlines the significance of four factors which permeate all of
her three case studies: (1) the activities of law enforcement
officials, (2) the Judicial Conduct Act, (3) the formal
impeachment process, and (4) ordinary partisan politics.
The next six chapters address the three individuals who were
impeached and removed from office, with two devoted to each
jurist. For each judge one chapter examines the criminal court
charges to which he had been subjected, and a subsequent chapter
discusses the actual impeachment process in both the House of
Representatives and the Senate. She notes that bribery was the
core charge against each judge, at least at the inception of
investigations, but she also takes great pains to discuss the
differences among the three cases. For example, Judges Claiborne
and Nixon had been convicted of criminal charges brought against
them, thereby making the impeachment process much easier for the
House and Senate. On the other hand, Judge Hastings had been
acquitted at the trial court level; and this fact allowed him to
raise the issues of double jeopardy and of a personal and racial
vendetta. (Judge Hastings is Black.)
Although the author does an excellent job of leading us through
mountains of transcripts, hearings, and legal minutia, still only
those with a particular interest in one of the individual judges
will want to do more than just skim much of this material. The
eighth chapter compares and contrasts these three cases studies
taken as a whole, provides an evaluation of the fairness and
utility of the process, and it concludes with a modest suggestion
for reforming the system, viz., that some type of special counsel
be used to investigate allegations of judicial misconduct in such
a way so as to insulate the judiciary from executive and partisan
influences.
Most of the author's sources are readily available to the public
(such as, books, articles, and newspaper accounts) although she
did make
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considerable use of original transcripts which are not always so
readily accessible. There does not appear to be any reliance on
newly-acquired data nor the discovery of any "smoking
gun" which would put any of these case studies in any
radically new light. Her prose tends to be very objective and
matter of fact, but with better-than-average writing skills she
often manages to paint a compelling picture of the drama and
emotions which frequently surrounded the judicial and
Congressional hearings. While she sometimes discusses the
protagonists in sympathetic terms, still there is no question
that her approach is fair and objective. The
"References" at the end of the book are excellent and
very comprehensive, and the index is adequate for a book of fewer
than 200 pages.
The readership audience of this book should include attorneys,
graduate or undergraduate students in courses in judicial
process, law and society, or judicial administration, and members
of the general public who are part of the judiciary's
"attentive public."
Copyright 1993