Dershowitz: Impeaching Kavanaugh would be foolish, unconstitutional

Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz warned Democrats against trying to impeach Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during an interview with “Rising” that aired on Tuesday.

In response to a question from Hill.TV co-host Buck Sexton on whether Democrats would try to impeach the justice if they won the House in November, Dershowitz called the notion “foolish.”

“It would be a foolish and unconstitutional to try to impeach a president … a justice of the Supreme Court for actions he allegedly took when he was a private citizen, 17 years old,” Dershowitz, a frequent contributor to The Hill, said.

“It would just destroy the entire basis of what impeachment is supposed to be about,” he added.

Dershowitz said he thought Democrats would go after Kavanaugh in the same way that the Republican-led House went after President Clinton in 1998 following his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

“They said we’re not going after him for his alleged sexual misconduct. We are impeaching him because of his lying about sexual misconduct,” Dershowitz said.

House Republicans and some Democrats alike voted to move forward with impeachment proceedings against President Clinton on two charges, including lying under oath and obstruction of justice before he was ultimately acquitted by the Senate.

Removing a Supreme Court justice from the bench isn’t only extremely difficult, it’s also rare. Supreme Court justices are appointed for life. They only leave the bench if they resign, die or are impeached and removed.

The only U.S. Supreme Court justice to ever be impeached from the Supreme Court was Samuel Chase. He was impeached by the House in 1804 and acquitted by the Senate in 1805.

Still, the prospect of removing Kavanaugh from the highest court in the land isn’t out of the question. Rep. Jerry Nadler (N.Y.), who is a top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, has already said that Democrats plan to open an investigation into Kavanaugh if they take back control of the House. 

But even though Republicans were able to successfully push through Kavanaugh’s controversial nomination, Dershowitz argues that “nobody won,” citing a fundamentally flawed confirmation process and offered some potential solutions.

“We should have a commission appointed by all three branches of the government to vet potential judicial nominees in advance and perhaps present the present with a list from which he would then choose,” he told Hill.TV.

He also recommended more investigation before the nomination is made, so there are “fewer surprises.”

— Tess Bonn