Talk:United States federal judge
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The assertion that federal judges are appointed "for life" is one of the most oft-repeated misconceptions about the constitution (rivaled only by the percentage of Americans who believe that "separation of church and state" is in the document). Actually, Article III, Section 1 of the constitution states that "judges, both of the supreme and inferior [federal] Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behavior...." Indeed, judges have been impeached and removed from office for using foul language, public drunkenness, and other inappropriate conduct that modern popular culture does not recognize as one of the "high crimes and misdemeanors" in Article I. The framers of the constitution and their progeny apparently did not hold so high a threshold for keeping judges accountable and impeaching them for misconduct. Rob Gurry, Esq.
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- Notwithstanding the above, only 13 federal judges have been successfully removed. See (http://www.fjc.gov/history/home.nsf/page/topics_ji_bdy!OpenDocument&Click=). Also, the above is incorrect; the impeachment criteria is in Article II, and only explicitly applies to executive officers. Whether those criteria extends to judges I don't know. However, it's pretty clear that impeachment, particularly of judges, is not subject to judicial review (U.S. v. Nixon). LH 01:30, 3 May 2006 (UTC)
This page ought to be cleaned up. There are Article 3 judges (what most people think of) and Article 1 judges (administrative, etc). This article also has a pretty subjective tone to it that ought to be neutralized. LH 01:30, 3 May 2006 (UTC)
- I put some of this material here, but I am not a lawyer and know little about "Article 1 judges", so I can't help. Perhaps what you consider the "subjective tone" was something I wrote, but since I don't understand what you're referring to, I can't help there either. Maybe you could add something on Article 1 judges and neutralize the tone. Michael Hardy 20:57, 3 November 2006 (UTC)
