The introduction of resolutions that have the support of 12 GOP lawmakers to impeach four Democratic justices on the seven-member state Supreme Court over their rulings in a congressional redistricting case is not sitting well with the state's top jurist.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Saylor, a Republican, released a statement on Thursday about the resolutions. He said, "As Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, I am very concerned by the reported filing of impeachment resolutions against justices of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania related to the Court's decision about congressional redistricting.
"Threats of impeachment directed against justices because of their decision in a particular case are an attack upon an independent judiciary, which is an essential component of our constitutional plan of government."
The resolutions seek impeachment of justices David Wecht , Debra Todd , Christine Donohue and Kevin Dougherty who the lawmakers argue acted improperly through their rulings that gave lawmakers about three weeks to enact a new district map and then produced a court-drawn map.
The co-sponsors are among the House's more conservative Republicans, and so far no members of the GOP leadership have signed on.
If the 203-member House votes to impeach, the two-thirds of senators in attendance must agree to convict in order to remove the official. House GOP spokesman Steve Miskin said such a decision to hold an impeachment vote is not one that is taken lightly and to date, the leaders have had no discussions about it.
The last judge to be impeached in Pennsylvania was Supreme Court Justice Rolf Larsen in 1994 following his conviction for conspiring to obtain drugs via fraudulent prescriptions.
Prior to Larsen's impeachment, the last state official to be removed via that process was Thomas Cooper, a county judge accused of "injudicious conduct," in 1811.
Nicholas More, a judge who was removed in 1685, has the distinction of being the first judge in all of the American colonies and the first provincial official in Pennsylvania to be impeached.