Opus 9, Impeachment Anyone?

Federal judges are appointed for life.  The purpose of that was to protect them from political pressures.  Judges are supposed to be impartial observers who can take a real life situation and decide how the law applies or be unbiased referees between to squabbling parties.  Every parent has been a judge and understands how hard it can be to find a fair solution.

From time to time judges forget that they are supposed to be interpreters of the law and step in to make up what the legislatures lack.  They become what are called "activist judges."  They ignore all that is reasonable and push their own agenda.  A case in point is the California judge who declared a constitutional amendment unconstitutional.  I don’t know about you but something seems rotten in Denmark when I hear that.  If the constitution is unconstitutional then there is no basis for anything but "the guy with the biggest muscles wins."

The Founders knew this would be a problem.  I have read a number of quotes over the years to that effect, but they are hard to track down.  Here is one from Thomas Jefferson:

“The purest republican feature in the government of our own State, is the House of Representatives. The Senate is equally so the first year, less the second, and so on. The Executive still less, because not chosen by the people directly. The Judiciary seriously anti-republican, because for life; and the national arm wielded, as you observe, by military leaders irresponsible but to themselves. Add to this the vicious constitution of our county courts (to whom the justice, the executive administration, the taxation, police, the military appointments of the county, and nearly all our daily concerns are confided), self-appointed, self-continued, holding their authorities for life, and with an impossibility of breaking in on the perpetual succession of any faction once possessed of the bench. They are in truth, the executive, the judiciary, and the military of their respective counties, and the sum of the counties makes the State.”  see Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Taylor, 1816 for the context.

Is it time to start impeaching judges?  It is a scary prospect because it can be misused and abused, but how else are you going to put a fear of the law into lawyers?  Maybe we could move them to traffic court or have them scrub toilets, judge beauty contests or work in day-care centers.  Maybe we could only allow non-lawyers to become judges.  There has to be a way to deal with this.  Any ideas?