The Only Impeachment of a Supreme Court Justice

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When Thomas Jefferson took office, he attempted to remove a number of Federalist John Adams’s eleventh-hour judicial appointees. The case against Samuel Chase, while officially for procedural errors and judicial misconduct, was in fact motivated by the justice’s inflammatory political rhetoric. Manuscript Document Signed, “J(oh)n Smith, Marshall, Certification of Served Subpoenas. [Philadelphia, n.d., but ca. late January 1805]. 2 pp. 8 x 9¾ in. With an additional autograph endorsement signed by Smith on verso. In full, “I Do Hereby Certify, to the Honorable the Senate, of the United States, of America, that I served the annexed Subpoena, on Jared Ingersol, on the Nineteenth, William S. Biddle and Samuel Ewing, on the twenty third, and on William Rawle, on the twenty fourth of January last past, by Shewing them the original, and delivering them respectively, a true Copy of the Same. - Thomas Carpenter, Stenographer, not to be found in my District.— So Answers Jno Smith, Marshal” John Smith, the U.S. Marshal responsible for the District of Pennsylvania listed the names of the individuals under subpoena on the reverse: William Rawle, Jared Ingersol, Samuel Wheeler, Thomas Carpenter, Samuel Ewing, and William S. Biddle. The men in question were compelled to give testimony in the Senate trial of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase. Jefferson’s allies in the House impeached Justice Chase after remarks made while charging a Baltimore Grand Jury in 1803. Chase had denounced Republican efforts to terminate federal Judges appointed by President John Adams in the closing days of his administration. In late 1804 the House charged Chase with eight articles of impeachment. Both Biddle and Rawle were questioned in the Senate trial on February 11, 1805. Ewing would be examined and cross examined, and Rawle subjected to additional questions that day. Ultimately the Senate voted to acquit Chase—a major victory on the road to an independent judiciary. Henceforth, judges would be impeached for ethical or legal issues rather than political views or individual decisions from the bench. To this day he stands as the only Supreme Court Justice to be impeached and tried by Congress.

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