Sen. Mitch Holmes: Impeachment bill not rewrite of constitution

Regarding Davis Merritt’s commentary “Impeachment bill subverts the constitution” (April 5 Opinion) and a letter by Paulette Brown, president of the American Bar Association (“Impeachment bill an attack on judiciary,” April 13 Letters to the Editor): Every clause in the impeachment bill was taken from the authors of the U.S. Constitution as expressed in the Federalist Papers, or actual impeachment hearings in the very early days of our nation and/or state.

Here are a few facts of which readers of The Eagle really should be aware:

▪  Senate Bill 439 doesn’t rewrite the Kansas Constitution. Only a constitutional amendment passed by the voters of Kansas can alter the constitution.

▪  It doesn’t expand legislative authority; the elected Legislature already has the constitutional authority to impeach.

▪  Justices would not be serving at the pleasure of legislators. This claim ignores the high hurdle of a two-thirds majority of senators to convict, making only the most egregious offenses likely to get a hearing.

A common criticism of this bill is that it threatens the independence of the courts. Apparently, Alexander Hamilton would disagree. He described impeachment in Federalist Paper No. 79: “This is the only provision on the point which is consistent with the necessary independence of the judicial character.”

Another common “concern” is over the clause “attempting to usurp the power of the legislative or executive branch.” My question to these critics is why they want the courts to usurp the power from the other two branches of government. You’ll notice this criticism usually comes from those who benefit from judicial activism.

We’re all familiar with the wisdom that “power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” It seems that many people confuse “independence” with “absolute power.” The Constitution doesn’t grant absolute power to any of the three branches of government.

Impeachment was included in the U.S. and Kansas constitutions from the very beginning. To say that SB 439 subverts our constitution is to say that the constitution subverts itself – or more aptly that the authors of the constitution subverted their very own document with the provision for impeachment.

This story was originally published April 21, 2016 at 7:01 PM with the headline "Sen. Mitch Holmes: Impeachment bill not rewrite of constitution."