Don Edwards Quotes
It's a good process. It takes a while, and it should. Life tenure is one of our most important safeguards.... I want to make impeachment as our founders had in mind—very difficult.
Don Edwards, U. S. Congressman (Democrat, CA), Comment on Impeachment & Federal Judges, Quoted in The Washington Post, April 7, 1989
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The notion of lifetime appointment for federal judges had been debated before and during the constitutional convention. The founders wrote it into the constitution to give the judges more security so that they could not be pressured by politicians or wealthy individuals. Also, without this concept many countries have judges who are just rubber stamps for the legislature or the leader of the country.
The highest court in New York.
This shameful quotation was shocking to most readers. It is subject to two interpretations: One that judges who did not rule on Constitutional issues the way conservative extremists wanted would come to physical harm. The other, that conservatives should pressure judges by withholding appropriations for the courts, impeachments and recall elections where they exist, as well as funding potential opponents for those jurisdictions where judges are elected. Both meanings were disgraceful in the view of most Americans. Later, DeLay was convicted and sentenced to jail for money laundering and illegally spending and raising campaign funds. He was also reprimanded by the House Ethics Committee for unethical methods of fund raising for other earlier actions.
In many nations, there is little judicial independence from the government. Judicial decisions that thwart government sometimes produce retaliation ranging from reducing the pay or staff of judges, threatened investigations and impeachment even arrest and execution---sometimes by government ‘death squads’. Even in the United States, the beginning of the 21st century, was fraught with so many examples of judicial intimidation threats, that two Supreme Court justices began speaking throughout the country to educate the public to this problem. In general, the more democratic and free a nation is, the more frequently the courts will disallow activities of the executive and even the legislature.
He served on a Supreme Court that was as close to political as any had ever been. Hence his great concern.
In 2002 the corrupt Indonesian Courts ruled that a very solvent Canadian company Manulife was bankrupt so that others could get control. The international financial and political community wanted the Indonesian government to intervene and reverse the rulings, but historically the courts had no independence and had been tools of the government.
White was not confirmed.
The first Federal judge who was impeached and convicted was John Pickering of New Hampshire. Jefferson was not pleased with the process that the Congress had to go through:
Later quoted by Alexander Hamilton in the Federalist Papers
William Donlon "Don" Edwards was an American politician of the Democratic Party and a member of the United States House of Representatives from California.
