Professor David Dow of the University of Houston argues that Supreme Court justices should be impeached if the individual mandate is struck down because “Supreme Court justices who undermine the principles of the Constitution ought to be impeached.” According to Professor Dow, the case for impeachment would not be based solely on the Court’s health care decision, but also on decisions upholding the federal partial-birth abortion law, limiting the use of race in school assignment, and Citizens United. These decisions, Professor Dow claims, are all part of a “sustained effort on the part of the Roberts Court to return the country to the Gilded Age” and that “if the legislature acts to protect the poor and less powerful, its actions must be respected by the judicial branch.” He concludes:
We can argue about whether President Jefferson was right to try to impeach Justice Chase. But there’s no question that he was right to say that impeachment is an option for justices who undermine constitutional values. There are other options, as well. We might amend the Constitution to establish judicial term limits. Or we might increase the number of justices to dilute the influence of its current members (though FDR could tell you how that turned out). In the end, however, it is the duty of the people to protect the Constitution from the court. Social progress cannot be held hostage by five unelected men.