Can Supreme Court Justices Be Fired or Removed?

Supreme Court justices can be removed, but only through impeachment by the House of Representatives and conviction by a two-thirds vote of the Senate. No president can fire a justice. No act of Congress short of that impeachment process can force one off the bench. In more than two centuries, it has never succeeded. Every justice who has left the Court did so by retiring, resigning, or dying in office.

Why the Job Is So Hard to Take Away

Article III of the Constitution says federal judges “shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour.” In practice, that means lifetime tenure. The framers wanted justices insulated from political pressure so they could decide cases on the law rather than on fear of losing their jobs. As an added protection, Congress cannot cut a justice’s pay while they serve.¹

A justice who issues deeply unpopular rulings still keeps the seat. Public criticism, poor health short of resignation, questionable ethics choices, even a criminal conviction — none of these on their own end a justice’s tenure. That insulation is the whole point of the design.

The Only Route: Impeachment

Article II, Section 4 allows removal of any “civil Officer” for “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”² Treason and bribery are defined. “High Crimes and Misdemeanors” is deliberately vague and does not require a violation of criminal law. Serious abuses of power, corruption, or conduct that undermines public trust in the judiciary can qualify.

The category is not unlimited. As the one historical precedent shows, Congress has treated impeachment as something more than a tool for punishing unpopular decisions. Whether particular conduct clears the bar is where most impeachment fights actually happen.

How the Impeachment Process Works

Removal is a two-stage process split between the House and the Senate.

The House side works like an investigation and indictment. A member introduces articles of impeachment, which are formal charges. The Judiciary Committee examines evidence, holds hearings, and decides whether to send the articles to the full House. A simple majority is enough to impeach. That does not remove the justice; it formally accuses them.

The Senate then holds a trial. Designated House members act as prosecutors. The justice can mount a defense, present evidence, and be represented by counsel. Conviction requires a two-thirds supermajority of senators present, an extraordinarily high threshold in a body that is almost always closely divided.

If the Senate convicts, the justice is removed. The Senate can also vote separately to bar the person from ever holding federal office again. A convicted official can still face criminal prosecution in the regular courts.³

The Only Justice Ever Impeached

In the entire history of the Supreme Court, one justice has been impeached, and the effort failed. In 1804, the Jeffersonian Republican majority in the House impeached Associate Justice Samuel Chase, a combative Federalist known for open partisanship on and off the bench.⁴ The charges centered on his conduct during politically sensitive trials, including allegations that he refused to dismiss biased jurors, limited defense witnesses, and used the bench to push a partisan agenda.⁵

The Senate acquitted Chase on every count on March 1, 1805. A majority voted guilty on three of the eight articles, but none came close to the two-thirds needed. At least six Jeffersonian Republicans broke ranks and voted not guilty alongside all nine Federalists.⁵ The acquittal set a lasting precedent: political disagreement with a justice’s rulings is not enough to remove them. No Congress since has seriously tried to remove a justice over ideology alone.⁴

Two Close Calls

Two other justices faced serious removal pressure without being formally impeached. In 1969, Justice Abe Fortas resigned after revelations that he had accepted ongoing payments from the family foundation of Louis Wolfson, a financier later imprisoned for stock fraud. With impeachment proceedings looming, Fortas stepped down.

The next year, House Republican Leader Gerald Ford launched an impeachment campaign against Justice William O. Douglas, citing Douglas’s financial ties to a foundation with connections to Las Vegas gamblers and his association with countercultural publications. The House Judiciary Committee investigated for months and concluded impeachment was not warranted.⁶ Douglas stayed on the Court until a stroke forced his retirement in 1975. Across all three cases, the pattern is the same: even when a justice’s conduct draws real concern, the impeachment threshold is almost impossible to clear.

Criminal Prosecution Is a Separate Matter

Unlike the president, a sitting Supreme Court justice can be criminally indicted and prosecuted without first being impeached. The longstanding Justice Department policy against indicting a sitting president does not extend to justices or other federal judges. When Judge Harry Claiborne challenged his criminal indictment, arguing he had to be impeached first, the Ninth Circuit rejected that argument, holding that prosecution of a sitting Article III judge does not violate separation of powers and that impeachment is a separate matter reserved to Congress.⁷

A justice could, in theory, be tried, convicted, and sentenced to prison while still technically holding the seat. A criminal conviction does not automatically remove a justice. Only the Senate has that power.

What Happens if a Justice Becomes Incapacitated

One scenario that worries people is a justice who becomes mentally or physically unable to do the job and refuses to step down. Federal law handles the voluntary side. Under 28 U.S.C. § 372, any justice who becomes permanently disabled can voluntarily retire, and the president then appoints a successor with Senate confirmation. An Associate Justice provides a certificate of disability signed by the Chief Justice, and the Chief Justice self-certifies.⁸

The involuntary side is where the gap sits. The same statute lets a judicial council certify the disability of a circuit judge, district judge, or Court of International Trade judge to the president, who can then appoint an additional judge. Supreme Court justices are not covered.⁸ If a justice is incapacitated and will not leave voluntarily, impeachment is the only constitutional remedy.

Ethics Complaints Do Not Reach the Supreme Court

The Judicial Conduct and Disability Act of 1980 lets anyone file a misconduct complaint against a federal judge. That law does not apply to Supreme Court justices.⁹ When proceedings under the Act were initiated against a judge who was later confirmed to the Supreme Court, the Judicial Council terminated the case, holding that a justice is not a covered judge under the statute.¹⁰

The Court adopted its own code of conduct in November 2023, but each justice has final say over their own compliance. No body inside or outside the judiciary can overrule that judgment. There is no enforcement mechanism, no disciplinary board, and no sanction short of impeachment.

How Justices Actually Leave the Bench

Because impeachment has never removed a justice, every departure in American history has been voluntary or the result of death. Federal law offers three exit paths.

A justice can retire with full salary for life after meeting age and service requirements under 28 U.S.C. § 371. The formula, sometimes called the Rule of 80, requires a justice’s age plus years of federal judicial service to total at least 80, with a minimum age of 65 and at least 10 years of service.¹¹ The pension equals the justice’s final salary.¹²

A justice who meets the same requirements can instead take senior status, stepping back from the Court’s regular docket while keeping the office. The Chief Justice can assign a senior justice to sit on lower federal courts.¹³ Keeping the full salary rather than a frozen annuity requires roughly three months of judicial or administrative work each year.¹¹

Resignation is different. It means giving up the office entirely without the ongoing salary benefits of retirement. Justices have resigned for many reasons over the years, from pursuing other careers to escaping ethics scandals, as Fortas did.

Many justices have served until the end of their lives. There are no term limits and no mandatory retirement age. A justice who wants to remain on the bench at 90 is free to do so, and any change to that would likely require a constitutional amendment.