W.Va. House of Delegates Files SCOTUS Brief on Halted Impeachments

The West Virginia House of Delegates has filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in a case attempting to overturn a decision by the state’s high court that dismissed impeachment cases last year.

In a reply brief filed Thursday, attorneys for the House of Delegates say the U.S. Supreme Court should review a decision in West Virginia that limited the legislature’s constitutional powers of impeachment. They say the decision “eviscerates the state’s republican form of government.”

In October — just before then-Chief Justice Margaret Workman was set to stand trial in the state Senate — an ad hoc bench of the West Virginia high court ruled hers and other impeachments were unconstitutional.

The House of Delegates voted to impeach four of the state’s five justices last year on charges they misused state funds on lavish office renovations and failed to hold one another accountable.

However, only one impeachment trial was held, in which Justice Beth Walker was acquitted on a maladministration charge.