Why did President Jefferson try to have US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase impeached?

Answer 1

Thomas Jefferson hoped to reduce the influence of the Federalist party over the federal judiciary, and to shift the balance of the Supreme Court more toward his own Democratic-Republicans.

Chase was a logical target of Jefferson's ploy because the justice was, as Alexander Hamilton remarked, "universally despised." One reason the Jeffersonians disliked Chase was that he had switched his allegiance from the Democratic-Republican party to the Federalist party, and had become something of a zealot. Chase also had a prickly personality, and a tendency to make cutting remarks about his rivals.

Ostensibly, the eight Articles of Impeachment against the Supreme Court justice resulted from his alleged prejudicial treatment against John Fries, a member of Jefferson's party, when Chase was riding circuit. The Articles were recorded by the House, and reprinted in a book Chase co-wrote, Trial of Samuel Chase: an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States,By Samuel Chase, Samuel Harrison Smith, Thomas Lloyd, United States.

Summary of Charges

1. In delivering an opinion, in writing, on the question of law, on the construction of which the defense of the accused materially depended, tending to prejudice the minds of the jury against the case of the said John Fries, the prisoner, before counsel had been heard in his defense:
2. In restricting the counsel for the said Fries from recurring to such English authorities, as they believed apposite, or from citing certain statutes of the United States, which they deemed illustrative of the positions, upon which they intended to rest the defense of their client:
3. In debarring the prisoner from his constitutional privilege of addressing the jury (through his counsel) on the law, as well as on the fact, which was to determine/his guilt, or innocence, and at the same time endeavoring to wrest from the jury their indisputable right to hear argument, and determine upon the question of law, as well as the question of fact, involved in the verdict which they were required to give:

In consequence of which irregular conduct of the said Samuel Chase, as dangerous to our liberties, as it is novel to our laws and usages, the said John Fries was deprived of the right, secured to him by the eighth article amendatory of the constitution, and was condemned to death without having been heard by counsel, in his defense, to the disgrace of the character of the American bench, in manifest violation of law and justice, and in open contempt of the rights of juries, on which, ultimately, rest the liberty and safety of the American people.

Answer 2

The failed impeachment attempt strengthened the concept of judicial independence, preserved the separation of powers, demonstrated the system of checks and balances was effective.

It also discouraged Supreme Court justices from becoming directly involved in partisan politics, and Congress from attempting to use impeachment as a political weapon in the absence of actions that could be legitimately considered "high crimes and misdemeanors."

For more information, see Related Questions, below.