Will the U.S. Congress dare to impeach federal judge Fuller for domestic violence against his wife?

It has been reported that Congresswoman Sewell requested the U.S. House Judiciary Committee to commence an impeachment investigation of federal judge Mark Fuller who reportedly assaulted his wife in an Atlanta hotel.

The judge was charged criminally with domestic violence, requested to step down, but so far reportedly refused to do so.

The judge was reportedly stripped of his cases, but continues to draw his salary of $200,000.00, at taxpayers' expense.

Impeachment of a judge is a procedure that the U.S. Congress uses very rarely.  

Judges are human, and, especially with federal judges who are on life tenure and against whom discipline for misconduct on the bench is simply unavailable by federal court rules, and discipline through civil lawsuits by the victims is unavailable through judicially created doctrine of absolute judicial immunity for malicious and corrupt acts on the bench, such absolute power has a tendency to go to the judges'  heads and corrupt them absolutely.  

Judging by conduct of some federal judges I have dealt with, such power does so corrupt and makes many judges too arrogant in their belief in their own impunity to comply with their constitutional oath of office and not to strike against critics of their misconduct within court proceedings.

Since all disciplinary complaints about judges, which, naturally, complain about judges' misconduct on the bench, are dismissed without review, no statistics of judicial misconduct of federal judges on the bench is collected or exists, and without statistics, the picture appears to be benign.

The only alternative way to get a federal judge disciplined is impeachment, a 3-step tedious procedure which must be initiated by a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.


Yet, it appears to be a distinct policy of the federal government not to impeach judges, no matter how bad their behavior is, not to upset the public and not to mar public image of the federal judiciary.

In this case, where the cat is out of the bag and where reports of domestic violence by a judge against his wife are already all over the Internet, the image is already marred and attempting to "save" it can be regarded by the public as nothing other than protecting a judge's career, no matter what he did, simply because he is a judge.

Assaulting a woman tells volumes about a federal judge's judicial temperament.  It would especially tell volumes to female attorneys or parties appearing in front of that judge.  If the judge cannot keep his temper in check not to lay a hand on a helpless woman in a private hotel room, the judge is not fit by temperament to remain on the bench.

Life tenure of federal judges clearly is "during their good behavior".  Assaulting a woman is not good behavior by any definition in a civilized society.

I am a criminal defense attorney myself, and I understand and fully subscribe to the concept of "innocent until proven guilty".  Yet, investigations for impeachment are separate and distinct from criminal proceedings, and the U.S. Congress definitely does not have to wait until the criminal proceeding is complete to commence its own impeachment procedures, especially when the victim/witness and her medical records are, most likely, very available for the investigation.

Not to impeach a judge under such circumstances will be very suspicious and will smack of a policy to condone any misconduct if it is done by the new American aristocracy, a member of federal judiciary.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, should not be tolerated by "We the People", by us.