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I have said that if Congress is to impeach justice Douglas, we should apply a very strict standard of constitutional recognition that we badly need an independent judiciary and we shouldn't just go after Justice Douglas because of his political beliefs. No matter how unpopular they may be,

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the framers of the constitution required an independent judiciary. They've had problems with king George. If you go back to the Declaration of Independence, you know, he has affected to make judges dependent on his will alone for their tenure and their compensation. And this was a clear

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desire to set judges apart and sure judges are going to offend us from time to time, but we don't impeach them until there is the clearest evidence that they have either committed a crime in their personal conduct or that they've been guilty of nonjudicial behavior on

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the bench, there's only been nine impeachment of judges in 100 and 81 years and all of them have involved either crimes or the commission of non judicial conduct on the bench. See this is why I took on the impeachment of justice Douglas, you should impose far

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different standards when we're appointing a man of the most important position in the nation, we ought to look at every aspect of his abilities and his past statements. And I agreed with those that voted against judge cars. While I I think those republican senators, that that

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while they wanted to help the president, every possible way could not bring themselves to vote for a man admittedly mediocre in his law practice and indifferent as was characterized by the bar where he practiced that, that they did the right thing. The only thing their consciences

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could do. But that's a far different thing to say. We're going to impose the same standards on a sitting Supreme Court judge that we can remove a man because we don't agree with what he says or what his background has been or his opinions there. You're

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at the expensive popularity of an individual, you're intruding on a really basic constitutional protection that perhaps it's as important to this country as any part of our constitution.