West Virginia Lawmakers Impeach 3 State Supreme Court Justices, Citing ‘over-the-top’ Spending

West Virginia lawmakers, seeking to remove every justice on the state’s four-member Supreme Court amid what they called an “over-the-top” spending scandal, impeached three justices on Monday, including Chief Justice Margaret Workman, Fox News informed.

One article of impeachment said Workman and Justice Robin Davis signed documents in their roles as chief justices allowing for senior status judges to be paid higher than allowed wages. Lawmakers say the overpayments violated state law and stopped when they were challenged by the Internal Revenue Service.

Earlier Monday, the Republican-led House of Delegates voted 64-33 to submit an impeachment article against Davis to the state Senate for trial. The vote came shortly after lawmakers also impeached indicted Justice Allen Loughry by a vote of 64-33. Loughry’s impeachment vote, which came after approximately two hours of debate, took only seconds, NPR reported.

Other articles are under consideration. Justice Beth Walker is the only current justice who has not been impeached as of Monday evening.

Walker was cleared late Monday of an impeachment article for spending $131,000 on renovations after taking office last year. Some lawmakers said they didn’t condone Walker’s spending but said it paled in comparison to other justices.

The impeachments do not remove the justices from office. The articles will go to the Senate, which can formally remove the justices only by a two-thirds vote.

The charges were largely related to the justices’ use of state funds to conduct office renovations. Davis spent more than $500,000 on her office and Loughry spent more than $363,000 on his.

However, some legislators said they didn’t support impeaching any justice for wasteful spending, only for articles pertaining to lying, cheating or stealing.

Several lawmakers noted that the Supreme Court has a separate budget and is currently allowed to spend as it sees fit. A proposed constitutional amendment this fall would bring the state courts’ budget partly under legislative control.

But State GOP Delegate John Shott, who helped draw up the impeachment articles, said that if West Virginians do not trust their highest court, “we need to take action to try to rebuild that trust.”