A House Democrat has introduced articles of impeachment against John Roberts, dramatically escalating tensions between Democrats and the Supreme Court following a series of major rulings from the court’s conservative majority.
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) announced the impeachment resolution Thursday, accusing Roberts of overseeing what he described as an increasingly politicized Supreme Court that has repeatedly issued rulings favoring Republicans and weakening democratic institutions.
The resolution currently has no co-sponsors and is not expected to advance in the Republican-controlled House, but it reflects growing outrage among Democrats over the direction of the high court since President Donald Trump appointed three conservative justices during his first term.
Cohen’s impeachment effort comes shortly after a major Supreme Court ruling in April that narrowed the scope of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a decision that triggered fierce backlash from progressives and voting rights activists.
In a statement accompanying the resolution, Cohen argued that Roberts has allowed the court to become “understood as biased” through decisions that allegedly benefit Republicans while weakening representative government and public trust in the judiciary.
“I have come to the unfortunate conclusion that while John Roberts remains Chief Justice, correcting this misconduct and ensuring the Justices and the Court itself comply with their legal obligations will be impossible,” Cohen stated.
The impeachment resolution contains six separate articles accusing Roberts of misconduct.
Cohen alleges the chief justice helped politicize the court through election and redistricting rulings, weakened voting rights protections, empowered wealthy political interests through campaign finance decisions, expanded presidential immunity in ways that undermine constitutional checks and balances, and increasingly relied on unexplained emergency rulings lacking transparency.
The resolution also accuses Roberts of ethical conflicts involving legal recruiting work connected to his wife, Jane Sullivan Roberts, claiming he failed to properly recuse himself from certain cases.
Several major Supreme Court rulings are specifically cited throughout the impeachment articles, including Citizens United v. FEC, Rucho v. Common Cause and Trump v. United States.
The impeachment push highlights the increasingly bitter divide over the Supreme Court’s role in American politics.
Since the court shifted to a strong conservative majority, it has overturned or narrowed major precedents involving abortion rights, affirmative action, federal regulations and executive authority, per the Conservative Brief.
Republicans have largely praised the rulings as restoring constitutional originalism and reversing decades of judicial activism. Democrats, meanwhile, have increasingly accused the court of functioning as a partisan political institution.
Roberts recently addressed those criticisms during remarks at a legal conference in Pennsylvania, where he defended the judiciary and rejected claims that Supreme Court justices act as political operatives.
“I think they view us as truly political actors, which I don’t think is an accurate understanding of what we do,” Roberts said earlier this month.
Despite the dramatic rhetoric surrounding Cohen’s resolution, the effort faces virtually no realistic path forward. Removing a Supreme Court justice would require impeachment by the House and conviction by a two-thirds Senate majority, one of the highest constitutional thresholds in American government.
