Van Orden calls for judge's impeachment; UW-Stout professor says that's unlikely
EAU CLAIRE — U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Prairie du Chien, has filed a resolution to impeach a federal judge who rejected President Donald Trump's efforts to obtain access to a database, saying the judge is overstepping his authority.
However, a UW-Stout political science professor said Van Orden's bill has almost no chance of success, and he questioned why the representative filed it in the first place.
Van Orden's bill is H.R. 134, which he filed Thursday. It seeks to impeach Judge Paul Engelmayer of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. It has no other co-sponsors as of Monday, and has been sent to the House Judiciary Committee. It is unclear if it will get a hearing; none have been set.
Van Orden's call for impeachment comes after Engelmayer halted Trump's Executive Order establishing and implementing the Department of Government Efficiency. Specifically, Engelmayer blocked the so-called Department of Government Accountability from accessing sensitive U.S. Treasury records on Feb. 8. Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul has joined a lawsuit to prevent DOGE from gaining acess to that data. The lawsuit contends DOGE cannot legally access Treasury records that include Social Security numbers and bank account information.
'Judges are meant to interpret the law, not write it,' Van Orden wrote in a press release that announced the impeachment resolution. 'There are three coequal branches of government, and this legislating from the bench from the Judicial has plagued America for decades. It has gotten completely out of control, and it is time for it to stop. Judge Engelmayer overstepped his judicial authority, and his actions are an affront to the Constitution and the 74 million Americans who voted to get our country back on the right track. He must be removed from office as soon as possible.'
The resolution accuses Engelmayer of two crimes: judicial misconduct and abuse of judicial authority, and abuse of judicial power.
UW-Stout political science professor Rich Postlewaite noted that to successfully remove Engelmayer, the House of Representatives must impeach the judge by a simple majority, but it would then take a two-thirds vote in the U.S. Senate. Even if all 53 Republican senators voted to remove Engelmayer, they would need another 14 votes from the Democrats or independent left-leaning Senators, and that is highly doubtful.
'It's sad if a member of Congress thinks they can impeach a judge,' Postlewaite said Sunday. 'To go after a member of a judicial branch, it's a true sign that they are saying, 'I want everything to be mine.' If the Senate starts to do that, then we're in deep trouble.'
Postlewaite also noted that Engelmayer's ruling isn't a crime and doesn't fit the 'high crimes and misdemeanors' standard of impeachment and removal.
Postlewaite instead said Congress needs to assert its authority as a third co-equal branch of government and re-establish that legislators control the budget, not the president.
'I wish Congress would impose their power,' he said. 'If they did, this would be a moot point.'
Engelmayer was appointed to the bench in 2011 by then-President Barack Obama.
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