There have been several stories lately about how the US Supreme Court is an ethics cesspool with no one disciplining the court or ensuring that the court’s own ethical standards are followed. Some of it is wishful thinking on the part of the left that sheer embarrassment for the court’s bad behavior will cause justices to resign, allowing President Biden to appoint a liberal majority, though far more likely is the left and left-wing media is prepping the public for impeachment proceedings against one or more conservative members of the court for their ethical malfeasance should the Democrats take back the house in 2024.

The thing about it is it’s one thing to impeachment of a Supreme Court justice might increase embarrassment of the justice and encourage enactment new federal ethics laws for the Supreme Court but it’s not likely to lead to removal of any justices. It takes 2/3rds majority of the US Senate to remove a Supreme Court justice and it’s unlikely to happen with the Republicans likely to hold their noses and enough of them to vote against impeachment. Moreover, based on the likely states up for a election this year and demographic trends making red states redder, if anything the Senate is likely to go Republican next cycle.

Ultimately, the US Supreme Court impeachment fantasy is likely just to delegimitize the institution further without much change to it’s make up. Yet it might encourage justices to act more ethically and create stronger ethics standards even if enforcement remains a high bar due to seperation of powers and the high bar of impeachment.