The impeachment of Samuel B. Kent, judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, for high crimes and misdemeanors.
Judge Kent was nominated to this judgeship by George H.W. Bush on August 3, 1990, to a seat vacated by Hugh Gibson, confirmed by the United States Senate on September 28, 1990, and received his commission on October 1, 1990. On June 19, the US House decided to impeach a federal judge, namely Samuel B. Kent, judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, for high crimes and misdemeanors. This made Judge Kent the first Federal Judge to be impeached since Walter L. Nixon, Jr. in 1989 and the fourteenth since the start of the Republic.
Now why would a federal judge be impeached? In the past there were mainly two reasons for a federal judge to face impeachment proceedings: unfitness (mainly drunkenness) or corruption. This is not the case in these proceedings. The reasons here are far more despicable. More Below.
Read More