CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Beth Walker says she wants to go ahead with her impeachment trial in the state Senate.
Her attorneys filed a motion today in response to Chief Justice Margaret Workman’s petition with the state Supreme Court to bring her impeachment trial to a halt.
Walker’s impeachment trial is scheduled to begin Monday. It is the first of four scheduled trials for West Virginia’s impeached Supreme Court justices.
“Justice Walker is ready, willing and eager to present her case before the Senate. As a result, she respectfully requests that this court not issue a stay affecting her trial.”
HFDR Law 20180926 135942 (Text)
Lawyers for Chief Justice Workman filed a petition for writ of mandamus with the Supreme Court last Friday.
Five circuit judges have been named to hear her petition.
Workman’s impeachment trial in the Senate is second in order, scheduled to start Oct. 15.
Her petition names the state Senate and top staff. The Senate has until this coming Wednesday to respond.
Because of all that — plus the scheduled start for Justice Allen Loughry’s federal trial on Tuesday — the state Supreme Court has put off cases that had been scheduled to be heard Tuesday and Wednesday.
The court sent out a release saying the cases that had been scheduled that day have been “continued generally.”
“Many Court employees, including necessary security staff, have been subpoenaed to appear in both a federal court proceeding and the state Senate impeachment proceedings,” Supreme Court officials stated in the release.
“The Clerk will provide counsel of record with ample notification for when the cases will be heard.”
The Supreme Court’s fall docket originally was supposed to begin in September, but the impeachment proceedings caused that to be pushed off too.
The oral arguments that had been scheduled for Tuesday include a variety of appeals including one associated with the development and construction of the Merritt Creek Farm Shopping Center in Barboursville
Those originally scheduled for this Wednesday included a nuisance complaint about a shooting range, an argument over partitioning a family farm, an appeal hearing on a sexual abuse case and a petitioner claiming his constitutional right against self-incrimination was violated.
Two members of the Legislature’s Liberty Caucus sent out a statement accusing Chief Justice Workman — along with former Justice Robin Davis, who filed a federal lawsuit over impeachment — of trying to unconstitutionally obstruct the Legislature’s impeachment power.
Delegates Mike Folk, R-Berkeley, and Pat McGeehan, R-Hancock, issued their combined statement on Wednesday afternoon.
“In matters of impeachment, the Legislature does not answer to the state Supreme Court or federal courts, it answers only to the voters of our state,” McGeehan stated.
“The people will hold us accountable, not a group of hand-picked judicial allies or colleagues on the federal bench.”
Folk and McGeehan contended the Senate and individual respondents named should not even file a response.
“To file a response to this nonsense would be an acknowledgement that a court has the power to review our sole power, and that is clearly not the case,” Folk stated.
“Anyone with a basic level of literacy can clearly read that impeachment is a matter left to the Legislature alone, and they can see that this is a clear attempt on the part of Justice Workman and former Justice Davis to set a dangerous precedent for any future impeachments by saying that the court could define any of the parameters of this process, which is a clear contradiction to the ‘sole power’ clause of Article Four, Section Nine of our Constitution.”