American Bar Association Journal re: NEWT GINGRICH'S Unconstitutional Plan to Arrest Judges Who Decide Cases With Which He Disagrees

Gingrich Elaborates on Plan to Subpoena Judges: Arrest Them If They Don’t Show Up

Posted Dec 19, 2011 5:30 AM CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss


GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich continued his attacks on activist judges this weekend by elaborating on his plan to subpoena judges who issue controversial decisions opposed by Congress.

Gingrich indicated he’d be willing to enforce the subpoenas by arresting judges who don’t comply, report the Huffington Post, the Hill's Ballot Box blog and the Washington Post blog Post Politics.

Gingrich has previously said he would subpoena judges so they could explain their decisions. On Saturday, he told reporters about his plan and said subpoenaing judges would be a rare event, according to the New York Times blog, the Caucus.

On Sunday, Bob Schieffer, host of the CBS News program Face the Nation, asked Gingrich how he would enforce the subpoenas. Post Politics quotes from the transcript that includes Schieffer’s question and Gingrich’s answer:

SCHIEFFER: One of the things you say is that if you don’t like what a court has done, the Congress should subpoena the judge and bring him before Congress and hold a congressional hearing. Some people say that’s unconstitutional. But I’ll let that go for a minute. I just want to ask you from a practical standpoint, how would you enforce that? Would you send the Capitol Police down to arrest him?

GINGRICH: If you had to.

SCHIEFFER: You would?

GINGRICH: Or you instruct the Justice Department to send the U.S. Marshal.

Gingrich said his preference, however, would be to impeach the judge, according to the Huffington Post account.