Roger Hanshaw

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The West Virginia House of Delegates today asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals’ decision in the case of SER Margaret L. Workman v. Mitch Carmichael, President of the West Virginia Senate, et al. 

The petition asks the U.S. Supreme Court to review last October’s decision regarding the impeachment proceedings that were then pending in the state Senate.

House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, said the purpose of the filing is not to seek permission to restart impeachment proceedings, but instead to correct what House leaders believe are serious legal errors contained in the decision handed down by the temporary judges assigned to the state Supreme Court. 

“We have said since October that a strict reading of that opinion removes virtually all of the Constitutional checks and balances we have on the judicial branch of government,” Speaker Hanshaw said. 

“Our action today is not an effort to resume the impeachment proceedings against any individual, but rather an effort to restore the proper legal and Constitutional authority granted to the Legislature with regard to impeachment proceedings,” Speaker Hanshaw said. “Should a future Legislature need to begin impeachment proceedings against an elected official who has betrayed the public trust, we need to make sure it is able to act and not have its hands tied by this defective decision.”

A copy of the petition is attached or can be downloaded here: https://bit.ly/2AxIeNG