Partisan Courts and the American Dream of Justice

The fight for independence in the 1770s was in large part motivated by the colonists’ disgust with how the King and Parliament sought to manipulate colonial judges, and in turn, the King and Parliament understood just how important it was to have power over the judges and the judicial system, which is why they instigated the methods for controlling the courts which so riled up the colonists. The very first case for impeachment in America was brought in 1774, instigated by Massachusetts’ House of Representatives against Peter Oliver, the Chief Justice of Massachusetts. John Adams prepared the Articles of Impeachment, which listed corruption, greed, and disloyalty, all indicative of “high crimes and misdemeanors,” as the bases for impeachment.

The House of Representatives approved the Articles of Impeachment but the Royal Governor of Massachusetts, Thomas Hutchinson, refused to recognize either the merits of the claims against Oliver or the legality of the process of impeachment. Taking the Royal party line, he declared that Chief Justice Oliver would not be removed, no matter how the Massachusetts House of Representatives had voted.

John Adams knew that a judge without jurors could do little, and that Americans would never serve under a man like Peter Oliver. Within months, Adams was proved right. When called to serve as jurors in their local courts, most colonists refused to participate in a court system tainted by an impeached chief justice, just as Adams had predicted. As one man testified in…