The Kentucky House voted Friday in favor of impeaching Fayette County Circuit Court Judge Julie Muth Goodman on largely partisan lines. The articles of impeachment will now head to the Senate, where Goodman will be tried and could be removed from office.
The Kentucky House has the power to impeach all civil officers for “misdemeanors in office.” Goodman was impeached on five articles that allege she willfully ignored existing laws and precedent in her rulings.
“If you're a judge and you do your job honorably and you get it wrong, we will fight for you. We will never have these proceedings. But if you will say, ‘I know the law says this, but I'm going to do that instead’ that you do not deserve the black robe that you have been entrusted with,” said Rep. Jason Nemes, a Republican from Middletown who chaired the impeachment committee.
Goodman has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing, but of breaking the public trust in her rulings. Nemes said he decided to file articles of impeachment with a “heavy, heavy heart.” Nemes noted Goodman’s conduct in six cases — out of the more than 70,000 cases she has ruled on since she joined the bench as a district judge in 2008.
“What is the through line? What is the pattern that connects these six cases across several years? It is this judge, Goodman, sees herself as a law unto herself,” Nemes said.
Most Democrats voted against the measure. They pointed to the fact that they have no evidence that the Judicial Conduct Commission has received complaints about or disciplined Goodman. The JCC is authorized under the constitution to discipline and remove judges if necessary.
Rep. Joshua Watkins, a Democrat from Louisville, said there are already remedies for a bad ruling, and impeachment shouldn’t be the first or second avenue.
“If someone believes a judge made the wrong legal decision, then there are legal remedies in appellate courts,” Watkins said. “That is the system working as it was intended to do. Lastly, and probably most important, if the voters lose confidence in a judge, there is always, in my opinion, another remedy, and the highest remedy there is, and that is the ballot box.”
There are only eight days remaining in the legislative session, but Senate President Robert Stivers said the body is allowed to return after that time solely to try indicted officials.
Only one Republican voted against the impeachment resolution. Rep. Daniel Elliot of Danville chairs the House Judiciary Committee and said he did not vote “no” to defend Goodman’s conduct, but because he doesn’t see evidence it rises to the level of impeachment.
“We've had four impeachments in our history, and most of those have been based upon a crime committed. They've also typically been unanimous in this. This morning, this, this isn't going to be unanimous,” Elliot said. “There's no historic precedent in the history of the Commonwealth that supports impeaching Judge Goodman for the reasons that have been outlined by my friend in the articles.”
Impeachments and convictions are incredibly rare in Kentucky. The state recently witnessed its first impeachment conviction in over a century in 2023, when lawmakers ousted former prosecutor Ronnie Goldy, who has since been sentenced on 14 federal charges for soliciting nude photos from a woman in exchange for court favors.
Rep. T.J. Roberts, a Republican from Burlington who voted in favor of the measure, said he agreed there isn’t necessarily a precedent in Kentucky, but that he doesn’t want to set a more dangerous one.
“If we send a message to a judge that they can know the law, they can rule against the law simply because of their own personal value system,” Robert said. “That is not the role of a judge.”
Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear said he worried there could be a “chilling effect” on judges.
“The creation of a precedent where you would impeach a judge from disagreements with rulings when it hasn't gone through the Judicial Conduct Commission, when you haven't had other judges and groups weigh in on it, I think can create a chilling effect,” Beshear said Thursday, before the impeachment.
Some Democrats also said they believed it is patently unfair that a number of the cases being discussed are still under appeal. It meant that Goodman, when called for a hearing earlier that week, had been unable to discuss the cases and defend her conduct within them.
Nemes compared the impeachment to a grand jury indictment — Goodman would have another opportunity to defend her conduct in a trial before the Senate.
Kimberly Baird, the commonwealth attorney for Fayette County, testified in the hearing against Goodman Monday. She alleged that Goodman had treated her prosecutors unfairly, saying her comments from the bench paint “a picture of partiality and a predetermined opinion based on possible extrajudicial sources.”
“All parties are to be treated fairly and respectfully in court, not just the defense side,” Baird said. “The cumulative effect of her behavior and animus towards the office of the Commonwealth Attorney and often to victims of crime is a violation of the trust and that the public instilled in her to rule competently according to the law, to act humbly, and to treat all parties — the defendant and his attorney, the commonwealth, and the victim — with dignity and respect.”
On the House floor, Baird’s testimony appeared to weigh heavily with some lawmakers. GOP Rep. Patrick Flannery from Olive Hill said that she essentially put her “career on the line” to testify against Goodman.
In the hearing, Goodman said that the petition looks at cases in which prosecutors have grievances, but ignores some of the poor conduct she has witnessed from the commonwealth attorney’s office. Goodman said she believes Baird has held a grudge against her since she lost a 2008 district judge race to Goodman.
“She also thinks that I'm rude and … that I'm mean to her prosecutors. I beg to differ,” Goodman said. “I as a judge am required to hold any lawyer who comes before me, whether in a civil case or a criminal case. It is my duty to hold them accountable to know the law, to understand the law and to apply it fairly.”
Baird acknowledged she had not filed a complaint with the Judicial Conduct Commission, and that “there is a perception” that judges protect their own so she hadn’t yet attempted it.
Goodman said that she’s had friends ask her if, knowing she would be impeached, she would change any of the rulings that brought her under the microscope.
“My answer has always been and continues to be the oath I took and my moral compass would have required me to rule exactly as I did. So for that I have no apologies,” Goodman said. “I would love to be able to tell you why I ruled those the way I did in each and every one of these cases. I believe my attorneys have written excellent summaries of what really happened in those cases, not little blurbs or little snippets pulled out to make it sound the way it does. And I would ask you to read those because I cannot ethically give you my side.”
The impeachment committee has considered five other impeachment petitions as well — two of which they quickly dismissed without a hearing. The other two outstanding petitions are against Supreme Court Justice Pamela Goodwine and Fayette County Board of Education Chair Tyler Murphy. Both have filed responses to the petitions to defend themselves, and no hearings have yet been scheduled.
