Mitch Carmichael, President of the West Virginia Senate, et al. v. West Virginia, ex rel. Margaret L. Workman

In a decision that brought pending state impeachment proceedings to a halt, a panel of acting justices of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia inserted itself into both the substance and procedure of a process that the West Virginia Constitution entrusts exclusively to the Legislative Branch. In its opinion, the court refused to grant relief under the “Guarantee Clause” of Article IV, § 4 of the United States Constitution, which promises that “[t]he United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government,” because it deemed Guarantee Clause challenges to be nonjusticiable political questions. The questions presented are:

1. Whether Guarantee Clause claims are judicially cognizable?

2. Whether a state judiciary’s intrusion into the impeachment process represents so grave a violation of the doctrine of separation of powers as to undermine the essential components of a republican form of government?