In 1996, then-U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Chief Judge Jon Newman pubicly condemned calls for the impeachment of U.S. District Judge Harold Baer Jr. over his ruling in a drug case in his Manhattan, New York, courtroom.
The attacks stemmed from Baer’s decision that a suspect’s flight from police didn’t provide reasonable suspicion to search his car. After President Bill Clinton’s press secretary said the White House might pressure Baer to resign, Newman and three fellow chief judges issued a statement saying such impeachment efforts “do a grave disservice to the principle of an independent judiciary,” according to Baer’s New York Law Journal obituary.