Gay Marriage Opponent Urges Judge's Removal

Since Baltimore Circuit Court Judge M. Brooke Murdock ruled in January that Maryland's 33-year-old definition of marriage was unconstitutional and discriminatory, Del. Donald H. Dwyer Jr., an Anne Arundel County Republican, has pledged to seek Murdock's impeachment.
Dwyer said yesterday he plans to call for Murdock's removal on the floor of the House of Delegates today.
By making an "address for removal" to the House, Dwyer, who led an effort to place the question of same-sex marriage on the November ballot, hopes to force the Judiciary Committee to vote on whether Murdock should lose her job.
"If not now, when?" Dwyer said in a statement. "The legislators, being guardians of the public trust, must hold the court accountable for overturning more than 230 years of legal and historical precedent regarding the definition of marriage."
For years, Dwyer has pushed for an amendment to the constitution that would ban same-sex marriage. But Murdock's ruling has emboldened other Republicans in the General Assembly to push for legislation that would place the question on the ballot this fall.
Although Dwyer and other gay-marriage foes have argued that Murdock overstepped her boundaries, some legal experts countered that Dwyer is setting a dangerous precedent by seeking to erode public trust in the courts.
A two-thirds vote in the House and Senate is needed to remove a judge.
Only one jurist in Maryland history has met that fate. Judge Henry Stump of the Baltimore City Criminal Court was charged with drinking and falling asleep on the bench. Gov. Thomas H. Hicks ordered his ouster in 1861, according to the Maryland State Archives.
from The Baltimore Sun