Kentucky House forms impeachment panel targeting judge

Lawmakers in the Kentucky House have formed an impeachment committee to take up three petitions seeking to remove elected officials from office, including a state Supreme Court justice.

Legislators announced the committee had been launched on Jan. 20, and its first meeting, where lawmakers adopted rules and formally accepted the trio of petitions, took place Jan. 21.

Three impeachment petitions were filed before the start of the 2026 General Assembly. One concerns Ballard County Jailer Eric Coppess, and another is centered around Marshall County Family Court Judge Stephanie K. Perlow.

The most notable, though, is an effort to impeach state Supreme Court Justice Pamela Goodwine, who was endorsed by Gov. Andy Beshear ahead of her landslide win in the 2024 election. She is the first Black woman to be elected to the state Supreme Court and had served as a judge on lower courts for 25 years ahead of her election win.

The petition was filed by Jack Richardson IV, a Louisville lawyer and Republican Party of Kentucky executive committee member, and alleges Goodwine had a conflict of interest as she ruled on a recent court case that found 2022’s Senate Bill 1 — which took power from the Jefferson County Board of Education and gave it to the Jefferson County Public Schools superintendent — was unconstitutional. That 4-3 ruling, with Goodwine in the majority, was a reversal of a previous ruling that took place before she was in office that found the bill was legally sound.

The seven-page petition for impeachment argues Goodwine “breached the public trust and engaged in a variety of inappropriate acts” by not recusing herself from the case.

Carmine G. Iaccarino, Goodwine’s attorney and a partner with Lexington law firm Sturgill Turner, said the justice is aware of the petition and “takes seriously her obligations to the Court, the Rule of Law, and the People of Kentucky, as well as her personal and professional reputation.” She “rejects the baseless allegations in the petition,” his statement added.

The decision overturning the previous ruling drew strong criticism from Attorney General Russell Coleman along with Justice Shea Nickell, who wrote in his dissent that the court’s vote amounted to “a brazen manipulation of the rehearing standard.”