Lawmakers censure KY Supreme Court justice over impeachment opinion

The Kentucky General Assembly has censured Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Kelly Thompson for “intemperate remarks” he made on impeachment proceedings against Fayette County Circuit Judge Julie Muth Goodman.

A resolution on the censure, filed by Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, said Thompson “threatened attorneys and legislators participating in pending impeachment proceedings with professional discipline and criminal prosecution.” It also directed that a complaint be filed against Thompson with the Judicial Conduct Commission.

The resolution passed in the Senate with a verbal vote, with Democratic members voting no on the resolution.

Similar legislation in the other chamber was filed by Rep. John Blanton, R-Salyersville, with support from House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect. It passed in that chamber on a 77-15 vote.

The resolutions, approved on the last day of the legislative session, followed a Kentucky Supreme Court ruling that called on the General Assembly to dismiss the impeachment trial and deemed the case against Goodman “frivolous.” Thomson concurred with the majority opinion and wrote a separate concurring opinion, in which he made the remarks lawmakers took issue with.

Censure is a formal, public statement of disapproval, often issued by a governing body to its own members.

Democrats in the House were prevented from speaking about the chamber’s resolution by calling a motion for “previous question,” a rule in the House of Representatives that can cut off debate by vote of a three-fifths majority. Rep. Lindsey Burke, D-Lexington, spoke out afterward, bringing reporters into the Minority Caucus room to call the maneuver an “unprecedented move taken by a majority that is out to really undermine what American constitutional democracy is all about.”

“I have to ask — what is the majority so afraid of?” Burke, the Democrats’ caucus chair, said. “Are they afraid to hear minority viewpoints? Are they afraid to hear that perhaps they’re wrong? It seems incredibly disingenuous to me that just days ago we were told that the Supreme Court is the sole body that should be tasked with disciplining lawyers, but now we’re going to discipline a judge for attempting to discipline lawyers.”

Republicans hold supermajorities in both chambers — 80-20 in the House and 32-6 in the Senate.

The censures are the most recent chapter in an ongoing feud between the state’s legislative and judicial branches, which has emerged as a central theme of the 2026 General Assembly. After the House voted to bring several articles of impeachment against Goodman to the Senate for a trial, the Kentucky Supreme Court released its opinion finding that lawmakers had overstepped in their push to remove Goodman from office.

Following the Kentucky Supreme Court’s decision, the Senate reluctantly suspended a scheduled impeachment trial, deciding to wait and see the outcome of the JCC’s investigation of Goodman. Chamber leaders said the Senate still holds the right and ability to take the case to trial at a later time.

The Kentucky Supreme Court’s interceding in the impeachment process, which is stated as “inviolate” within the state’s constitution, has riled legislators, including Stivers.

His resolution takes issue with a section of Thompson‘s separate concurring opinion, which links filing inappropriate impeachment proceedings in an attempt to influence a case or disparage a judge to a Class D felony for intimidation in legal proceedings.

“Threatening to file inappropriate impeachment proceedings and following through on them to disrupt a tribunal, influence the outcome of a case, and/or to disparage a judge could result in KBA discipline for any lawyers involved if attorneys take actions in which they are acting in bad faith,” Thompson said in his opinion.

Stivers said Thompson‘s opinion directly threatens lawmakers within the Senate and infringes on the legislative body’s powers.

“Now we have a Supreme Court justice who has threatened me with law license forfeiture or suspension and potentially loss of my personal freedom with a Class D felony, as he defined it, not me,” Stivers, a practicing attorney, said in an impassioned speech on the Senate floor.

“He has interfered with the process,” Stivers continued. “He has threatened all lawyers and anybody else that may participate in this by Class D felony, attempting to stop us from what is here in the black letter of the law, of the constitution.”

Osborne said little about the House resolution in his brief floor speech, telling members the resolution speaks for itself.

The resolution argues Thompson‘s statements violate free speech and the right to due process, and Thompson‘s “intemperate remarks reflect poorly on his judgment and raise serious questions about his fitness for the office he holds.”

Sen. Cassie Chambers Armstrong, D-Louisville, said that although she understood Stivers’ concerns, she worried about the resolution’s impact on judicial immunity.

“It is equally as important that our judges be able to interpret the law without fear of reprisal and that they, too, have that immunity to be independent and to rule on the law as they see fit,” Chambers Armstrong said. “Justice should be blind. Justice should not operate in the shadow of potential punishment, particularly not potential punishment by another branch of government.”

Burke said Democrats in her chamber would have raised similar concerns if they had been given a chance to speak. After the resolution was approved, lawmakers moved on to passing a bill designating the treeing walker coonhound as the official state dog of Kentucky (a child in the state had pushed for it for years, and legislators approved it as a nod to his resiliency).

“They used (the previous question rule) before anyone except for the speaker had a chance to say a word,” Burke said. “That tells me it was calculated — calculated to make sure the public doesn’t know what they’ve done.”

Thompson was elected to an eight-year term on the Kentucky Supreme Court in 2022.

Reporting by Keely Doll and Lucas Aulbach, Louisville Courier Journal