Mere moments before the Kentucky House adjourned their 2026 session late Wednesday night, they referred the open impeachment petitions of two elected officials to an oversight committee that can act on them in the interim, including one to remove a sitting justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court.
The petitions were recommitted from the House impeachment committee to the Legislative Oversight and Investigation Committee, a panel of legislators from both chambers that can meet throughout the year and has subpoena powers.
Though the impeachment committee this session dismissed petitions against two officials and recommended impeachment for Fayette Circuit Judge Julie Muth Goodman, they did not take any final actions on the ones seeking to remove Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Pamela Goodwine and Fayette County Board of Education chairman Tyler Murphy.
GOP Rep. Jason Nemes of Louisville, the chair of the House impeachment committee, said in late March after the impeachment referral of Goodman that they would not meet again to consider the Goodwine and Murphy petitions for the rest of the session.
Now in the hands of the legislative investigative committee, lawmakers may continue to hold hearings on the potential removal of both officials, as well as issue subpoenas for testimony and documents, according to both Nemes and the spokesperson for the GOP House majority.
Nemes added that the committee can take such actions, but may not take any formal votes to recommend articles of impeachment, as this could only be done by the impeachment committee during a regular session, which could not happen until at least 2027.
Told by Kentucky Public Radio Thursday morning that the House had moved Goodwine’s impeachment petition to the investigative committee, her attorney Carmine Iaccarino said he was not yet aware they had taken that action and did not have an immediate response.
Goodwine was the target of an impeachment petition filed last year by Louisville attorney and GOP official Jack Richardson, who alleged she had a conflict of interest and should have recused herself from a case involving the Jefferson County Board of Education’s challenge of a law limiting the elected board’s power.
While the petition argues that a Louisville teachers union’s spending on PAC ads to support Goodwine’s election required her recusal, Iacccarino’s 15-page letter to the committee said there was no legal or ethical requirement for her to recuse and her unjust impeachment “would reverse the will of a bipartisan electorate that elected her by an overwhelming, unprecedented margin.”
The impeachment petition to remove Murphy from his Lexington school board position was filed by GOP Rep. Matt Lockett of Nicholasville over the district’s financial woes under his leadership. The legislature also passed a bill into law this session to prevent a Jefferson or Fayette county school board member from working as an employee in another school district, which the bill sponsor said would only currently apply to Murphy, who works as a teacher in Boyle County.
An impeachment petition was also filed Tuesday seeking to remove Fayette Family Court Judge Ross Ewing, but it was never referred to the impeachment committee before the General Assembly adjourned on the following day.
Goodwine is not the only Kentucky Supreme Court under fire from Republican lawmakers. Before the legislature adjourned on Wednesday, both the House and Senate passed resolutions to censure Justice Kelly Thompson. Republicans allege his concurring opinion in the order striking down the House impeachment of Judge Goodman was "intemperate" and threatening.
