Louisville attorney and GOP official Jack Richardson filed a petition with the clerk of the Kentucky House on Tuesday to impeach Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Pamela Goodwine, alleging that she violated judicial rules by failing to recuse herself from an education-related case where she had a conflict of interest.
Citizens may submit impeachment petitions to the state House, but the representatives of the chamber cannot take them up until they convene the 2026 legislative session, which begins in January.
Richardson’s seven-page petition centers around Goodwine’s participation in a controversial education case this year, as well as contributions to a political action committee that purchased ads to help elect her.
A 4-3 majority of the Supreme Court voted in April to rehear a case they had ruled on in December. The original December ruling — a 4-3 decision upholding a 2022 law that limited the power of Jefferson County Public Schools’ elected board — occurred a month after Goodwine was first elected to the office, and before Goodwine was sworn into office.
Goodwine was the swing vote in the new majority to request a rehearing of the case in April, sought for by the Jefferson County Board of Education.
In his impeachment petition, Richardson alleges that Goodwine was bound by the law and judicial conduct rules to recuse herself from the case, citing media reports that an independent political action committee heavily funded by the teachers’ union in Louisville spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on ads to help elect her.
Richardson stated that Goodwine “had a blatant conflict of interest and an inescapable appearance of bias, resulting in a decision granting extraordinary relief to parties who had spent obscene amounts of cash to elect her.” He added that Goodwine rules “in favor of those special interests” by “voiding a ruling adverse to those political patrons,” which created “the appearance (at a minimum) of political bias, and an actual conflict of interest, in violation of the law and rules of judicial ethics.”
Goodwine is the first Black female justice to be elected in Kentucky’s history. Asked about the petition, Goodwine said through a spokesperson that it is not appropriate for her to comment at this time.
Leadership of the House Republican supermajority also did not respond to a request for comment on the petition.
The impeachment petition repeatedly cites previous reporting from Kentucky Public Radio on political advertisements in support of Goodwine that were funded by the Jefferson County Teachers Association and PACs affiliated with Kentucky’s Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, and whether those contributions could lead to potential conflicts warranting recusal.
Neither Beshear nor the teachers union were plaintiffs in the case where Goodwine voted for a rehearing, as the lawsuit challenging the 2022 law was brought by the Jefferson County Board of Education and the former Kentucky education commissioner. Richardson’s petition does not directly address the difference between the school board and the teachers union, nor why the political support of the union and governor would require her recusal from a case where the school board is a party.
In an interview Wednesday, Richardson told Kentucky Public Radio that the Jefferson County school board and teachers union are “different sides of the same coin” and “nobody in their right mind would think otherwise.”
As reported by Kentucky Public Radio last year, Goodwine was elected in November with the help of two independent political action committees that collectively spent nearly $1 million on advertisements supporting her. One of those groups received $200,000 in contributions from the PAC of the Jefferson County teachers union, which has been heavily involved and influential in JCPS school board elections for decades.
The PACs spending in support of Goodwine also received $100,000 from the Kentucky Education Association — the statewide teachers union — and $510,000 from two groups affiliated with Beshear.
Asked by Kentucky Public Radio in December if the spending by Beshear’s committees may necessitate her to recuse from future Supreme Court cases where the governor is a party, Goodwine said she would make such decisions on a case-by-case basis and did not think that “a specific monetary amount that was contributed by any party mandates recusal.”
Following the April ruling to rehear the education case, Republican House Speaker David Osborne from Prospect said the unusual move was “troubling at the very least because the facts and arguments of the case remain the same — only the membership of the Court has changed. Unfortunately, judicial outcomes seem increasingly driven by partisan politics. Kentuckians would be better served to keep politics out of the court, and the court out of politics."
In his impeachment petition, Richardson writes that Goodwine “was certainly aware that her impartiality had been reasonably questioned — publicly and in writing – by multiple parties, and it having been the subject of multiple media reports and editorials.” He further alleged that her lack of a recusal violated a statute, judicial conduct rules and the due process of litigants, as well as “undermined faith in the judiciary and the justice system.”
Richardson is a longtime Republican donor. A review of state and federal campaign finance databases show he has contributed more than $51,000 over the past three decades to Republican candidates, party committees and aligned PACs. He is also a former chair of the Louisville GOP and current executive committee member of the Republican Party of Kentucky, recently attempting to censure GOP Congressman Thomas Massie for defying President Donald Trump on certain issues.
He said Wednesday that he has not discussed his petition with any Republican legislators, but hopes they take it seriously and advance it once the session commences in January.
“It's time for the court system in this country to have some accountability,” Richardson said. “They hold everybody else to account, but nobody oversees them. And it's time for there to be some radical judicial reform in this country, and it's going to have to start with the courts and start with the judges.”
Richardson expanded his critique to other judges, citing a case in Louisville where a man was released from prison on shock probation less than three years into a 14-year sentence, and subsequently abducted a woman and stabbed her.
“We've got a slew of judges that are psychotic,” he said. “That is, they're totally detached from reality, and this has got to stop.”
In 2023, the Kentucky General Assembly removed an elected official through impeachment for the first time in 135 years. Former state prosecutor Ronnie Goldy Jr. was impeached by the House and convicted on three counts by the Senate, barring him from holding elected office in the state.
Previous citizen petitions in 2021 seeking to impeach Beshear, former Attorney General Daniel Cameron and former GOP Rep. Robert Goforth were dismissed.
This story has been updated to include additional details.
