Known for

• Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1796-1811) — impeached by the House, acquitted by the Senate​

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During 1776

• Delegate for Maryland

• Age: 35

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Background

• Born: 1741 near Princess Anne, Maryland

• Education: Studied law under attorney John Hall

  • Admitted to the bar in 1761, where he earned the nickname of "Old Bacon Face", either due to his proneness for a facial flush when angered or excited or due to his general ruddy complexion in general, or both

• Spouse: Anne Baldwin (m. 1762, d. 1766), Hannah Kilty (m. 1784)

• ​Children: 9 (7 with Anne Baldwin, but only 4 survived to adulthood; 2 with Hannah Kilty)

• Slaveowning

  • Owned 15 slaves

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Personal beliefs

• Politics: Patriot/Whig

  • ​Highly opposed to the Stamp Act of 1765

  • In response to the Intolerable Acts, Chase convened a public meeting that called for a boycott on all imports and exports to Britain until the Act was repealed

  • Chase to John Adams, April 1775: "Do not spend your precious Time on Debates about our Independency. In my Judgement You have no alternative between Independency and Slavery, and what American can hesitate in the Choice, but don’t harangue about it, act as if it were [independent]. Make every preparation for War, take all prudent Measures to procure Success for our Arms, and the Consequence is obvious."

  • Chase was always pro-independence

    • His hands were tied for a while because Maryland’s provincial convention had ordered its delegates to vote against independence

    • On June 28, 1776, the convention changed its mind, and Chase rode 150 miles back to Philadelphia to relay this news in time for the July 1 vote.

• Religion: Unclear, however his remains were interred at St. Anne’s of Morrisiana Church, which is Episcopalian.​

  • ​The Episcopalian doctrine with the Eucharist is called "real presence", which says that Christ is well and truly present in the physical elements of the Eucharist, although the form that takes is unknowable to mankind.

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Behavior

• 1762: Chase was expelled from the Forensic Club, an Annapolis debating society, for "extremely irregular and indecent" behavior

• 1766: Chase became embroiled in a war of words with a number of loyalist members of the Maryland political establishment

  • ​Accused of being: "a busy, reckless incendiary, a ringleader of mobs, a foul-mouthed and inflaming son of discord and faction, a common disturber of the public tranquility"

  • In turn, Chase accused his opponents of "vanity...pride and arrogance", and of being brought to power by "proprietary influence, court favour, and the wealth and influence of the tools and favourites who infest this city"

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Impeachment in 1804 (acquitted 1805)

• Chase is the only United States Supreme Court justice to have ever been impeached

• House voted to impeach Chase for refusing to dismiss biased jurors and of excluding or limiting defense witnesses in two politically sensitive cases

  • Claimed Chase had "behaved in an arbitrary, oppressive, and unjust way by announcing his legal interpretation on the law of treason before defense counsel had been heard."

  • The impeachment was a partisan affair, an effort by the Thomas Jefferson-led Democratic–Republican Party to weaken a judiciary that had been largely shaped by the opposing Federalist Party.

• Senate acquitted Chase

  • Seen as a victory for judicial independence

  • Established the precedent that a judge could not be removed as a result of stating political views from the bench