STEVEN ALLEN ADAMS For The Intelligencer
CHARLESTON — The Republicans in the West Virginia House of Delegates flexed their supermajority muscle in passing a constitutional amendment that makes it clear that the buck stops with the Legislature when it comes to impeachments.
House Joint Resolution 2, providing that courts have no authority or jurisdiction to intervene in or interfere with any impeachment proceedings of the House of Delegates or the Senate, was adopted 78-21.
Joint resolutions require a two-thirds vote by both the House and state Senate, which is 67 members in the House. Not only did HJR 2 easily received the two-thirds vote needed, Democratic delegates Mick Bates, D-Raleigh, and Cody Thompson, D-Randolph, crossed party lines to vote with the Republican supermajority.