FRANKFORT, Ky. — Lawmakers in the Kentucky House have formed an impeachment committee to take up three petitions seeking to remove elected officials from office, including a state Supreme Court justice.

Legislators announced the committee had been launched on Jan. 20, with its first meeting set for Jan. 21.

Three impeachment petitions were filed before the start of the 2026 General Assembly. One concerns Ballard County Jailer Eric Coppess, and another is centered around Marshall County Family Court Judge Stephanie K. Perlow.

The most notable, though, is an effort to impeach state Supreme Court Justice Pamela Goodwine, who was endorsed by Gov. Andy Beshear ahead of her landslide win in the 2024 election. She is the first Black woman to be elected to the state Supreme Court and had served as a judge on lower courts for 25 years ahead of her election win.

The petition was filed by Jack Richardson IV, a Louisville lawyer and Republican Party of Kentucky executive committee member, and alleges Goodwine had a conflict of interest as she ruled on a recent court case that found 2022’s Senate Bill 1 — which took power from the Jefferson County Board of Education and gave it to the Jefferson County Public Schools superintendent — was unconstitutional. That 4-3 ruling, with Goodwine in the majority, was a reversal of a previous ruling that took place before she was in office that found the bill was legally sound.

The seven-page petition for impeachment argues Goodwine “breached the public trust and engaged in a variety of inappropriate acts” by not recusing herself from the case.

Her endorsement from Beshear drew public concern from the Kentucky Judicial Campaign Conduct Committee, though she said she would “continue to adhere to the highest ethical standards,” and her campaign drew six-digit contributions from PACs associated with Beshear, along with the Kentucky Education Association and the Jefferson County Teachers Association’s PAC.

A representative for the state Supreme Court did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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The decision overturning the previous ruling drew strong criticism from Attorney General Russell Coleman along with Justice Shea Nickell, who wrote in his dissent that the court’s vote amounted to “a brazen manipulation of the rehearing standard.”

State Rep. Jason Nemes, R-Middletown, will serve as the committee’s chair but will recuse himself from Goodwine’s case because Richardson has previously donated to his campaign — he believes he could make an unbiased decision but wanted to avoid the appearance of impropriety. State Rep. John Blanton, R-Salyersville, is vice chair and will serve as chair in Goodwine’s case. The committee will be made up of seven Republicans and four Democrats.

Richardson is the former chair of the Jefferson County Republican Party. He made headlines last year when he filed a symbolic resolution with the state GOP to censure U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie amid his feud with President Donald Trump.

“It’s time for the court system in this country to have some accountability,” Richardson said in October in an interview with Louisville Public Media. “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.”

The legislature took up an impeachment petition aimed at Beshear in 2021, but the effort was eventually dismissed. In 2023, the state took up its first impeachment trial in more than 100 years and barred former state prosecutor Ronnie Goldy from holding elected office in the state in the future over improper exchanges with a female defendant who sent him nude images at his request for court favors. Goldy was later convicted and sentenced to more than three years in prison.

Reach Lucas Aulbach at laulbach@courier-journal.com.