LAT: (Justice) Ginsburg Has Ties to Activist Group (NOW)

[DeepModem Mom]

Ginsburg Has Ties to Activist Group
The justice lends her name to a legal fund's event on women's rights. Critics see a conflict.

By Richard A. Serrano and David G. Savage, Times Staff Writers


WASHINGTON — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has lent her name and presence to a lecture series cosponsored by the liberal NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, an advocacy group that often argues before the high court in support of women's rights that the justice embraces.

In January, Ginsburg gave opening remarks for the fourth installment in the Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Distinguished Lecture Series on Women and the Law. Two weeks earlier, she had voted in a medical screening case and taken the side promoted by the legal defense fund in its friend-of-the-court brief.

The liberal Ginsburg's involvement with the legal activist group, and recent outside activities by a conservative colleague, Justice Antonin Scalia, have touched off a debate over what kinds of extrajudicial appearances and contacts are appropriate for Supreme Court justices.

The code of conduct for the federal courts does not set clear rules for judges' involvement with advocacy groups. But it warns jurists to steer clear of outside legal activities that would "cast reasonable doubt on the capacity to decide impartially any issue that may come before" them.

Federal law says a judge or justice "shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned."....


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-ginsburg11mar11,1,7170201.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[Kagemusha]

1. Fine. Trade Gisnburg for Scalia.

Fair trade.

[Democat]

2. There is only one solution

Replace them both after Kerry gets elected. :)

[La_Serpiente]

3. I have no problem

unless they took money or a majority of their services were paid for.

[Cooley Hurd]

4. She should set an example and recuse herself...

...whenever a case involving NOW comes before the court. When and if this happens, I hope she makes a HUGE announcement about the recusement and says, "Wink, wink, nudge, nudge - ya hear me, Antonin?!?"

[MaineDem]

5. Just a way to deflect from Scalia

THis doesn't come close to the conflict of interest Scalia has shown. Not even remotely similar.

[AP]

6. Wasn't she a NOW lawyer earlier in her career. This is like implying...

...that Thurgood Marshall -- who was an NAACP lawyer -- should have cut all ties to the NAACP and refuse all invitations to speak to them and, if he didn't, shouldn't be able to hear cases about race.

There's obviously a line one could cross. In the UK, one of the Law Lords had a connection to Amnesty Int'l. Amnesty filed an amicus brief in the Pinochet extradition case and that judge hadn't recused himself. The whole decision was overturned. I thought that that was a real gray area.

If Ginsburg's connection to NOW suggests a bias, why'd they even appoint her to the Supreme Court? It's not like she's going to forget about everything she did in her career. Furthermore, it's not like NOW is bankrolling her.

I have a way bigger problem with the Bush administration giving jobs to the kids of rightwinger justices after the Bush v Gore decision, but that's just my own bias I guess.

[pennylane100]

7. She didn't vacation on their dime

and run around the countryside bonding with them by shooting living creatures out of the sky.

[noonwitch]

8. There's nothing wrong with what she's doing

There's nothing wrong if the Federalist society or Right to Life wanted to do the same thing with Scalia, as long as no payment to the justice is involved.
It sounds more like NOW is doing this as a tribute to Justice Ginsburg, as a leading female lawyer. A slightly more conservative women's group might do the same for Justice O'Connor, as she was the first woman appointed to the court.