Scalia & Cheney - Duck-blind justice

[reprehensor]

http://www.sptimes.com/2004/01/21/Opinion/Duck_blind_justice.shtml

Just three weeks after the high court agreed to decide whether Vice President Dick Cheney broke the law when he held secret meetings with energy industry lobbyists, Scalia and Cheney boarded a Gulfstream jet bound for a hunting trip in southern Louisiana. Somehow, Scalia, appointed in 1986 by President Reagan, sees no conflict.

In defending the trip, Scalia likened it to a Washington social encounter. "For example, Supreme Court justices are regularly invited to dine at the White House," he wrote, "whether or not a suit seeking to compel or prevent certain presidential action is pending."

Whether such dinners in the White House are judicially prudent is a far different matter than whether Scalia ought to hike through the Louisiana woods, shotgun in hand, with a hunting buddy whose conduct is the very substance of a case the court had just agreed to hear on appeal. Cheney is the defendant in the case, brought by the Sierra Club and Judicial Watch, and the lower court ruled against him. Does Scalia think no one will notice if he now writes an opinion overturning the appeals court and exonerating his pal?

The federal code of judicial conduct requires that any justice "shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned." That provision, in fact, compelled Scalia to remove himself in October from a case involving the constitutionality of the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. While the pledge case was on appeal, Scalia had spoken publicly on the issue at a Religious Freedom Day appearance in Virginia.

[BOSSHOG]

1. Yo Tony

I'm reasonably questioning your impartiality so disqualify yourself now. You and dickhead come from the same klavern, share the same 14th century thoughts of justice, and similarly hate the constitution because it allows for threads like this. You've "fixed" enough in America already tony, now go home.

[reprehensor]

2. Ya, baby!

In fact he should have recused himself from Bush v. Gore, as at least one of his sons was on Bush's legal team.

[reprehensor]

3. Scalia, Cheney trip stirs protests

Democrats are increasing their pressure on Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia to step aside from considering a case involving his friend, Vice President Dick Cheney.

The Supreme Court agreed last month to take up Cheney's appeal in a case that involves his refusal to disclose the identities of members of his energy task force. Three weeks later, Scalia and Cheney went duck hunting together in the marshes of southern Louisiana.

Scalia maintains there was nothing improper about the trip, but it has prompted more than 20 newspaper editorial demands for President Ronald Reagan's conservative appointee to stay out of the Cheney case.

Separately, it has sparked communications from Democratic congressional leaders and the court over the handling of conflict-of-interest charges.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0401310133jan31,1,6350227,print.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

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[gatlingforme]

4. cheney and scalia

I think Cheney should recuse himself as VP and Scalia should recuse himself as a jurist and they should both stop pretending they are homosapians all together Scalia is the most conservative on the court. He should step aside in the Cheney energy meeting disclosure debate. Scalia is pushing the evelope and I think he loves it and mocks his "underlings"(citizens)