Stock holdings could hold back Roberts on some cases

[IChing]

John Roberts, President Bush's Supreme Court nominee, could wind up sitting out important cases that come before the court because of his extensive stock holdings, legal ethics experts say.


Federal law is clear: Judges may not participate if they, their spouses or their minor children own stock in a company that is a party to a case, although at the Supreme Court, how the rule is applied is up to each justice. (Related story: Justices can skip cases but prefer not to)

Roberts owns $1.6 million in stock in companies such as Time Warner, Microsoft, Pfizer and Merck, which regularly have cases before the federal appeals courts.>>>snip


http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20050829/ts_usatoday/stockholdingscouldholdbackrobertsonsomecases

[Turbineguy]

1. Federal law is clear?

Since when has the "law" been applicable to republicans?