Thomas, Kagan resist calls for recusal

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: The Hill

Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Elena Kagan did not recuse themselves from deciding how to handle lawsuits over President Obama's healthcare law, despite activist groups’ calls for them to do so.

Conservative groups had called for Kagan to sit out the healthcare case because she was solicitor general when the solicitor general’s office began planning its legal defense of the healthcare law and its individual mandate. She had previously indicated, however, that she was unlikely to recuse herself from the case.

Liberal groups said Thomas should not take part in the case because his wife has profited from speeches and other work explicitly calling for Congress to repeal the reform law.

But neither was absent from Monday's announcement granting a hearing in the case filed by 26 states and the National Federation of Independent Business. The court’s practice is to list any recusals at this stage of the process, but it does not explicitly note or explain justices’ decisions to participate in a particular case.


Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/legal-challenges/193413-thomas-kagan-resist-calls-for-recusal

[KoKo]

1. They are the SUPREMES....and Above the Law! (we should know this by now) n/t

[sharp_stick]

2. If Thomas doesn't sit out neither should Kagan

I know that neither of them should be there but if one decides to sit the other shouldn't be making any kind of "grand gesture" out of respectability or in order to be proper.

Ever since that prick William Rehnquist and maybe even before the Supreme Court has been nothing but a political tool and as long as dirtbags like Thomas and Scalia continue to infest it I say we need to do anything to blunt them.

[wordpix]

7. if Thomas AND Fat Tony sit after their fundraiser with lawyers for the repeal

so should Kagan

[former9thward]

3. They will just cancel each other's vote out anyway.

So it will be up to the rest of the seven to decide the case.

[Demeter]

4. Why is this country such a hypocritical farce?

[Javaman]

5. because it plays well on the tv machine. nt

[slackmaster]

6. Because voters are stupid enough to keep voting for the most heavily advertised candidates...

...who are incumbents who represent the interests of big money and entrenched power.

[wordpix]

8. because of the legalized bribery of lobbying and campaign donations

[cal04]

9. Kagan and Thomas face political pressure to sit out health reform case

Source: msnbc.com's Michael O'Brien

Political groups are applying pressure to two of the U.S. Supreme Court's nine justices before they hear a series of cases challenging the constitutionality of President Obama's signature health reform law.

Conservative groups want to prevent Justice Elena Kagan from being among the members of the court to decide the case, which the justices announced on Monday they would hear this term. And liberal groups, similarly, want Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from the case.

Their demands reflect the gamesmanship surrounding the case, which would either offer legal vindication for Obama's law, or hand Republicans a victory in dismantling it -- at the height of the election season, no less, since a decision is due in June.

Republicans have already demanded that Kagan sit out the case because of her work as solicitor general in the Obama administration during the fight over the health care law. Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch (R), a longtime staple of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has demanded that she recuse herself, and House Republicans have sought to probe the extent of her involvement in crafting the legal defense for the law.

Read more: http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/15/8820711-kagan-and-thomas-face-political-pressure-to-sit-out-health-reform-case

---

What about Scalia?
Scalia and Thomas dine with healthcare law challengers as court takes case

[barbtries]

10. what about Scalia?

why aren't they talking about that whore?!

[catgirl]

11. Yes, why no pressure on Scalia?

Hopefully it will come, now that the news is out about the dinner...

[left on green only]

13. Yes, Scabula sitting with his greasy hair slicked back while taking a lap dance

from Bancroft PLLC. I guess he was just happy to see 'em. Nazis in Chico?

[pnwmom]

12. Scalia wrote some decisions that would, if followed, SUPPORT Obama's health plan.

So he's a real wild card.

[Purveyor]

14. The good thing is that it is Justice Kagan's call whether to recuse or not. eom