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The Spectacle Blog
Should Elena Kagan recuse herself in the Obamacare case? Jennifer Rubin offers the most measured and astute analysis yet. In the end, we’ll see what stuff Justice Kagan is made of:
It is her conscience and legal ethics that must guide her decision.… Kagan has apparently decided to plunge ahead and rule on the case. But you have to wonder if a justice who hopes to be on the Supreme Court for years to come and who craves the respect of the legal profession should put in jeopardy her reputation and integrity, no matter how important a single case may be.
If the Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of Obamacare with hers as the decisive vote, the opinion will be forever tainted.
View all comments (16) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Wlady Pleszczynski
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/11/16/kagan-vs-recusal
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ncatty| 11.16.11 @ 11:08AM
On the contrary Ms. Rubin, she will be regarded as a hero of the left, whose opinion is all that counts.
MikeBee| 11.16.11 @ 11:43AM
Wlady,
You're right. Rubin makes an excellent point. However, one needs to be reminded that the Left does not have a conscience, unless the matter is the sexual assault of a child.......... I don't seriously expect Kagan to be capable of applying clear ethics in this case. In her mind, "ethics" means making sure that Obamacare remains legal, by any means necessary.
W| 11.16.11 @ 11:54AM
I din't believe Kagan had to recuse herself solely because she was the Solictor General. But in her email, just made public, to Tribe where it is clear she favored passage of Obamacare she has expressed an opinion on the law that she now has to rule upon. She should disqualify herself because she already expressed her opinon.
kingsmill| 11.16.11 @ 12:16PM
Rubin's assumuption that an idealogue of the left would respect an aspect of bourgeois "false consciousness" such as legal ethics tags her as hopelessly naive.
Bob K.| 11.16.11 @ 12:37PM
If she does not recuse herself and the Plaintiff's Attorney's do not request it, nay, demand it, at the time of the hearing it will say more about the cowardice of the legal profession and the Republican leadership than it will about her ethics!
JimH| 11.16.11 @ 1:00PM
She might recuse if she thinks the votes are there without her.
martin j smith| 11.16.11 @ 1:32PM
This should be a campaign issue because first of all it shows just how currupt our judiciary and our government really is and for the Conservative side it should motivate voters anger to vote even more than ever. So, let her do whatever she will do but put her picture in adds showing how bankrupt any decision is that holds Obama Care as Constitutional.
DC| 11.16.11 @ 2:28PM
To paraphrase Pelosi: are you serious? Kagan is nothing more or less than a political hack, put on the Court for the specific purpose of ruling on this Obamacare case. She will do as she's been told, period, and she couldn't care less about her "reputation," "legal ethics," or anything else other than completing her mission for her sugar daddy Hussein. Does anyone really think leftist political hacks (whether lawyers or not) pay attention to ethical considerations when the triumph of ideological enslavement of Americans can be advanced so far by one vote? Spare the newsprint/bytes--this case has already been decided, we just don't know the final vote breakdown yet.
One other thing, when you're a S Ct justice, you don't give a sh*t what any other lawyers think of you--you're on top, and they're all looking up at you whether they like it or not. Most lawyers are socialists or limousine leftists anyway, so she won't lose their support no matter what, even assuming that support is worth anything to her.
Consertive View| 11.17.11 @ 10:22AM
DC you are absolutely correct. The entire reason she is sitting on the court at all is to be a vote for Obama Care.
Perhaps though there is more to this than it might seem at first glance. The members of the Court must have in the back of their minds a few unsettling facts. First, that the country is strongly against Obama Care. If the Court upholds the power of the government to compell anything it damn well pleases, the people might well rise up and demand a change to the Constitution either modifying the commerce clause, or doing away with it completely. Eather way, the government ends up loseing power over the people. Does the Court really want that? I doubt it.
Next, the reputation of the Court is unmatched in government. The President has about a 45% approval rateing, Congress an approval rateing so low it can't be measured. Only the Court retains the faith of the public. A slanted decision, slanted by Kagans vote, would seriously damage that reputation, and once again, risk driving the public into making some unwanted changes to the Constitution.
So, all may not be lost here. The members of the Court must have in the back of their respective minds fears of what might well happen if they too quickly chose to support the contention that the Government has absolute power. So, let us not get too riled up yet. Kagan may well discover that the Court itself must be preserved, not Obama Care. We shall see if she actually is growing a brain.
Occam's Tool| 11.16.11 @ 2:37PM
She was an intellectually UNDERWHELMING Harvard Dean, and she's a Left-Wing scumbag.
I don't lose sleep agonizing over this. Best to assume that, like the Iranian Mullahs, she is scum.
Al Adab| 11.16.11 @ 2:47PM
Recuse, nothing. This lady should immediatly resign from the Court. She is so ideologically compromised as to call into question any ruling she might join or issue. GOP members of the Senate should be ashamed they allowed confirmation to proceed.
LarryK| 11.16.11 @ 3:06PM
Should Elena Kagan recuse herself in the Obamacare case?
Why should she? She's a Liberal!
Zack| 11.16.11 @ 3:39PM
I don't know that her recusal would accomplish anything. If it's not a 5-4 vote, or she's in the minority, her vote is irrelevant to the law. If it's 5-4 for obamacare with kagan in the majority, it would be 4-4 if she recused. That would mean the lower court decisions would all stand.
tonypal| 11.16.11 @ 8:21PM
Which lower court decision Zack? They're all over the place.
Oldefarte| 11.16.11 @ 4:26PM
Of course she should recuse herself [or be recused] since the sole reason why she was nominated and installed on the SCOTUS in the first place was so that she could provide a PRO VOTE FOR THIS WELFARECARE'S CONFIRMATION !!!!!!!
West Houston| 1.5.12 @ 10:07AM
Quoting:
"It is her conscience and legal ethics that must guide her decision.… "
Commenting:
Don't hold your breath!