{"id":9926,"date":"2007-10-05T08:59:12","date_gmt":"2007-10-05T14:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=9926"},"modified":"2007-10-05T08:59:12","modified_gmt":"2007-10-05T14:59:12","slug":"even-handed-nyt-op-ed-dan-collins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=9926","title":{"rendered":"Even-Handed NYT Op-Ed [Dan Collins]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Justice Clarence Thomas\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s new autobiography dredges up<\/strong> his 16-year-old battle<\/strong> with Anita Hill and fulminates<\/strong> against liberal groups, Democratic senators and others who opposed<\/em> his nomination. The clash<\/strong> with Ms. Hill has grabbed<\/strong> most of the headlines. But his fulminations<\/strong> deserve<\/em> more attention. The rage he harbors<\/strong> raises questions about whether he can sit<\/em> as an impartial judge<\/em> in many of the cases the Supreme Court hears.When Supreme Court justices write<\/em> books, which is not often, they tend to write<\/em> about subjects and in ways that are consistent with the dignity<\/em> of the court. When he was chief justice, William Rehnquist wrote about the 1876 presidential election; Justice Stephen Breyer\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cActive Liberty\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d set forth a specific view of the Constitution.<\/p>\n

The problem with Justice Thomas\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s book, \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cMy Grandfather\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s Son,\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d is that it nurses bitter grudges<\/strong> and throws brickbats<\/strong> at organizations and people who opposed<\/em> his nomination and might well appear before the court. Some of his targets<\/strong>, like Senator Joseph Biden and Yale Law School, he mentions by name. Others, like the American Civil Liberties Union, are not attacked as directly<\/strong>, but it is not hard to connect the dots.<\/p>\n

The level of hostility is striking<\/strong>. He grew up fearing<\/strong> the Ku Klux Klan, he says, but \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cmy worst fears had come to pass not in Georgia, but in Washington, D.C., where I was being pursued not by bigots in white robes but by left-wing zealots draped in flowing sanctimony.\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d<\/p>\n

Justices have an obligation<\/strong> to avoid off-the-bench behavior hurtful<\/em> to the court\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s mission and reputation. They must also comply<\/em> with federal law, which holds that justices should recuse<\/em> themselves from participating in cases in which they are biased against a party or lawyer or in which their impartiality might reasonably be questioned<\/em>.<\/p>\n

If Mr. Biden, Yale Law School or the A.C.L.U.\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s Southern California affiliate, which opposed Justice Thomas\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s confirmation, have business<\/em> before the court, it is hard to see how any of them could expect<\/em> a fair hearing from Justice Thomas. But the Supreme Court allows<\/em> justices to make their own recusal decisions, and no one should expect to see<\/em> Justice Thomas bowing out of cases<\/em> based on angry<\/strong> comments in his memoir.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And here’s a strange way to draw a political cartoonist<\/a>.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 You have to click through cartoons and go to number 6 in USA Today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Justice Clarence Thomas\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s new autobiography dredges up his 16-year-old battle with Anita Hill and fulminates against liberal groups, Democratic senators and others who opposed his nomination. The clash with Ms. Hill has grabbed most of the headlines. But his fulminations deserve more attention. The rage he harbors raises questions about whether he can sit as an impartial judge in many of the cases the Supreme Court hears.When Supreme Court justices<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":587,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/587"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9926\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}