74 Members of Congress penned a letter to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas asking him to recuse himself should the high court take up the constitutionality of Obamacare. Justice Thomas's wife - Ginni - recently started a new lobbying firm called Liberty Consulting with the purpose of bringing, "voice to principled citizens and the tea party movement in the halls of Congress through governmental affairs efforts." Considering she will likely be paid by organizations to convince Members of Congress to repeal the healthcare law - there will certainly be a considerable incentive for Justice Clarence Thomas to rule against the law should it come to the Supreme Court.
The bias here couldn't be any more obvious. And the federal recusal statute - the law by which judges are supposed to operate by clearly states - "Any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned..." For example if, "He or his spouse... is known by the judge to have an interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome of the proceeding." Of course - this statute didn't prevent Justice Thomas from ruling on the Bush v. Gore decision back in 2000 - that handed George W. Bush the presidency - even though his wife worked for the Bush transition team. And it didn't prevent Thomas from hearing the Citizens United Case last year even though he often takes part in political strategy session organized by the billionaires Koch brothers who directly benefited from the Supreme Court's ruling in that case. We are seeing flat out corruption in the highest court in the land.
The Constitution of the United States gives Congress the power to oversee the duties of the Supreme Court - and if 74 Members of Congress ask Thomas to step down - then he should. Better yet - these 74 Members of Congress should call on Justice Thomas to be impeached.
-Thom
(Do you think he will be impeached? Tell us here.)
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