Quote:
Originally posted by Superbelt
I identify the oil extraction company very broadly as a litigant, which is a party engaged in a lawsuit. This is because they have an interest in the outcome and they had input in preparing the policy that is at the center of this lawsuit. If you don't like me using that word, pretend I'm not using it and instead replace it with "Party of Interest"
I have seen in several different places that this trip was paid for by the oil company.
I am not sure what you are specifically looking for me to answer here. Please explain this out a bit more.
I don't ignore that a district justice is different from the Supreme Court. A dj can be replaced much more easily and thus should be able to be recused more easily. But a SC justice can also be recused and I believe the nature of the relationship and circumstances surrounding the vacation they took together (At one point Scalia did have Cheney "alone" with his son and son-in-law for a long period of time on a plane) falls under the notion of "impartiality being reasonably questioned".
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Scalia points to other examples in his discourse where Supreme Court Justices have been socially acquainted with Presidents and others who are "Parties of Interest".
A completely fictitious and extreme example of what I'm talking about would be something like this:
A legal professor (or a President, or Federal judge, etc) who has maintained a social or mentoring relationship with several past students (or law partners, classmates, etc) who go on to be Justices of the Supreme Court brings a case to the Court. Do all of these Justices then recuse themselves leaving the case (which obviously has substantial legal implication since it's gotten that far) without any possibility of gaining the 5 Judge concensus?
Or perhaps a President with a legal background ends up in the odd position of having appointed a majority of the Justices who he had social connections to. How could the Supreme Court make decisions in cases where that President has an interest? If Supreme Court Justices had to recuse themselves in this situation, the checks and balances system of our government would obviously be broken.