Have you noticed that whenever there's a big case before the Supreme Court, the Democrats and the media somehow find some reason to claim that one of the Republican-nominated justices ought to recuse himself or herself because of some alleged conflict of interest? It sure seems like it.
Earlier this month, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) urged Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito to recuse himself from any cases related to the 2020 election. His justification for the recusal is that reports indicated that an upside-down flag was flown at Alito's home a week after the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.
The horror! The horror!
"Flying an upside-down American flag — a symbol of the so-called ‘Stop the Steal’ movement — clearly creates the appearance of bias," Durbin claimed. "Justice Alito should recuse himself immediately from cases related to the 2020 election and the January 6th insurrection, including the question of the former President’s immunity in U.S. v. Donald Trump, which the Supreme Court is currently considering."
He probably thinks the "OK" sign is actually a "white power" symbol, too.
Alito responded to the calls for his recusal in a letter to Sens. Durbin and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), telling them that their justifications "do not meet the conditions for recusal" under the Supreme Court's Code of Conduct.
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Alito's elaboration on why he won't recuse himself from any cases related to the 2020 election isn't even worth getting into because the original demand was ridiculous and hypocritical.
As I mentioned above, Democrats call on Republican-nominated justices to recuse themselves all the time, but turn a blind eye to conflicts of interest from liberal judges when it comes to critical cases. Let's look at Justice Kagan, whom Barack Obama nominated to the Supreme Court. Kagan served as solicitor general for the Obama administration and played a pivotal role in defending the constitutionality of Obamacare during her tenure. Despite this glaring conflict of interest, she participated in numerous Supreme Court cases concerning Obamacare. In fact, by law, Kagan should have recused herself from those cases.
28 U.S. Code § 455 states that “Any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned," including “Where he has served in governmental employment and in such capacity participated as counsel, adviser or material witness concerning the proceeding or expressed an opinion concerning the merits of the particular case in controversy.”
The Obama administration was well aware of Kagan's conflict of interest and maneuvered around it by withholding documents about her role as the administration's lawyer in Obamacare cases. Obama knew it, and so did congressional Democrats, but they didn't care. For them, the ends always justify the means. Ironically, while they never called on Kagan to recuse herself from Obamacare cases, they demanded Justice Kavanaugh recuse himself from any case related to the Mueller investigation, Amy Coney Barrett recuse herself from any case involving Obamacare or the 2020 election just because Trump nominated her, and Justice Clarence Thomas recuse himself from any 2020 election cases because of texts his wife sent to Trump allies about challenging the results of the 2020 election.
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