Ducking The Law

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28 U.S. Code 455:"Any justice, judge or magistrate of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned... He shall disqualify himself in the following circumstances: Where he has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party..."

Last month the Supreme Court announced it would hear a case involving Vice President Dick Cheney's secret energy commission. After the announcement, Justice Antonin Scalia and the Vice President spent a weekend together hunting ducks on the property of a Republican donor and oil-industry executive.

Citing federal law (above), the nation's leading editorial boards are urging Scalia to remove himself from Cheney’s case.

So far, Scalia has ignored their suggestion, quipping that the only problem with his trip was that the hunting was "lousy."

Americans have always had faith in the integrity of judges. But Scalia is rattling that faith.

His stubbornness is now the Court's problem. Its reputation is at stake.


Some of the editorial boards urging Scalia to step aside:

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The New York Times
The Washington Post
The Los Angeles Times
The Dallas Morning News
The Detroit Free Press
The Denver Post
Newsday
The Tampa Tribune
The Columbus Dispatch
The San Jose Mercury News
The Times Union (Albany, NY)
The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY)
The Reno Gazette-Journal
The St. Petersburg Times


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Published: Jan 29 2004

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Judicial Junkets 

by Doug Kendall

Justice Scalia's hunting trip with Dick Cheney is nothing new in the federal judiciary.