Apparently You Should Be Unlawful to Interpret the Law
Jan 25th, 2006 at 9:24 am by Susie
Nice to know what qualities Democratic senatorial candidate Bob Casey and Gov. Ed Rendell support in a Supreme Court justice. “No reason” not to support him, huh?
…Federal law and the official Code of Conduct for U.S. judges explicitly prohibit judges from sitting on cases involving companies in which they own stock — no matter how small their holdings — in order to uphold the integrity of the judicial system. (Judges’ financial filings typically don’t differentiate ownership between the judge and immediate family members.) The clear-cut, objective standard aims to prevent even the appearance that a judge may be taking into consideration his or her personal financial interests… “There’s no wriggle room here,” says professor Stephen Gillers, a scholar of legal ethics at the New York University School of Law. “It’s not just an ethics rule, it’s a congressional statute — a law.” Even if he doesn’t make any orders during the proceedings, he can’t be the judge on such a case, Gillers says. “He’s disqualified, period.”
I am so mad at Rendell and Casey, I could spit. Why did they feel it necessary to make an announcement of support for Alito?
I can’t believe that for the first time since I was 18, I’ll probably be staying home the first Tuesday in November. How depressing.
Missed Casey’s announcement of support for Alito - can anybody please provide a link? Think the Casey folks will be receiving an angry email from me.
Casey, I dunno. In Ed’s case, I suspect that the fact that Midge (Judge Marjorie Rendell) has worked with him for years and a) convinced Ed he was ok or b) didn’t want to create major awkwardness if her husband opposed him publicly– especially since if he goes down, he’s back on the 3rd circuit still.
This shows that Casey’s vaunted name works both ways — he’s siding with Alito at least in part because Alito sided with Casey’s father in Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
More disturbing, to me at least, is that Casey appears to have bended to pressure from the Santorum camp to take a stand on Alito — which means that he worries more about what conservative Republicans think about him than what liberal Democrats do. Yet again, we are taken for granted by a candidate.
@MB- we can fight for real candidates like Chuck Pennacchio to get the nod. If we vote for Chuck and beat Casey, I don’t think Santorum will stand a chance.
@misfit- there are two stories first by AP: timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/13702191.htm, second by the Inquirer: philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/pennsylvania/13703913.htm
Well you’re in luck since this year you get a chance to vote against both of them.