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Ed.- This writing was selected from a "blog" in cyberspace, writer unknown, however, we felt this writing represented the issue of Scalia's recusal as well as anything culled from the net.
Never known for brevity, Justice Antonin Scalia issued one of his self-righteous opinions today (March 18), 21 pages of patented huff-and-puffery filled with his signature mockery of those who see things differently than he. Unlike other Scalia opinions, this one has no legal status, but it might as well have, because the Supreme Court will let these stand as the last words on the subject.
Short version: Scalia refused to recuse himself from the lawsuit filed against his buddy Bunker Dick Cheney for refusing to disclose information about secret Energy Task Force meetings the vice president held in 2001.
The litigants, Judicial Watch and the Sierra Club, sought to have Scalia take himself off the case because he had joined Cheney and 11 others for a January duck-hunting trip in Louisiana.
"While the political branches can perhaps survive the constant baseless allegations of impropriety that have become the staple of Washington reportage, this Court cannot. The people must have confidence in the integrity of the Justices, and that cannot exist in a system that assumes them to be corruptible by the slightest friendship or favor."
"I never hunted in the same blind with the vice president. …
"Nor was I alone with him at any time during the trip, except, perhaps, for instances so brief and unintentional that I would not recall them -- walking to or from a boat, perhaps, or going to or from dinner. … Of course we said not a word about the present case …"
"If it is reasonable to think that a Supreme Court justice can be bought so cheap, the nation is in deeper trouble than I had imagined. …
"… political consequences are not my concern. . . . To expect judges to take account of political consequences--and to assess the high or low degree of them--is to ask judges to do precisely what they should not do."
-- Antonin Scalia
January wasn't the first time Scalia took a hunting trip with someone having pending business before the Court. In November 2001, he traveled on a state-owned plane to hunt pheasants with the governor of Kansas and the dean of University of Kansas School of Law, who happened to be the state's attorney for the case in question.
The Code of Judicial Conduct, the original dating back to 1922, provides guidelines for the behavior of judges on and off the bench. It places limits on both extrajudicial conduct and official judicial functions.
CANON 2
Avoiding Impropriety and the Appearance of Impropriety in All of the Judge's Activities
A. A judge shall comply with the law and should act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.
B. A judge shall not allow any relationship to influence judicial conduct or judgment. A judge shall not lend the prestige of judicial office to advance the private interests of the judge or others; nor shall a judge convey or permit others to convey the impression that they are in a special position to influence the
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