{"id":283540,"date":"2010-02-05T17:34:28","date_gmt":"2010-02-05T22:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.szone.us\/f95\/case-justices-staying-home-39134\/"},"modified":"2010-02-05T17:34:28","modified_gmt":"2010-02-05T22:34:28","slug":"the-case-for-justices-staying-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/283540","title":{"rendered":"The Case for Justices Staying Home"},"content":{"rendered":"
On 02.05.10 09:00 AM posted by Deborah O’Malley<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/a> highlighted a speech that Justice Clarence Thomas delivered at a Florida law school in which he defended the Supreme Court\u0092s recent campaign finance decision in Citizens United v. FEC<\/i>.* In that speech, Thomas also addressed why he chose to forgo the president\u0092s state of the union address:<\/p>\n

“I don\u0092t go because it has become so partisan and it\u0092s very uncomfortable for a judge to sit there,\u0094 he said, adding that \u0093there\u0092s a lot that you don\u0092t hear on TV \u0097 the catcalls, the whooping and hollering and under-the-breath comments.”<\/p>\n

\u0093One of the consequences,\u0094 he added in an apparent reference to last week\u0092s address, \u0093is now the court becomes part of the conversation, if you want to call it that, in the speeches. It\u0092s just an example of why I don\u0092t go.\u0094<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Jennifer Rubin of Commentary Magazine<\/a> had some interesting insights on these comments.* Rubin notes that the State of the Union has increasingly become a forum for the president to \u0093lay out a political agenda\u0094 and\u0097apparently now\u0097make jabs at the other branches of government.* It is understandable that judges, who are not political players, would be uncomfortable at such an event.<\/p>\n

\u0093And really,\u0094 Rubin continues, \u0093there is no purpose to be served by the judges sitting mutely (or not) as the president solicits cheers for health care or incurs boos for a budget freeze.\u0094* Rubin is right.* Judges are fundamentally apolitical in their offices.* Judges take no part in crafting or promoting laws and policies, so there is no reason they need to be present while the president briefs lawmakers about his policy plans.<\/p>\n

Rubin makes an interesting reference to the ABA\u0092s Canon 4 of judicial ethics<\/a>, which forbids judges from engaging in political or campaign activity \u0093that is inconsistent with the independence, integrity, or impartiality of the judiciary.\u0094* While Rubin does not think that attending the State of the Union address amounts to \u0093political activity,\u0094 she does suggest that the increasing political nature of the event\u0097especially its interactivity\u0097makes it come close:<\/p>\n

If the purpose of that rule is to maintain the divide between judges and politics and to avoid ensnaring judges in partisan brawls, then a good place to start would be for justices to follow Justice Thomas\u0092s guidance.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Attending the State of the Union does not amount to a violation of judicial ethics, and therefore no disparagement should attach to justices who choose to attend, but given the partisan nature of the event, and the recent attempt of the President to use the speech to politicize Supreme Court decisions, attendance certainly does not help to fulfill the rule\u0092s purpose of insulating judges from politics.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/blog.heritage.org\/2010\/02\/05\/…-staying-home\/<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 02.05.10 09:00 AM posted by Deborah O’Malley The New York Times highlighted a speech that Justice Clarence Thomas delivered at a Florida law school in which he defended the Supreme Court\u0092s recent campaign finance decision in Citizens United v. FEC.* In that speech, Thomas also addressed why he chose to forgo the president\u0092s state […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-283540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283540\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}