{"id":6048,"date":"2011-10-06T00:06:23","date_gmt":"2011-10-06T07:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=6048"},"modified":"2011-10-06T00:06:23","modified_gmt":"2011-10-06T07:06:23","slug":"judiciary-committee-questions-breyer-and-scalia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/06\/judiciary-committee-questions-breyer-and-scalia\/","title":{"rendered":"Judiciary Committee questions Breyer and Scalia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Given the Supreme Court\u2019s recent unconstitutional decisions, the worst being Citizens United<\/em>, and given the recent evidence of conflicts of interest by Scalia and Thomas, the Senate Judiciary Committee had a rare opportunity yesterday to question Justice Stephen Breyer and Injustice Antonin Scalia.  Sadly, the Senators spent far too little time on ethical considerations.<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"6judiciary\"Justices Stephen G. Breyer and Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court crossed Constitution Avenue on Wednesday to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the role of judges under the Constitution, offering unscripted responses on issues like conflicts of interest and cameras in the courtroom<\/p>\n

Justices rarely appear before the Senate panel after their confirmation hearings. The last such occasion was when Justice Anthony M. Kennedy testified about judicial security and independence in 2007. <\/p>\n

Seizing on the unusual opportunity to question the justices, senators set the agenda question by question. Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, asked whether the Supreme Court should be required to follow the Judicial Conference Code of Conduct<\/a>, which is currently used as \u201cguidance.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery asset has to be listed in depth, and it\u2019s all filed<\/strong>,\u201d Justice Breyer said. \u201cI don\u2019t think that the life of the judge in terms of ethics is less restrictive than the life of any other member of the government<\/strong>.\u201d <\/p>\n

The ethical conduct of the Supreme Court has been under growing scrutiny. Questions have been raised over Justice Clarence Thomas\u2019s appearances before Republican-backed groups and his acceptance of favors from a contributor in Texas, Harlan Crow, as well as over his wife, Virginia Thomas, and her job as a conservative advocate. <\/p>\n

House Democrats sent a letter to House Judiciary Committee leaders<\/a> last month, calling on the panel to review a bill introduced this year that would require justices to withdraw from cases in which they have a political or financial conflict. The letter also singled out Justices Scalia and Samuel Alito for appearing at political events<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

Justice Breyer said he had not seen a decision influenced by politics in his 17 years on the court<\/strong>\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <New York Times<\/a>><\/p>\n

I feel ashamed of Stephen Breyer.  He knows better and is keeping his mouth shut to follow the tradition of collegiality among Justices.  I\u2019m sorry, but the threat to our Republic by the corruption of SS Scalia and Teabag Thomas and the plutocratic activism of the other three Injustices of SCROTUS outweighs by far the tradition of collegiality.<\/font><\/p>\n

On Tuesday night, Keith Olbermann discussed this visit with Louise Slaughter (D-NY).  IO would have posted it sooner, but it just became available today.<\/font><\/p>\n