Health-care case brings fight over which Supreme Court justices should decide it

[alp227]

Just a little more than an hour after some House Democrats recently demanded an inquiry into Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ ethics, Senate Republicans stepped up the pressure on Justice Elena Kagan to take herself out of the court’s decision on the health-care reform act.

The process repeated itself a few days later. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) called for the release of more documents about Kagan’s role as President Obama’s solicitor general; the liberal group People for the American Way came out with another broadside against Thomas.

Accusations about both justices, from the left and the right, show no signs of dissipating now that the Supreme Court has said it will review the constitutionality of Obama’s signature domestic achievement, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.

Justices decide for themselves whether they have a conflict serious enough to warrant recusal from a specific case, and neither Kagan nor Thomas appears to be considering sitting out the biggest case of the term.

full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/health-care-case-brings-fight-over-which-supreme-court-justices-should-decide-it/2011/11/22/gIQAwRWb2N_singlePage.html

[brewens]

1. The way things usually go, I'd be surprised if Kagan didn't bow out.

The right gets what they want with absolutely no chance we would see their justices recuse themselves in a similar situation.

I'm not saying that I know Kagan's involvement in the issue would warrant such a move. It sounds like it might but considering the circumstances, she should stay in.