Having just spent way too much time this afternoon explaining to one of our drive-by teabaggers why Judge Roger Vinson doesn’t know the Constitution from his own ass, I was delighted to see that some Dems already are calling for Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself if the constitutionality of health care reform is decided by the SCOTUS.
Why? Because the Justice’s wife is a lobbyist working against the health care reform act. Duh.
Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) and 72 other colleagues wrote Thomas on Wednesday to ask him to sit out any Supreme Court review of President Obama’s healthcare law, citing the work by Thomas’s wife on behalf of efforts opposing that healthcare law.
“As members of Congress, we were surprised by recent revelations of your financial ties to leading organizations dedicated to lobbying against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” the Democrats wrote. “We write today to respectfully ask that you maintain the integrity of this court and recuse yourself from any deliberations on the constitutionality of this act.”
Sen. Orrin Hatch has called for Justice Elena Kagan to recuse herself from health care reform cases because she worked in the Obama administration as solicitor general. It seems to me that Justice Thomas is way more compromised on this issue, though, because he currently enjoys financial gain from his wife’s political activities. He might as well be taking direct bribes from the groups fighting the reform law.
And based on some of his past decisions, Justice Thomas’s vote will most likely be against constitutionality.