The Daily Background

Associated Press:

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was asked Monday to stay out of a case involving a foreign detainee because of remarks Scalia made about the rights of enemy combatants.

Yes, yes, yes, we’ve been hearing about how he should recuse himself. Many in the blogosphere have been saying he should. Who’s asking this time? Probably the plaintiff in the case or something.

Hamdan’s lawyers have not called for Scalia to step aside. Instead, five retired generals who support Hamdan’s arguments sent a letter late Monday to the court with the request that Scalia withdraw from participating in the case. They say Scalia appears to have prejudged the case.

The retired generals said Scalia’s speech in Switzerland “give rise to the unfortunate appearance that … the justice had made up his mind about the merits” of Hamdan’s arguments.

…..Oh. Judges generally recuse themself fairly quickly when a case comes up where it’s obvious they have a conflict of interest or cannot impartial. It’s not anything to be ashamed about, it happens everyday.

They just admit that they’re not the right person to take the case, and they hand it off to somebody else. Cheif Justice Roberts quickly recused himself in this case because he’s already made a ruling in a similar case as a lower court judge. He did he obvious, honorable thing to do. There is almost never an outcry like this for a judge to recuse themselves, because the judge pretty much always does it honorable, and immediately. This case is worthy of note. Full article.

Filed under: Supreme Court, Z-TDB Blog