Tag Archives: recusal

SCOTUS Top Ten List, part 9: Should Justice Kagan recuse herself from hearing Obamacare?

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Number One on my Top Ten List of upcoming Supreme Court cases is, of course, Obamacare. If you missed my earlier posts on the subject:

  • here’s some background, including info on the four specific issues the Court will rule on;
  • here’s the skinny on the argument about whether Justice Thomas should recuse himself from the case;
  • and next time (sorry, no link for that one yet) we’ll read the tea leaves and talk about What It All Means.

But first, let’s look at the other recusal issue: Justice Kagan’s last job.

Official portrait of Justice Elena Kagan

Justice Elena Kagan (The Oyez Project)

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SCOTUS Top Ten List, part 8: Should Justice Thomas recuse himself from hearing Obamacare?

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Clarence Thomas's official SCOTUS portraitJustice Clarence Thomas (CCL: Oyez Project)

I didn’t have room in my first post on the Supreme Court’s consideration of Obamacare to mention the recusal issue, but it’s important. Liberals want Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse (in plain English, excuse) himself from hearing the case because of his wife’s Tea Party connections; conservatives want Justice Elena Kagan to recuse herself because she was Solicitor General while the health-care law was in Congress.

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SCOTUS Top Ten List, part 6: same-sex marriage

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We’ve been working through a Top Ten List of Supreme Court cases to watch this year. Here are cases #8-10, #6-7, #5, #4 and #3.

And that brings us to (drum roll, please) . . .

2. Perry v. Brown (sometimes still called by its original title, Perry v. Schwarzenegger).

two men holding a marriage certificate and embracing

San Francisco City Hall, June 17, 2008 (CCL: Bart Vis)

When I started this list, I penciled in Perry at #2. It’s now clear that it’s not going to get to SCOTUS this term. I’m still going to talk about it, though, because it’s still coming, and it’s still going to be a blockbuster when it gets here.

Background:  Eleven short years ago, the Netherlands became the first jurisdiction in history to give same-sex couples the legal right to marry. Belgium (2003), Spain (2005), Canada (2005), South Africa (2006), Norway (2008), Sweden (2009), Portugal (2010) , Iceland (2010) and Argentina (2010) have since followed suit.

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