Justice Scalia faces recusal decision in appeal of case for access to Cheney's Energy Task Force records.

Jan. 23, 2004: PoliSat .Com's Political Satire/ Commentary Daily Update # 01·· ™©·2004·(Home)·
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Justice Scalia faces recusal decision in appeal of case for access to Cheney's Energy Task Force records.·

Now pending in the Supreme Court is Cheney's appeal from a lower court decision granting at least partial relief to demands by Judicial Watch and the Sierra Club for access to records of the energy-policy meetings Cheney conducted as Vice President to formulate energy-policy plans to recommend to Bush. Also potentially pending are motions by the litigants for Justice Antonin Scalia to recuse himself from participating in the appeal on the basis of Scalia having accompanied Cheney to Texas on a duck-hunting trip.

Because I hope the Supreme Court would reverse the lower-court decision to uphold executive privilege in order to avoid having a chilling effect on the ability of whoever is president to receive candid advice on policy matters, I hope that Scalia will choose to recuse himself-- not because I think he would allow his relationship with Cheney to influence his decision but because his failure to recuse himself would simply provide fodder for critics to imply that to have been the case in the event the case were to be decided in favor of Cheney by only one vote with Scalia being in the majority.

My admiration for Scalia began in law school. He was one of my favorite professors and also one of the smartest. He's also not thin-skinned and not the kind of person who would hold grudges against critics or grant favors to supplicants. To the extent practicable, the judiciary should utilize the prerogative of recusal to minimize circumstances that could be described in a manner to create appearances of impropriety despite the actual absence of same.

Should hunting of ducks be grounds to throw muck?·

Scalia's a man I admire,
in school against whom I conspired
to caricature
with humor, for sure,
before grade announcements transpired.

That students could clearly perceive
the risks that a grade they'd receive
would not be diminished
by speaking as critics,
showed trust that he wouldn't be peeved.

Though certain Scalia'd not waver
from goals to not punish or favor
a side in a case
for personal tastes,
recusal I sometimes would favor.

And therefore, I'd favor recusal
in cases demanding perusal
of notes of proceedings
by Cheney in meetings
on tunes for the energy bugle.

Since Justice Scalia had flown
with Cheney to Texas to roam
the woods hunting ducks,
recusal would shuck
the basis for muck to be thrown.

Justice Scalia is an honorable and fair-minded man. I predict that he will choose to recuse himself not because refusing to do so would be dishonorable but because he recognizes the value of the judiciary avoiding circumstances that could be mischaracterized in a manner to create a false appearance of impropriety. --Jim Wrenn, Editor@PoliSat.Com and former student of, and continuing admirer of, Justice Scalia. (P.S., I do not now have and do not conceive that I would ever have a case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.)
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