June 24, 2004

Supreme Flip-Flop


Chief Justice Rehnquist: A Partisan Hack with a Lifetime Appointment
I'm sure I'm not the only one who found this story ironic, coming out as it does during the week everyone is revisiting Bill Clinton's presidency:

The president is not above the law, Kennedy wrote, but there is a "paramount necessity of protecting the executive branch from vexatious litigation that might distract it from the energetic performance of its constitutional duties."

This is the same court that unanimously allowed the Paula Jones thing to go forward. If you've never read Joe Conason and Gene Lyons' "The Hunting of the President" about the whole Arkansas Project, Paula Jones, Ken Starr and the soap opera of Starr's whole operation (and the Ray report that preceded it which completely and totally exonerated the Clintons on Whitewater without any qualification), you really should get yourself educated.

Posted by Observer at June 24, 2004 03:39 PM
Comments

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Personally, my favorite is Scalia...

Scalia, a Reagan administration appointee and close friend of the vice president, had said the duck hunting trip was acceptable socializing that wouldn't cloud his judgment. "If it is reasonable to think that a Supreme Court justice can be bought so cheap, the nation is in deeper trouble than I had imagined," he wrote in an unusual 21-page memo announcing his decision to stay on the case.

Seems you have not been paying attention to public opinion, sir. Not only is it reasonable, it is common and is indicative of the level of trust that a substantial fraction of the general public has in this administration.

Posted by: Seattle Astronomer on June 24, 2004 04:27 PM

FWIW, "The Hunting of the President" is coming soon to a theatre (or TV) near you. Saw an ad for it the other day, just can't recall if it's a movie or a TV special.

Posted by: Snow on June 25, 2004 12:05 PM

It's a movie... See http://www.thehuntingofthepresident.com/

Posted by: Seattle Astronomer on June 25, 2004 02:43 PM

Sure is a knee-slapper, eh?

BTW, the Ray report succeeded the Starr report, not the other way around. But you knew that, and just had a brain-fart, right?

Posted by: Avedon on June 27, 2004 08:09 PM

You should've seen the first draft, which said, "This is the sane court than unanimously ..." I choose to blame it on sleep deprivation instead of senior moments. Yes, the Ray Report was in 2000, a couple of months before the election, and was pretty much ignored (of course) by the same media that thought Al Gore's "Earth tones" were worth several column-feet.

Posted by: Observer on June 27, 2004 08:23 PM