Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Supreme-Court justice, made critical remarks about Donald Trump during several interviews, for which she has since apologized. Lawrence O’Donald, msnbc, pointed out that, contrary to popular opinion, SCOTUS justices historically have been involved in politics while on the bench. John Jay, the first Chief Justice ran for governor of New York and resigned his appointment upon winning. A second example: Oliver Elsworth, the third SCOTUS Chief Justice, ran for president during his first year as Chief Justice. He lost and remained with the court. Lawrence also pointed out that the only difference in presidential preferences between RBG’s public statements and justices privately voting is public vs private. In both cases the justice is expressing preference for a nominee, which, one could argue, could bias later related judgments.
Oh dear, what can the matter be?
RBG has criticized Trumpledee
Violating SCOTUS propriety
Nobody’s done it before
There’s no way that unbiased she could be
Should she give a ruling on Trumpledee
Emphasizing that possibility
Herself she’d have to recuse
Commentators all tow this righteous line
Faulting her that on Trmp she would opine
Stating this was SCOTUS’s only time
Only, that just isn’t so
SCOTUS justices do vote for president
One, while justice, ran to be president
Does this sway their rulings on presidents?
Maybe, but we’ll never know
7/14/16
