Notorious fringe-right “originalist” boobs Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas were so happy with the announcement that the Supreme Court will be hearing a challenge to the health care reform law that they celebrated immediately afterward by boozing it up with the legal team that will be arguing against the law. According to the Los Angeles Times, the Scalia/Thomas duo hit a Federalist Society dinner to pretend to listen to what other people think about the Obamacare law before they eventually and inevitably knock it down.
From the LA Times:
Clement’s law firm, Bancroft PLLC, was one of almost two dozen firms that helped sponsor the annual dinner of the Federalist Society, a longstanding group dedicated to advocating conservative legal principles. Another firm that sponsored the dinner, Jones Day, represents one of the trade associations that challenged the law, the National Federation of Independent Business.
Another sponsor was pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc, which has an enormous financial stake in the outcome of the litigation. The dinner was held at a Washington hotel hours after the court’s conference over the case. In attendance was, among others, Mitch McConnell, the Senate’s top Republican and an avowed opponent of the healthcare law.
The featured guests at the dinner? Scalia and Thomas.
As an interesting side note, today, if you went to the Drudge Report, you’d see the screamer headline “JUDGE NOT: KAGAN CHEERED OBAMACARE PASSAGE.” That link goes to a story about the nefarious emailing activities of now-Justice Elena Kagan, who, back when Obamacare passed, expressed a certain amount of excitement about it to a fellow Harvard Law elitist. Of course she wasn’t even a justice then, and as far as we know Supreme Court justices are at least allowed to have opinions (right?), but all the same the wingnut blog post helpfully points out that “a Supreme Court justice must recuse from ‘any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.’”
The March 2010 email exchange between Kagan and Tribe raises new questions about whether Kagan must recuse herself from judging cases involving the health-care law that Obama signed – and which became the target of legal challenges – while Kagan was serving as Obama’s solicitor general and was responsible for defending his administration’s positions in court disputes.
So Kagan must obviously recuse herself, due to an email she sent before becoming a Supreme Court justice … but Scalia and his mini-me didn’t show any sort of bias at all during their wonderfully timed wine-dine orgy with the anti-Obamacare plaintiffs’ lawyers. [LAT]
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With deepest regret I recuse myself from these comments because I have used the health care 'system' of the United States.
It's like we're all stuck in this time machine, but it only goes backwards in time.
No! We're all stuck in the Bizarro Universe, which never intersects the other one but is co-temporaneous.
The only exception is the word "aloha," which still means both hello and goodbye.
No wonder this time machine is so fucking crowded.
That's because some ass drapped a pair of TruckNutz on it and the mechanism is out of balance.
The founding fathers had crappy medical care and they did just fine!…no wait. Um, The founding fathers had boot straps, see, that's the point here. Boot straps. Use 'em!
Scalia and Thomas' medical care should be limited to wooden teeth and bleeding. If that was good enough for George Washington, it's good enough for them.
Goerge Washington used leeches.
Scalia and Thomas are leeches.
OK, not even pretending about that "impartiality" stuff anymore, are we?
Eh, why bother. It's not like the Librul Media is going to tattle on them.
Good thing Rick Perry will soon be uprooting this branch of govt.
If a branch in the forest falls on Rick Perry, will anyone hear it?
Will anyone care?
If a branch in the forest falls on Rick Perry, will anyone
hearcheer it?I bleev "All of them, Katie" just might apply here.
uprootin'
i think you mean uprootin'
If any justice was served at this dinner, lets hope they were served by a few Project Mayhem waiters.
"The March 2010 email exchange between Kagan and Tribe raises new questions about whether Kagan must recuse herself from judging cases involving the health-care law that Obama signed – and which became the target of legal challenges – while Kagan was serving as Obama’s solicitor general and was responsible for defending his administration’s positions in court disputes.""The November 2011 Federalist Society Dinner between Scalia and Thomas, Pfizer and NFIB raises old questions about whether Scalia and Thomas must recuse themselves from judging cases involving the health-care law that Obama signed – and which became the target of legal challenges – while Scalia and Thomas were both serving as Supreme Court justices and were responsible for impeding his administration’s positions in court disputes."
/fixed (courtesy of Alternate Universe News Service)
…AND, *get this*, the SCOTUS health care plan, provided by John Q. Public, has access to the highest quality leaches.
Actually, I think what provides "access to the highest quality leeches" is a ticket to the Federalist Society dinner.
Matt Drudge, I dub thee, King of the Trolls.
Hope Thomas got a big, gooey clump of pubic hair in his Coke.
I hope he got a big clump of coke in his pubic hair… kind of a peanut butter/chocolate thing.
I hope he got a big clump of peanut butter fully blocking his aorta….kind of a 'if this was a just world' thing.
From your lips to the ears of any creetur with the power to accomplish this.
Normally I'd say that would be Mr. Peanut, but I'm increasingly dubious about relying on someone sporting a monocle to bring about social justice.
No, no, no Slappy Thomas, you s'posed to snort da coke off da ho's asscrack, not offa her carpet.
Maybe we should Occupy the Supreme Court next.
We need a Supremer Court.
Starring Diana Ross?
Ain't no mountain high enough…to throw these douchebags over the side of.
Neither party will touch that treaty with a ten-foot pole.
So long as we're doing superlatives, I want the Supremest Court! A Supremacist Court? Not so much, 'cause we've already had a number of those.
You're plessing your luck.
In a more perfect parallel universe, Scalia, Thomas, Alito and Roberts are sewn into a SCOTUS Centipede and made to crawl through the indigent wards of every county health office and charity clinic in the country where uninsured patients get to throw hepatitis-tainted syringes at them for fun and prizes.
Unless they actually apply the commerce clause in a manner consistent with every other broad federal program (*cough*drug war*cough*) they previously supported, in which case I take it all back and wish them well.
No, fuck that. I still prefer the SCOTUS Centipede idea.
The problem with the SCOTUS centipede is that these assholes would probably enjoy it.
Hell, they do that for fun
Dear God…My Eyes!!! MY EYES!!!!
I'm embarrassed to admit I had to think a bit to remember who this Kagan person is.
Even after all those softball-and-Suburu jokes we made about her not so long ago.
Hey Las, can I call you Las?
I get Kagen and the Kurgen mixed up all the time.
Call me anything but late for dinner.
Father! Forgive me, I am a worm… BUHUWAHAHAHAHAHA! I have something to say! It's better to burn out, than to fade away!
How could you forget Lady Kaga and her outrageous outfits?
Her choice in pantsuits is lengdarily scandelous!
Though, that time she showed up wearing her T-Bone Supreme Court robes was pretty outrageous too.
Women in Kagans – that's one of my all-time favorite women's softball movies!
I was under the impression that Kagan already said she was going to recuse herself from some decisions that she had been involved with prior to becoming a justice — not that this is the first time a conservative has made a big deal out of nothing. But it's perfecty appropriate that she do this, as it is appropriate that Scalia/Thomas don't recuse themselves — as they're advocating an amoral, fuck-you-I-got-mine interpretation of the ideals that made this country great, it ill-behooves them to adhere to a standard they abhor.
May the attendees at that Feralist Society dinner all succumb to a very husky cousin of one of those nasty cruise ship GI cleansings. Poo-poopy-do.
What if I told you that you could have a job for life and literally say or do anything you wanted and still be able to keep the job? Not only that, but every decision you make on the job gives you power over hundreds of millions of people. The only downside is you have to wear an ugly black gown.
Or, in Thomas's case, literally say and do nothing at all and still keep the job.
Seriously, I've appeared before the SCOTUS before (ceremonial SCOTUS bar admission) and Thomas looked like he was sleeping off a bender from the night before, staring up at the ceiling, blinking, yawning, wishing he were in a whore's lap instead of in the courtroom… at that moment there was no question who the "Judge" in Hunter Thompson's story "Fear & Loathing in Elko" really was.
I believe he's asked a total of two questions the entire time he has been on the court.
"Are you going to eat that?" and "Whew! Who cut the cheese?" (all the other justices were looking at him, though).
The upside is free Federal back-waxings.
When in doubt, accuse the other side of exactly what you're doing. Bonus points if their infraction is less obscene.
Given their herculean powers of projection, I'd say the herd of neanderthals that comprise the Republican party are in doubt about 90% of the time. Everything else is "TAX CUTS!
The most disheartening thing about this whole business, to me, is that the reason the repubtards oppose the Affordable Healthcare Act, is that a black guy came up with it. It would probably be the same if a woman (say, Hilary) had done so. If a white male came up with it, they would at least debate its merits. No matter how much they bitch and moan, and lie and rationalize, and pretend to like totems like Cain and Bachman, they hate women and people of color. They hate Obama because he's black, not because of his policies. It's that fuckin simple and I'm fuckin sick of it.
I motherfucking hate these motherfucking motherfuckers.
word
I'm gonna tell James O'Keefe that you cursed in a blog post.
You, my motherfucking word great, are motherfucking right.
Ah, if only one of them got their dick sucked so they could be impeached…
What if one sucked the other? Two birds.
Ah, if only one of them ever got their dick sucked …
/fixed
Hey, in Clarence Thomas' case, it ain't for lack of trying!
Wall Street has already priced in Pfizer purchase of Supreme Court judges.
Flatulent pus monkeys. Not sure why, but flatulent pus monkeys.
I think this should've been saved for the next GOP debate, but it works here, too.
Antonin Scalia believes in god. Ergo, he is mentally ill.
Jebus cheers.
Thank god drug companies can no longer attempt to influence doctor's offices with promotional items, right?
Swag Libel.
Awhile back I worked briefly as a front office medical receptionist. You could always tell who the drug reps were–they looked like young newscasters. I was basically told to 'be extra nice' because that's who gives us free lunches and pens and office clocks and to grant them instant access (they seemed to be a priority before patients). One time I was getting some coffee and listened to some 6' tall drug rep fembot try to manage her way through the pros and cons of whatever AstraZeneca bullshit she was peddling and was met with… chemistry! The doctor she was talking to began speaking about certain chemical structures of medication and she was dead lost… I think I laughed out loud. Oh–but lunch was good that day and I got a free notepad/pen combo.
It's great that these same companies can still woo the High Court.
Occupy The Supreme Court! First Amendment certiorari review expected.
Its not like Justice Thomas has a member of his immediate family employed by a group lobbying against the law he'll be deciding, and that group contributes directly to his family's income…
Wait…what?
I predict that Scalia will recuse himself.
Then we can all take an arial tour on his fleet of flying pigs.
Needz moar chronic conditions being treated at underfunded urban emergency rooms.
Needs moar than half of health care expenditures in the last six months of life.
Needs moar than half of all bankruptcies in America due to medical bills.
Ethics rulz???? We don't needz no stinkin ethics rulz!!!
What about Virginia Thomas' lobbying efforts on behalf of the Tea Party? I mean, sure, Tommy hasn't even so much as been in the same room as his wife in the past 20 years, but surely that's a greater indicator of partiality than Justice Kagan's e-mails.
Oh no wait, this is America, where conservatives are ALWAYS morally pure upstanding bastions of righteousness (even when they're buying rentboys by the pallet) and nominal "liberals" and "leftists" like Kagan are always devious, underhanded foes of justice by opposing the freedom of rich people to do whatever the fuck they want without having to bother to pause to think about the "poors," which in this case means anyone that makes less than $250,000 a year.
I'd give the odds at 50:1 that Obamacare is history. And the sickest [sic] thing of this whole charade is that either way, we are farther from a single-payor system then we ever were. The health insurance, big Pharma AND health system lobbyists can skate blissfully through this show trial knowing full well they win no matter what. There is a reason why we pay three times (at least) what the rest of the civilized world pays for mediocre health care. Those tens of millions of dollar salaries for the likes of Rick Scott are not cheap.
I try not to use our heath care system much, but when I do, I drink Dos Equis. Stay healthy my friends.
I try not to use our heath care system much, but when I do, I drink Dos Equis. Stay healthy my friends.
Ironically, in the Sharron Angle healthcare-barter-plan, "duo equi" is the exact value of a liver transplant.
god. i hope you're wrong.
Wanna be in the status quo? Figure out ways to buy time. Then you're golden.
Sigh. The fact that this piece of middling pile of legislation (apparently, the best we could do) is now sitting in the hands of this Supreme[ly craven] Court, appears to make "medicare for all" or a "public option" seem nigh impossible especially if they rule against the mandate in Obamacare.
If the unlikely happens, however, I don't see how the bill works at all if the mandate is taken out. Sure, the Court might kick this can down the road until the mandate actually kicks in, and America gets to keep (hopefully) all the residual policies that kicked in immediately but we still have the problem of not everyone being covered! What then?! What's the bright idea fellas? Vouchers for charter hospitals run by Johnson & Johnson? Ugh!
Hey Thomas… you know how your wife gets her "egg money" right? I think it should disqualify you from this debate… but what do I know… http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0211/48812.h…
(You know… a whole "conflict in judgement"… but that would be justice and we all know you don't do the fair thing.
Soft bigotry of low expectations, y'all!
“a Supreme Court justice must recuse from ‘any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.’”
Thus, Elena obviously does not have to recuse herself.
Ha ha ha! Juris-fail, you hairy-balled shitheads!
It doesn't even MENTION women in the Constitution! HA! Take that!
And though it MAY mention guineas and Negros, it doesn't do so favorably.
And one more thing: if those two cunts were actually mothered by women, who are not mentioned in the Constitution, that makes the both of them unconstitutional in their entirety! QED, ipso facto and sic semper tyrranis!
I'm starting to like the law, actually.
i'm fairly fragile right now. can someone please reassure me somehow?
thanks.
Aww, don't worry. You are loved here on teh wonkette.
Prairie dogs are the crankiest animules on the planet, but we luvs our fuf.
Yeah, repeating what the fangled nut said. We love you much.
Sure, the system is fucked and koch-puppets like Scalia have too much power right now, but it's not forever. If those right wing puslickers deem the affordable healthcare act unconstitutional there will be hell to pay. Maybe even Jim-Bob and Cletus will wake up and smell the distinctive scent of being used as a toilet by the rich.
oh i love you guys so, but i just really want to be reassured that the scalia court won't triumph.
all the fucking time.
please?
Personally, and I'm not a law-talking guy, I don't think the SCOTUS will knock it down. That sets a really dangerous precedent for destroying legislation designed to help the poorest in society plus it's skating close to messing with the tenth amendment. Having said that, there have been some interesting interpretations, the most recent being that woman who got fucked over for growing pot for personal use in California.
Sure, this is the same supreme court which upheld CU vs the FEC, but you kind of expect that from fuckheads: that's indirect fucking of the poor. This would be a direct raping.
I don't think they'll gun it down, but I can't be sure. If they do, it'll be a politicized decision from the bench which directly and harmfully affects the electorate, and that is not where this country wants to be.
Worst case: Uncle Clarence doesn't recuse himself, votes to overthrow the healthcare act, and gets away with it.
Best case: He tries that shit, and voters go ape-shit. America gets occupied.
They couldn't beat Kansas…well, in basketball. Probably could beat Kansas in Football, but not Basketball.
A modest correction: The Supreme Court will not overturn the law and Scalia will vote to uphold it. I am prepared to pay the bar bill for a Wonkette staff party if that is wrong and the party lasts less than 5 minutes and there is one bartender and he has one arm.
Too late – Dr. Richard Kimball finally caught the one-armed bartender.
Hey here's an idea. Maybe during the strategy meetings at DOJ, who will argue before the court too, last I heard, someone might want to walk across the hall and ask Uncle Eric if he thinks all this sounds kosher.
Eric Holder. Oh, that one big fail of a technocrat-authoritarian-wimp?
Him stand up to those upright Judges?
Nothing will be done. I would bet on that. Holder should have been fired.
money money money, its a rich man's world…
Dear NATO,
It would be pretty groovy if you all could maybe come bring some democracy this way. Thanks!
Warren, Douglas and Marshall go out. Scalia, Thomas and Roberts go in. Who can explain it. Who.
How do I even laugh at this? I have a cousin in the Czech Republic who wants me to move there to help with his tool & die business and I keep telling him no but I'm starting to think I'm an idiot for sticking around. Hmmmm…. Prague or Detroit? Why am I still here?
Prague is a great city and that's quite an opportunity. Not easy moving from the US to the EU, but if he can sponsor you, give it a go. What's the worst that could happen? Oh, you don't like it and come back.
Czechs are often nuts and great fun.
If Scalia and Thomas recuse themselves from every case they have a conflict of interest in they might as well just stay home.
Not only do the emperors not have any clothes, but they are grossly flaunting it by trying to poke you with their joy-boners, the dirty, old men.
Time was, a Papist like Tony wouldn't have had even a chance to step off the boat.
From the LA Times:
In fact, justices are exempt from the Code of Conduct that governs the actions of lower federal judges.
If they were, they arguably fell under code’s Canon 4C, which states, “A judge may attend fund-raising events of law-related and other organizations although the judge may not be a speaker, a guest of honor, or featured on the program of such an event.“
Scalia and Thomas: "Codes of Conduct are for little people."
Jerks.
From what I can see Thomas recuses himself from almost all cases (and Scalia for some reason has two votes).
And then Thomas put his hand on Scalia's leg and reached into his lap fat for his genitals,and with the other hand he grabbed his head and pulled it towards his clarence and said,"You do want this job, don't you?"
Way back there in
SeminaryLaw School, they said: "You can Petition the Court with Prayers, Petition the Court with Prayers, Petition the Court with Prayers … " Forget it. We're fucked.The number of justices needs to be increased for two reasons. The current number of justices is too small to handle the volume of work, most of which is done now by shoveling the heavy lifting work to the "law clerks". Also, the number of justices is too few, given the growth of the country. There should be at least 4 more justices. At the same time, Congress should establish strict conflict rules for recusing justices. With that, no one justice could have as much dictatorial power for life as Scroogelia has now.
Here's hoping Scalia had lots of drawn butter, dinner rolls, baked potato with loads of cheese and sour cream and three desserts….Just sayin.
(Adjusts monocle) Eh? What's that you say?
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