Impartial Justices?

Rachel Maddow last night talked about this LA Times report, Scalia and Thomas dine with healthcare law challengers as court takes case. "The day the Supreme Court gathered behind closed doors to consider the politically divisive question of whether it would hear a challenge to President Obama’s healthcare law, two of its justices, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, were feted at a dinner sponsored by the law firm that will argue the case before the high court."

SCOTUSblog's Wednesday round-up lists several similar reports:

"Several commentators also weighed in on the subject of whether some of the Justices should recuse themselves, including John Hudson of the Atlantic Wire and David Jackson at the USA Today blog The Oval, who writes that “[c]onservative groups are calling for Justice Elana Kagan to recuse herself because she worked for the Obama administration during the crafting of the . . . bill,” while “[l]iberal groups . . . have called for Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself because his  wife has worked for the Tea Party organizations that are seeking repeal of the health care law.”  Echoing the latter sentiment, at the Huffington Post Reverend Al Sharpton calls for the recusal of Justices Scalia and Thomas as a result of their ties to conservative lobbying groups and fundraisers.  Rick Ungar also addresses this topic at Forbes, as does George Zornick at The Nation (via NPR)."

The sad thing is, I have no doubts about how Scalia and Thomas will rule so I'm not sure it matters. I also have no doubts about how Breyer or Ginsburg will rule, so it balances out. The others I have some doubts about but in general, it comes down to Kennedy and I'm not sure about him at all. The fact is, it's hard to imagine qualified people who haven't formed an opinion on it yet. I do trust the justices to look at the facts and rule and I just think their biases will push them to rule in an expected way. Still, being honored at a dinner paid for by a firm that will argue the case you just took earlier that day, does seem a bit over the line.