According to 28 USC 455, a Supreme Court justice must recuse from “any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” The law also says a justice must recuse anytime he has “expressed an opinion concerning the merits of the particular case in controversy” while he “served in governmental employment.”
Emails between Elena Kagan and Harvard Law Prof. Laurence Tribe, have finally been released per freedom of information act.
Since Clarence Thomas is back in the news, due to his wife asking for an apology from Anita Hill, I figured I would go over this story again. I was in high school when all this stuff originally went on. I didn't pay much attention to any of it. I knew sexual harassment had become quite the topic of discussion during the 90's. That was about all I knew concerning any of this.
Later on, I would slowly learn more about this issue and found it shocking that people were angry about Justice Thomas, even though there was really nothing other than a "she said, he said" allegation. It surprised me that things had even gone as far as they did.
I tend to agree with Laura, who actually worked for Thomas.
No one really knows for sure what happened here, to be fair, but Anita Hill did lie about her previous employment history. She was fired from her previous job and, during the Senate hearing, she said she was not.
According to Clarence Thomas, he hired Anita Hill at the urging of a friend because an official of the law firm at which she worked had advised her to leave.
According to Ms. Hill — both then and now — she was not "asked to leave" the law firm but was "in good standing" at the time.
This too was not just a question of "he said" and "she said." An affidavit sworn by a former partner in that law firm supported Clarence Thomas' version. That was ignored by most of the media.
It's also true that democrats had absolutely no problems with SEVERAL allegations that were made about Clinton. In his case, it wasn't just one woman making claims of sexual harassment. It's interesting that sexual allegations only matter when there is a conservative involved.
In another instance, there was already hard evidence but it too was ignored. Clarence Thomas said that Anita Hill had initiated a number of phone calls to him, over the years, after she had left the agency where they both worked. She said otherwise. But a phone log from the agency showed that he was right.
Does this mean she lied about everything? I don't know but, no other allegations have ever been made about Thomas, and there were no other witnesses to anything that Anita Hill was accusing him of doing.
I believe Justice Thomas, not just because of ideological reasons but, because I believe he's proven himself to be a great man of integrity.
AP – FILE - University of Oklahoma law professor Anita Hill is sworn in, in the Caucus Room before testifying
Virginia Thomas has reached out to Anita Hill and asked for her to apologize.
In a transcript of the message provided by ABC News, which said it listened to the recording, Thomas identified herself and then said, "I just wanted to reach across the airwaves and the years and ask you to consider something. I would love you to consider an apology sometime and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband. So give it some thought and certainly pray about this and come to understand why you did what you did. OK, have a good day," Thomas said.
When Hill heard the voicemail, she contacted Brandeis' public safety office, which in turn informed the FBI.
She contacted the FBI? Umm....why? That's a little extreme Anita, don't you think? Anita said she thought the call was "inappropriate" while, Virginia admitted to making the call saying, she was extending an olive branch.
