The 'ObamaCare' case: Should Elena Kagan and Clarence Thomas sit out?

The president's signature legislative achievement heads to the Supreme Court, and the Left and Right both accuse justices of conflicts of interest

Justice Elena Kagan and President Obama
(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

As the Supreme Court prepares to decide the fate of President Obama's health care reform law, liberal and conservative groups are complaining about bias on the nation's highest court. On the Right, critics say liberal Justice Elena Kagan should recuse herself because she was "a cheerleader for ObamaCare" in her previous job as Obama's solicitor general. On the Left, proponents of the law say conservative Justice Clarence Thomas should sit this one out because of his wife's involvement with Tea Party groups demanding the law's repeal. Should either of the justices bow out?

Kagan should sit this one out: The case for Kagan recusing herself from the "ObamaCare" case "would seem to be an open and shut one," says Rick Moran at The American Thinker. When she worked for the Obama administration, she sent an email cheering the news that Democrats had the votes to pass the Affordable Care Act, calling it "simply amazing." But unfortunately, short of a "smoking gun memo" proving that she actually helped craft the administration's legal defense of the law, I expect Kagan to participate in the case next year.

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