Justices Increasingly Speak Out, But Are More Restrained Before Confirmation
U.S. Supreme Court nominees often decline to answer questions during confirmation hearings on the ground that the matter may come before them, but they are increasingly speaking out after confirmation.
The Washington Post noted the trend. “At odds with the justices’ cloistered image, the current members of the court mix it up with each other, take positions on current political issues or even—and this one did get some attention—talk back to the president,” the story says.
The justice who “talked back,” according to the Post, was Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. He told law students in March that he was troubled by the image created during President Obama’s State of the Union speech, when the president criticized a recent Supreme Court decision. Congress is “cheering and hollering” while protocol requires the justices “sit there expressionless,” Roberts said.
Justice Clarence Thomas has also said <a href=”http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/catcalls_and_muttering_keep_justice_thomas_away_from_state_of_the_union/” title=”he dislikes the “hooping and hollering””>he dislikes the “hooping and hollering” at the State of the Union address, and that’s why he doesn’t attend. Thomas doesn’t speak during oral arguments, but he “is far more outgoing when he hits the road,” the Post says. Recently he told Florida law students he likes hanging out “at their joints, with dead animals on the wall, and old tags and food I can’t eat.”
The story included other comments by the justices, including:
• Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has said she opposes judicial elections financed with campaign contributions. She also once criticized some of her colleagues for possibly failing to understand the trauma of a girl whose strip search case was pending before the court.
• Justice Anthony M. Kennedy has criticized repeat offender laws.
• Justice Antonin Scalia has endorsed the idea of keeping God in “the public forum and political life.”
