Would Hillary Park Bill in the Supreme Court?
When speculation turns to U.S. Supreme Court nominees, appellate judges usually lead the list. But for some reason, that’s not the case when experts discuss Hillary Clinton’s possible picks.
In September, political pundits were discussing the possibility that Clinton would nominate former law professor Barack Obama to the high court. But now speculation is centering on another former law professor—Bill Clinton.
Pepperdine University law professor Douglas Kmiec raised the Bill Clinton possibility in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed (sub. req.). Never mind that Clinton had his law license suspended or that he could be ruling on questions involving his wife.
“A seat on the Supreme Court solves Sen. Clinton’s dilemma of what to do with her husband if she becomes president,” Kmiec writes. “It keeps Bill formally out of the White House and structurally out of the executive branch.”
Legal Times e-mailed Kmiec to ask if a Justice William Jefferson Clinton would have to recuse himself in cases involving a policy or law that he or his wife had initiated or signed. Probably not, Kmiec responded.
Kmiec points to Justice Antonin Scalia’s refusal to recuse himself from a case involving Vice President Dick Cheney, even though they had gone duck hunting together.
Friendship is a ground for recusal only if the friend’s personal fortune or personal freedom is at stake, Scalia wrote, but not where an official action is at issue.
