Ethics

Sam Stein's article at the Huffington Post is titled, "Justices Scalia and Thomas's Attendance at Koch Event Sparks Judicial Ethics Debate."  Quoted are Steve Lubet and Steve Gillers.  I'm making this post not because I see any ethics violation so far, but rather because it appears that the story will be pushed hard in certain quarters (much as the New Black Panthers case was from other quarters).  The NYT has been running quite a few stories along these lines and I wonder if they don't believe that they have a hot issue here.  We'll see.  I do agree that, as Steve Gillers suggests, the story warrants further investigation.  The New York Times story that prompted Stein's post is here.

In a related vein, here's an earlier post I made when a high-ranking FTC official declined to recuse herself, even though her husband was a non-equity partner at a firm appearing on a matter before the official.  My sense was that her decision was the correct one.

UPDATE: This may be the "cash out" for people pushing these themes: an argument that Justice Thomas needs to recuse himself on any case involving the health care reforms.