The Fall of the American Umpire

“Everyone assumes that nothing can be done about the recusal situation because the highest court in the land has the lowest ethical standards — no binding ethics code or process outside of personal reflection. Each justice decides for him- or herself whether he or she can be impartial.” So is there any way to hold Justices to account when, say, they obviously should recuse themselves from a case but instead offer the shrug emoji and just keep on keeping on? In a very interesting analysis, Jamie Raskin argues there is a way. NYT (Gift Article): How to Force Justices Alito and Thomas to Recuse Themselves in the Jan. 6 Cases. “Professional baseball would never allow an umpire to continue to officiate the World Series after learning that the pennant of one of the two teams competing was flying in the front yard of the umpire’s home. Nor would an umpire be allowed to call balls and strikes in a World Series game after the umpire’s wife tried to get the official score of a prior game in the series overthrown and canceled out to benefit the losing team. If judges are like umpires, then they should be treated like umpires, not team owners, team fans or players.” On the other hand, when umpires don’t like your suggestions, they can throw you out of the game.