Julius Caesar’s second wife, Pompeia, was rumored to be involved with another man. There was no proof, but Caesar divorced her anyway because, as the saying went then and now, Caesar’s wife must be beyond suspicion.
Which brings us to the matter of the health care law that will soon land in the Supreme Court for a final decision about its constitutionality. One justice on that court is Clarance Thomas. His wife, Virginia Thomas, according to a newspaper account “is rebranding herself as a lobbyist and self-appointed ‘ambassador to the Tea Party movement.'” She also appeared on a conservative website, according to this same report, promising “to use her ‘experience and connections’ to help clients…increase their political impact.”
Use her “connections” to foster the interests of groups whose main political issue these days is doing away with the new health care law? Her “connections?” Hmm.
It’s a free country. The woman has a right to her own opinions and to promote them professionally. And there’s a marital communications privilege in law that allows a spouse not to reveal confidential communications with the other party in the marriage. But there’s also rules in this country about when judges should recuse themselves from sitting on cases where there might be substantial conflicts of interests or questions of fairness.
Does having one’s wife aggressively seeking business from groups that have an undeniable and very substantial interest in the outcome of a case coming before a court where her husband sits require him to recuse himself — even if there’s no legal way to know whether she influenced the judge in making a decision in this case?
An interesting question. One that a lot of people in and out of the legal community are asking. And given how important a final decision about the health care law’s constitutionality is to the shape of the U.S. economy for decades to come, maybe something that should be answered appropriately very, very soon.
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