Top Reagan DOJ official slams Scalia for ‘secretly’ meeting tea party members

By Sahil Kapur
Monday, February 14, 2011 9:50 EDT
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WASHINGTON – A top Justice Department official under President Ronald Reagan tore into Justice Antonin Scalia for holding a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill with tea partyers.

“Justice Antonin Scalia galloped beyond the farthest boundaries of judicial propriety in secretly meeting on Capitol Hill to discuss the Constitution with Tea Party members of Congress saddled with a co-equal duty to assess the constitutionality of legislative action,” Bruce Fein, Reagan’s associate deputy attorney general, wrote in a published letter to the New York Times.

“If there are better ways to destroy public confidence in judicial impartiality, they do not readily come to mind.”

Scalia last week attended a private gathering with on Capitol Hill, ostensibly to discuss the Constitution, with a group of tea party lawmakers led by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), the leader of the House Tea Party Caucus.

Fein wrote that “[n]o justice has ever testified on the constitutionality of bills before Congress,” and noted that former Justice Abe Fortas was forced to resign for privately advising President Lyndon Johnson.

“[J]ustices must be above suspicion,” he added.

Scalia, 74, was nominated to the bench by Reagan in 1986, as has reliably voted on the conservative side of issues during his tenure.

His actions only fueled criticisms that members of the Supreme Court are evolving into partisan entities, more openly expressing political preferences and losing their stature as neutral arbiters of the Constitution.

Another recent target of the same misgivings has been conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, whose wife Ginni Thomas came under fire for openly cozying up with the tea party movement and involving herself with activism on its behalf.

 
 
 
 
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  • Anonymous

    The supreme court of “Unjustice” is the more powerful than the president. After all, they picked one.

    thomas should be impeached. No if ands or butts.

  • Anonymous

    The gift that keeps on giving. Didn’t he play a game of golf with daddy B, before GWB was back-handed the election?

  • ProgressiveInNewYork

    and of course Thomas ‘forgot’ to declare YEARS of income for his wife from conservative organizations.

  • Anonymous

    Sounds like time for a little pheasant hunting with Dick.

  • Anonymous

    Good one tc… Although I don’t advocate violence even against those that might be deserving.

  • Anonymous

    I notice no such charges of impropriety or lying during confirmation hearing being leveled at Clinton or Obama appointees, but maybe they are too nerdy to be so in-your-face with their leanings. Give me nerdy any time.

  • CozmicSeer

    One of the main architects of America’s subversion to corporations and loss of rights. This man not only does not deserve to be a Supreme Justice but he also doesn’t deserve to be called an American. Anyone with so much contempt for the Constitution and we the people should be given a one-way ticket to a foreign country. And told we don’t want your kind around here. Ever again.

  • LeftCoastLeftie

    It is anticipated that “Justice” Thomas will not testify on his own behalf, since that would involve speaking out loud. However, his wife Ginni IS expected to drunk dial the court in support . She also announced she has been hired as a spokesperson for Oreo cookies., What, too much?

  • LeftCoastLeftie

    It wasn’t even a million bucks! “Some people say” Uncle Thomas has taken much larger payoffs than that.

  • Anonymous

    I remember when criminals had at least a modicum of class. Scalia and Thomas are pigs and whores, and beneath contempt.

  • Anonymous

    I can’t understand why there is no coverage of Thomas saying his wife made no money over the past five years. She made over $600,000…yet he checked the no income box on his annual (and required by law) judicial reports.

  • Anonymous

    Impeach the bastards or live with it, it’s that simple. Since the SCOTUS wants to be political, let’s see some legislative candidates with impeachment as one of his/her platform planks.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_6VIII2XPU4HUPLANTLEJGSYN7A jARED

    Thanks for the outrage but everyone rational in the US has known the Supreme Court is compromised and only answers to money for decades. We watched a former President buy his son the Office among other things. Everyone that isn’t criminally insane with greed is embarrassed by it, but we have no say in it. And we can’t afford to buy them off. So it continues and the rest of the world laughs at our false pretenses of social and legal justice and patriotism.

  • Anonymous

    Will he walk around his neighborhood, mumbling, wearing his robe after he gets impeached?

  • Anonymous

    Oh, and that thang about Justice Thomas not reporting his wife’s lobbying income. What a corrupt bunch we have at the top, including SCOTUS.

  • Anonymous

    Its hard to decide which justice is most despicable,Thomas or Scalia. Both should be impeached. Today if not sooner.

  • LeftCoastLeftie

    Coz — while I wholeheartedly agreed with your sentiments about this WPOS, can we come up with a different name than “architect” for people like this? I happen to be one, and some of my best friends are architects too. And most of them would agree that Uncle Thomas should be impeached and have his pants pulled down in front of the public. Maybe the CEO of America’s subversion to corporations? Like Michelle “Crazy Eyes” Bachmann is the CEO of the Teabaggers in Congress, or Paul Wolfowitz (what ever happened to THAT asshole?) is the CEO of greasy war mongers? Anyway, I know what you meant and the sooner Clarence becomes the “former Justice”, the better for the country. Let Ginni put up with him around the house all day. Since once he’s gone, there goes her source of income too. Then she’ll just be a bloated, white, obnoxious broad with a funny hat.

  • Anonymous

    ELIMINATE ALL APPELLATE JURISDICTION OF THE SUPREME COURT!

  • Anonymous

    In a just country he would be, but in America, where everyone in any official capacity is given immunity from prosecution for just about any crime they might commit Thomas has nothing to worry about, if he has the intellectual capacity to actually worry that is.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_2NPRPRYZC3RF424Y4G4NKPY3FM Anya O

    He needs to be impeached. I can’t believe he hasn’t already. What the EFF is going on with our government when they see nothing wrong with this. If this was a liberal(ish) judge, he or she would have had his or her ass handed to them already. They would be torn apart in the media and by conservative talking-heads, and rightly so (for a change). I’m furious that our judicial branch has been utterly tainted by this man.

  • shinyorbs

    this fat fucker is going to make sure a teabagger gets in the white house….will anyone hold these bastards accountable?

  • RottenJohnny

    Both him and Thomas are suspect as to their ability to follow the constitution. If one wants to start with activist judges, those two are at the top of the list. Scalia waxes close with Bachmann, one of the most far right people on the planet, and Thomas ain’t said a word in five years on the bench? And those two have a say in the laws of the land? In this case, you can fix stupid: fire em both.

  • eve

    What is wrong with the American people that we don’t give more voice to the actions of these so called Suprrrrremes???? If the Tea Party peole are so involved in the consituiton, where is their voice?? I believe it’s because there really are not a grass movement, but rather led by the Kock brothers. Time we marched to DC and let the Court know we the people are on to them…..

  • Johnny Warbucks

    The news here should be that there are still people from the Reagan administration alive and out of a nursing home.

  • Anonymous

    Egypt…?

  • Anonymous

    NYT: No Argument: Thomas Keeps 5-Year Silence – Another error on a headline…

    Should probably read:

    No Argument: Thomas Keeps 5-Year Silence On Wife’s Income Tax Declarations

  • Anonymous

    The supremes who voted to put W into office sold their souls then and there. That was the day when our Supreme Court lost all credibility. What we see now was put into place then. Our country is rotting from within. I never thought we would see it with the Supreme Court.

  • Anonymous

    Closed door meetings with legislators, consorting with secret organizations(Opus Dei). Attacks on atheists, Muslims. Christian proseltyzing in the military. De facto religious test for politicians. False historical claims of Christian founding. Denial of science.(Climate change is affected by human activity, GM crops may be destroying bee colonies) Anyone who can’t see a disturbing pattern here is blind or part of it. The new Holy Roman Empire is upon us. The formal inquisition will commence soon. The filling of detention camps and genocide soon after.

    We are almost out of time folks. We have to strip the corporations of personhood and restore free and open human to human dialog. Support the Vermont ammendment to deny corporate personhood. Support a second ammendment that prohibits anyone except elected officials and sworn witnesses testifying publicly from being in Congress when it is in session.

  • H.P. Loathecraft

    Probably, but he’ll be commando underneath. Long Dong loves the way that black linen feels next to his skin. Or so he tells the ladies.

  • H.P. Loathecraft

    It is, though I view openly fascist Scalia as the more dangerous one.

  • Anonymous

    Let me get this straight: You don’t understand that Thomy (as I like to call him) is a corporate right-wing token N-word (please excuse my French any respectful African Americans reading this) -or a “sellout” – who is well protected by the MSM?

    Like a slave who would voluntarily whip the other slaves in return for privileged treatment – wasn’t there a name for those types?

    He probably ain’t “allowed” to talk on the bench… But on the other hand, he’s probably the one who comes up with most of the “good” ideas behind the scenes – you gotta be pretty evil to be in such a position.

    Him and Scalia should start their own “Justice Department” and see how many peeps come to their “court” for “justice”.

    I bet that would be one empty room, lol…

  • AnzaSummer

    Actually, Scallia and Cheney DO duck hunt together.

  • Anonymous

    Thomas AND Scalia……

  • Anonymous

    I never thought I would see the day when the US Supreme Court became the enemy of freedom, democracy and the American people. Sad. Sad and troubling.

  • Anonymous

    Grounds to impeach the porcine sonofabitch?

  • Anonymous

    Better to be silent and thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.

  • Guest

    And the other two righties on the Supreme Court.

  • Anonymous

    I don’t normally don’t respond to articles such as this,but here goes,NOBODY IN THIS COUNTRY GIVES A SHIT,that’s why we are in the shape we are in.The democrats don’t give a shit,the republicans certainly don’t give a shit,and the teapartiers don’t even know what shit looks like.Who cares!!!!!

  • Ron1127

    If this was a (comparatively) liberal SCOTUS judge going to say… a Move On; or an ACLU meeting; or a Planned Parenthood fundraser – the rethugs would be SCREAMING BLOODY MURDER. Fucking hypocrites.

    The worst presidents stacked the court with corporate numbskulls.

  • Anonymous

    Scalia has the propensity to serve the fascist element in America,and Thomas is just too stupid to have the propensity for anything.

  • shinyorbs

    psst Raw, your lay out S U C K S

  • shinyorbs

    lol I think we need to go Egypt on these bastards….and is that you on the Fender there? =)

  • Anonymous

    As far as impeachment procedures against Scalia and Thomas,we have a better chance of seeing Daffy Duck laying Bugs Bunny.The republican hoodlums control the House of Representatives,and that is the body of congress that serves up the indictments.I wouldn’t piss down either of their throats if their guts were on fire!!!

  • Anonymous

    Going Egypt looks like the only way out for this so called democracy.Look to the north(Canada) they not only know how to spell democracy,they also know how to apply it.

  • Anonymous

    Didn’t he already get one teabagger in…? His son, Randy?

  • Anonymous

    What you talkin’ ’bout…?

  • Anonymous

    That be me… What you be smokin’ Hilly?

  • Anonymous

    Thomas’ 5-year silence. He is a fool.

  • Gert B Frobe

    I really do not like the new look of RAW

  • Anonymous

    This man, Alito, Roberts, Thomas. And loads of other very far right activist judges appointed by Reagan, Daddy and Little Dumbya. The fed judiciary has been deeply infected with far right scumbags. These chumps will be there for their life terms, do not expect a rightful impeachment.

  • Anonymous

    Right you are ron… and the MSM would be rantin’ and ravin’ right along with ‘em.

  • Anonymous

    It looks a bit more “corporate” wouldn’t you say? Maybe they want to attract the more “serious” peeps from the upper class ‘hoods…

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_SYSO4QKTV4W5DVINPB3RWGLJB4 GregJ

    “If there are better ways to destroy public confidence in judicial impartiality, they do not readily come to mind.”

    Is there any public confidence in judicial impartiality after Citizens United?

  • Gert B Frobe

    Well that lets me out

  • Anonymous

    power corrupts. absolute power corrupts absolutely.

  • alfredo

    Yes! And, he went duck hunting with Cheney. Afterward Scalia said they didn’t discuss the pending lawsuit against Cheney about his secret meeting with Oil Tycoons, members of his Energy Task Force, at the White House. Apparently no shots were fired either.

  • alfredo

    Also Scalia’s son worked for Ted Olson at the time of the back-handing.

  • Dr. Jung Freud

    This is not isolated behavior, Scalia has long advocated an “originalist” more limited view of federal power but recently he has shown he extends those limits to include carving out a huge ethics free zone for himself and Uncle Tom, I mean Justice Thomas.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3QIJ4LGZX6PZOJSD57QIC3NRAA Straw

    “Justice Antonin Scalia galloped beyond the farthest boundaries of judicial propriety in secretly meeting on Capitol Hill to discuss the Constitution with Tea Party members of Congress saddled with a co-equal duty to assess the constitutionality of legislative action,” Bruce Fein, Reagan’s associate deputy attorney general, wrote in a published letter to the New York Times.

    It’s funny that Prog only pay attention to former Reagan officials when engaging in political hacking.

    Fein’s statement is a flat out lie, as the meeting was open to any lawmaker that wanted to attend. As was reported, there were Democrats present.

    http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/48096.html

    Justice Antonin Scalia steered cleared of hot-button legislation during his closed-door talk hosted by the Tea Party caucus on Capitol Hill Monday night that attracted 50 members of Congress, including three Democrats.

    I’m pleased Democrats were there because that is a check on the Progosphere making up stories with tales from “unnamed sources” about the outlandish things Scalia was supposed to have said.

    Instead, we’re treated to piss poor “reporting” that tries to make an irrelevant person who doesn’t even know what happened sound like an expert because he was a “Top Reagan Officials.”

  • Anonymous

    which duo gets more laughs………..
    Penn and Teller or Big Tony and Clarence?

    Was that a burning cross we see behind the tea-bags?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_FONW6K3ZWV4BU4ZTCDCSZHHH6E Mick Jagger

    So impeach the slimeball. Our representatives are suck-ups and emasculated fakes for not going after them. The corporate press is just another sold out bought and paid for servant for the wealthy…it is their fault we are where we are at for not questioning authority. They are to blame for not being the estate of democracy they were designed for. Only internet press counts now.

  • Anonymous

    Why is there a photo of Benito Mussolini on top of the article on Antonin Scalia?

  • Anonymous

    Scalia, thomas and alito should all go. What was it that the republicans were complaining about during the confirmation of the last two supreme court nominees? Oh ya, ACTIVIST JUDGES! More projecting by the republicans. I guess activist judges are ok if they are republican!!!!

  • hegesias

    Quaint

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/KHUGSYMRDZ635QMFO5P6UA5MTM nunya

    Scalia the Hutt is looking more and more like his cousin Jabba.

  • Anonymous

    Here is another article – and this one from an author that knows better – that mentions the “tea party movement”, but fails to define who moves it.

    This corporate backed, “movement”, sponsored initially by Koch Industries, herds the unwitting “tea partier” as unpaid prop, in the quest for more corporate profits and absolute destruction of any remaining remnant of the voice of “the people” in government.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_VJW7LAESRWBGKDLTZHT7NFEUMY Abigail

    Scalia is a dedicated right-wing ideologue, where Thomas is merely a corrupt dckhead.

  • Anonymous

    I always thought Jabba and Kissenger were dead ringers, but I have to admit That Big Tony looks to be from the same DNA.

  • Anonymous

    Interesting that Raw seems to subtly promote the Palins, Pauls, and other Tea Party hot heads… Hummmm… Are there any REAL left media out there at all? All seem to have a hidden agenda. The right spin is winning. What a shame.

  • Anonymous

    Welcome to the new corporate look, complete with revolving video stories that flash headlies too quickly for you to think, part of the dumbing down process I’d say.