I’m no attorney, but my pretty good common sense would lead me to believe that the decisions regarding whether Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas should recuse themselves from the presidential immunity case before them would depend entirely on what kind of relationship each justice has with his wife.
Let’s face it — how a wife thinks and believes can be pretty strong motivation as to how the husband will think and believe — and vice versa.
Let’s listen for a minute to the talk over the dinner table (or pillow talk — unless the justices are sleeping in their own rooms). The wife begins to ardently express her views on how she thinks ex-president Trump is being subjected to a political witch hunt, that Judge Merchan is a corrupt judge, that …
The justice sitting across the table holds up his hand and says, “Stop, stop! You know that I can’t discuss this with you because I have to retain my objectivity when these cases come before us!”
Are you kidding? Do you gullibly believe that the conversation will stop at that and not go on when cleaning up the kitchen, when walking around the neighborhood, when traveling together in the car?
Using our good old common sense we, the public, know that there is no way those conversations between husband and wife have not taken place. And still we are left at the mercy of Chief Justice Roberts — that the court can be a court of impartiality without preconceived and biased notions playing into the court’s final, crucial decisions.
And do you really believe that Justice Alito didn’t know his wife was flying those flags?
Nonsense! Common sense?
Karen R. Post, Salt Lake City
