If both Miers and Roberts are on the SC, and a case comes up -

[FormerRepublican]

let's say Rove's indictment in the Plame leak - and they both refuse to recuse themselves from the case, can they be impeached?

What if it's Bush's indictment they have to rule on?

Who gets to impeach them?

(And why the heck have people stopped complaining that Brown was assigned the job of investigating FEMA lapses, and Bush decided to investigate his own lapses?)

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. I've wondered about this

What happens if a SC justice, who is obviously biased, refused to recuse him/herself? Could the other SC justices persuade them? What if the one that needs to be recused is the CJ?

[ThoughtCriminal]

2. Different standard for Judiciary

Not quite as strict as the Executive Branch

"The standard for impeachment among the judiciary is much broader. Article III of the Constitution states that judges remain in office "during good behavior," implying that Congress may remove a judge for bad behavior"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment#United_States

Any impeachment on this basis would easily be blocked by a Republicans in Congress, even if they lose control in 2006.

[FormerRepublican]

5. If they do that...

...then I say the new Democratic majority should revoke the lifetime appointment of Supreme Court Justices, and rule they must be voted in by the public every 2 years. (Take that, you creepy Bush slime justices!)

It seems our government has become far too comfortable with the idea of doing whatever they like without regard to how the American people feel about it.

No doubt their real ambition is to eliminate the vote altogether.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

3. In a word, No

The Bush v. Gore case that settled the 2000 Election was rife with conflict of interest. Thomas's wife worked for the Bush transition team and I believe Rhenquist's son was actually a member of the legal team that argued the case on behalf of the Bush Campaign.

The ugly truth is that they are the court of last resort and are under no obligation to recuse themselves -- Although I'm told that Sandra Day O'Conner has done so when the case involved her husband's financial interest (real estate, if I remember correctly).

[leveymg]

4. I'm in favor of the Restore Baseline Settings Option.

I'm in favor of the restore settings option. You know that feature on a computer that allows you to return all the settings and programs to where they were a day ago, or a week ago, or a year ago. That's often the easiest way to get rid of a recently-acquired virus or whatever has screwed up the programs on your computer.

Can we do the same thing with the US Government, and just restore all the laws, regulations and appointments to where they were on November 1, 2000, and take it from there? Where people have died or moved on to other things, we'll work out appointments with the other side.

Whatya think of that approach?