Arrogance Reigns Supreme on Court

Re “High Court Won’t Review Scalia’s Recusal Decision,” Jan. 27: Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist’s letters to the U.S. senators suggest what appears to be arrogance to the umpteenth degree. His suggestion that it’s “ill-considered” to question whether a justice should dismiss himself or herself in a circumstance where his or her impartiality may be questioned appears to defy reason. Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) sounds prudent in his response that lack of a discussion of the issue of whether Justice Antonin Scalia is capable of rendering an impartial legal decision concerning his friend and hunting pal, Vice President Dick Cheney, could result in, among other things, a “tainted result and a loss of public confidence in our nation’s highest court.”

The truth, I believe, is that public confidence in our highest court took the steepest decline when the high court “gave” us our president in the last election, whether or not we wanted him.

Our chief concern should be democracy here at home rather than abroad -- especially when it appears that our nation is run, undemocratically, by the Supreme Court and the administration that it appointed.

Ercell H. Hoffman

Compton

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Justice Scalia doesn’t think his impartiality could reasonably be questioned should he sit in judgment of a case involving his friend, Cheney.

It is interesting, yet sometimes frightening, to witness a person’s reaction to the attainment of power. Some are humbled by it, while others are consumed by it.

Robert Rocco

Los Angeles

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Every litigant in every court in the country should insist on a close-friend judge to hear his or her case, citing Scalia’s decision.

Hyman Goldman

Los Angeles

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I’m looking forward to reading this from Scalia’s majority opinion in the Cheney case: “While we hunt together for truth, we cannot simply duck the issue of executive privilege.”

Richard Keavney

Torrance