March 3, 2009

Justice Scalia on campaign contributions

Here is U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia responding to Atty. Theodore Olson this morning, during Mr. Olson's argument that a campaign contribution — in this case, a $3m contribution — implies the return of some "gratitude" from the recipient to the donor:
That person contributed money to my election because he expected me to be a fair and impartial judge. And I would be faithful to that contributor only by being a fair and impartial judge. That is showing gratitude. I should do what he expected me to do, and I have no reason to think he expected me to lie and distort cases in order to come out his way. What I expected he wanted me to do was to be a good judge, and I'm being faithful to him and I'm — I'm showing my gratitude by — by being a good judge.
Huh. Isn't that exactly what William Cannon said?

Since Justice Scalia is something of a role model for Judge Randy Koschnick, I wonder what the latter's response to the former's remarks might be, as Judge Koschnick has repeatedly suggested that Mr. Cannon's campaign contribution to Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson was somehow improper.

"Shocking" is one of the terms he parades around his website.

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