[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 55 (Tuesday, April 27, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H2383]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   NO RESPONSE FROM JUSTICE GINSBURG

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, last month a dozen of my colleagues and I 
sent a letter to a Supreme Court Justice. In the letter we questioned 
her ties to the NOW Legal Defense Fund. She speaks regularly to the 
group. There is a lecture series named after her, and she has served on 
its board in the past; but she continues to hear cases argued before 
her in which the NOW Legal Defense Fund, which is now called Legal 
Momentum, files briefs.
  In January, she gave opening remarks for the fourth installment of 
her lecture series. Two weeks earlier, she took the legal defense's 
side in a medical screening case.
  Federal law requires recusal when a judge's outside legal activities, 
``cast reasonable doubt on the capacity to decide impartially any issue 
that may come before them.'' This Justice has official ties to a group 
that participates in cases before the Court. That sounds like 
reasonable doubt to me. But this Justice has yet to respond to an 
official inquiry from Members of a co-equal branch of government. 
Professional courtesy warrants at least an acknowledgement that she 
received the letter, but not even that.
  Justice Ginsburg should acknowledge our concerns and recuse herself 
from cases involving any group with which she has official ties.

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