The Left Cheek Ass Clown for July, 2016

It hardly seems right that it's only the 15th of the month, and we're ready to announce the

Left Cheek Ass Clown for July, 2015

July is one of those months with five Fridays, and they fall such that we will have not two, but three Ass Clown awards. Lucky for us there's no shortage of worthy candidates. And so it is that with the usual flatulent blare of trumpets, we announce our Left Cheek Ass Clown for the month - 

Associate Supreme Court Justice
Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Judges at every level - like the rest of us - have their own political beliefs and ideas, but judges in general, and Supreme Court justices in particular, have a duty to subordinate their personal beliefs and prejudices to the impartial administration of the law. During the past week, Justice Ginsberg engaged in an unnecessary and unprofessional war of words with presumptive GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, in which she has cast very specific doubts on his ability to govern and his fitness to serve as president. These doubts are not original to Justice Ginsberg, are not news, and are matters of concern to every thinking American. But a Supreme Court justice may at some time be required to rule on the actions or policies of the president, and the sort of remarks made by Justice Ginsberg about Mr Trump cast her ability to be an impartial arbiter of such cases into doubt. 

It's bad enough to have an insult-hurling buffoon like Donald Trump as a candidate for president. It's worse when a distinguished jurist makes unnecessary comments that call her judicial impartiality into question. As a highly critical editorial in Wednesday's Washington Post said,

"However valid her comments may have been, though, and however in keeping with her known political bent, they were still much, much better left unsaid by a member of the Supreme Court. There’s a good reason the Code of Conduct for United States Judges flatly states that a “judge should not . . . publicly endorse or oppose a candidate for public office.” Politicization, real or perceived, undermines public faith in the impartiality of the courts. No doubt this restriction requires judges, and justices, to muzzle themselves and, to a certain extent, to pretend they either do or do not think various things that they obviously do or do not believe. As the saying goes, however, “'hypocrisy is the compliment vice pays to virtue.'”

For her injudicious and unprofessional comments about Donald Trump, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is named our Left Cheek Ass Clown for July, 2016.

Have a good day. See you tomorrow for Cartoon Saturday ... you know you need it.

More thoughts then.

Bilbo

Afterword: I wrote the original draft of this post on Wednesday, July 13th. On Thursday, July 14th, Justice Ginsburg apologized for her remarks, saying: "On reflection, my recent remarks in response to press inquiries were ill-advised and I regret making them. Judges should avoid commenting on a candidate for public office. In the future I will be more circumspect." I give her credit for the apology, but still believe she should have known better. The award stands.