When Roberts publicly stated that he trusts the justices to know when to recuse themselves - not long after Sotomayor and Kagan refused to recuse themselves from the Hollister conference where their own positions were at stake - I knew that Roberts’ integrity is severely compromised.
The only situation I can think of that would be a greater conflict of interest than that is if a judge was accused of murder and refused to recuse herself from the decision of whether the case should go to trial. If a chief justice publicly affirmed his trust for a judge who did that, everybody would know something was very badly wrong.
And that statement coming out within the context of the Obamacare case suggested to me that Roberts isn’t just compromised on Obama’s eligibility either, but on whatever Obama’s handlers want SCOTUS to rule on.
I think Orly’s intentions are good but she’s spread herself out too thin and has botched things up as a result. She’s been fighting so hard for so long. That wears a person down. After a while I think maybe a person succombs to the seductive belief that the end justifies the means so that compromises the integrity.
Roberts was compromised from the first moment he let Obama into his chambers with other justices (Photo is on FR) and let Obama be the apparent chair of the gathering. I believe, but could be wrong, that this cozy ‘one-with all’ get together was before the election and there were some court actions against Obama’s eligibility. Justices top down have much to explain as to oath to defend the Constitution when the dust settles from this debacle.