Can they be forced to recuse themselves? Can ethics charges be brought up if they refuse?"
A great question. Definitely uncharted territory!
I would think that the 2 would be asked to recuse themselves, if they didn't do so voluntarily. Recall, as of 10/4/10, Kagan had already recused herself from 25 of the (then) 51 cases the court had accepted up till then due to a conflict of interest type situation.
IF they were recused, that would leave a strong balance of "conservative" leaning justices of 4, the "swing" vote with Kennedy who said he wasn't leaving the bench til Barry was out of office and then 2 "lib" justices.
The nomination of the 2 justices by the usurper may ultimately turn out to work against him.
This case was filed before Obama was inaugurated. Was Kagan the person who processed the early stages of this case for the defendants?
I don’t know how she could NOT recuse herself.
If SCOTUS decides at the end of Nov to hear this case, can they stretch it out so it’s not decided until after the House is controlled by Repubs?
I just can’t get it out of my mind that Soros could have SCOTUS by the necks somehow and SCOTUS may thus refuse to ever hear a case rather than have to rule wrongly and set precedent with the decision.
Maybe public pressure could be brought to bear on Kagan and Sotomayor. Can Kerchner himself do anything to suggest that they need to recuse themselves? I was just looking at http://obamareleaseyourrecords.blogspot.com/2010/09/comments-from-cdr-kerchner-re-kagan-now.html where they’re saying there isn’t just an APPEARANCE of a conflict, there is actually a clear-cut financial and personal interest.