LogFAQs > #973404622

BeerOnTap posted...

So its okay for a judge to not recuse herself from a case in which she received millions of dollars from one of the involved parties?

Provided those earnings are disclosed and neither the plaintiff nor defendant is concerned that they might present a conflict of interests? Sure. If everybody knows what's going on and nobody involved has a problem with it, there is no problem. If those earnings aren't disclosed or an involved party is concerned that it might bias the judgement, then that's reason to call the verdict into question.

In the case of Thomas (and other, more analogous cases), however, the bribes he has taken present a conflict of interest for every single case over which he presides for which those who bribed him have a preference as to the outcome. One must question whether he voted to overturn Roe v. Wade because of his personal interpretation of the law or because people who bribed him wanted it overturned. Because he has accepted bribes, one must ask that question for every single decision Thomas weighs in on moving forward, which completely undermines his professional integrity.

Conflicts of interest are bad, certainly, but when it's something like "I've worked for these people in the past" or "I'm related to this person," their potential harms can usually be pretty easily identified and the scope tends to be limited to the issue at hand (making them fairly easy to correct and/or accept if those identified harms aren't significant enough to constitute a problem). When somebody accepts a bribe, however, the extent of the conflict of interest that creates becomes pretty much impossible to determine, especially when the details of the bribe are not disclosed. By accepting the bribe, every single decision that person makes in the future has the potential to be compromised by the bribe, and there's no real way for anyone else to figure out when that is and is not the case. Any semblance of professional integrity and accountability goes out the window when a bribe is accepted.

That's mostly what it comes down to: Accountability. Conflicts of interest for which those involved can be held accountable are okay, because that means there's an opportunity to prevent or mitigate any harms it might cause. Conflicts of interest for which it's impossible to hold the conflicted party accountable, however, can cause all sorts of problems purely for the personal gain of the conflicted party. That's bad.