when paying their taxes, and conservative judges even more so! Guess I was wrong!!!

OK guys! I was just kidding about conservatives, but but not about judges, especially Supreme Court judges.

But they can be said to be honest relative to someone else.  In the context of politics you can say Conservatives are and still be honest yourself.  But in any other context, you would be a lying.

What always amazes me, and this goes to GOP, Dems, Libertarian, lawyers, doctors, and every other group that I know, is how stupid people can be.

I am not talking Blago, which is just corruption.  I am talking when there is no gain and people just screw up for no reason or gain.

Public officials do not have to pay extra when they declare it on forms, so there is no cost.

The Supreme Court rules of disqualification are very different from other courts, so a justice hardly ever has to recuse himself.  (On a normal appellate court, if a judge (or justice in state court) recuses himself, he can be replaced by another sitting judge.  The U.S. Supreme Court cannot replace a recused justice, so there is the danger of a 4/4 split, or shifting national policy not on the merits of an issue, but because of a lack of one justice.  As a result, things that would normally recuse a circuit judge do not require a Supreme Court Justice to recuse himself.

THerefore, even if a relative is associated with a group that has a case before the court, a justice doesn't have to recuse himself.  (Think of all the enviornmental cases.  Out of the nine justices, there had to be people within two degrees of relationship that had an amicus brief before the court.)

(My guess, without research, is that Heritage may file amicus briefs, but rarely is a party. As I say, just a guess.)

This is a classic case of why the hell not.

I will go to my grave wondering how people can do such stupid things.

about the IRS, and failure to report and pay taxes. Re-read the article. It said failure to disclose is not a crime, but there might be a civil penalty. If he actually failed to pay taxes, then that's a crime. Maybe his wife files under married filing separately. The OP mentioned taxes without reading the article. Thomas is still not in the same category as Charles Rangel, Timothy Geithner or Wesley Snipes.

-- Modified on 1/24/2011 4:29:00 PM

on his financial disclosure form, he didn't report it on his tax form, assuming that they filed jointly, since I've always done that when I've been married.

There is some confusion as to whether he broke a law. You referenced on expert, but another say: "Federal judges are bound by law to disclose the source of spousal income, according to Stephen Gillers, a professor at NYU School of Law. Thomas' omission — which could be interpreted as a violation of that law — could lead to some form of penalty, Gillers said."

You are right about it not falling into the same category as Timothy Geithner, Charles Rangel, or Wesley Snipes, but it just left me kind of dumbfounded that he would do such a thing, when it is so obvious to many that his wife makes an income.

Perhaps he assumed, (you know what that does, lol), that if he and his wife file seperate returns, he does not have to disclose her income on his government employment form, considering he has no access by IRS law to her seperated income. You kow how the 'marriage penalty' worked in the past.

I've never seen a forclosure form, or know Thomas's filing status, just conjecture on my part, but the tax laws are such mumbo jumbo that even the people that write the laws don't have a clue. But you're right...big difference between a disclosure form, and IRS reporting.