The dishonest, ginned–up campaign to smear originalists on the Supreme Court has always been predicated on half-truths and innuendo. But Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern is now accusing Samuel Alito of “violating” completely imaginary SCOTUS ethic “rules” in a case involving Phillips 66. …

As usual, it’s all just Calvinball. For instance, while Alito’s recusal over a disclosed stock is a big ethical problem, Sonia Sotomayor failing to recuse herself from multiple cases involving a publisher who paid her over $3 million while she was on the court is just fine.

For the record, justices shouldn’t be compelled to automatically bow out of cases involving companies or industries they’ve dealt with unless there is a genuine and clear conflict of interest. None of these attacks have ever produced a single case in which an originalist justice has strayed from their beliefs to help a company, person, or industry, much less themselves. Then again, the ugly irony of the Democrat’s attacks is that their anger is fueled by the principled judicial philosophy of certain justices.

[Damned if you do and damned if you don’t? ‘Stupid’ is one word for it; another would be ‘intellectually dishonest,’, or just flat-out malicious. — Ed]