Powerline has worked itself into a bit of a froth this morning, on the above topic.

Well… if we are going to read the canons of judicial ethics to go beyond public speaking, and apply to simple interviews — as the canons as written really target only public speeches, and campaigning — that is, endorsing or opposing — then we should probably all point to these Antonin Scalia remarks — at a public speaking engagement at Georgetown Law School — a few years ago:

…Being at the heart of controversy is familiar territory for the outspoken jurist. Last month, Scalia drew criticism for remarks to a group of Georgetown University law students in which he suggested the push to protect certain minority groups under the Constitution could just as easily apply to child molesters.

“It’s up to me to decide deserving minorities?” Scalia asked. “What about pederasts? What about child abusers? So should I on the Supreme Court (say) this is a deserving minority? Nobody loves them….”

“In addition, Former Justice Antonin Scalia, who died this year, was often the target of demands for apologies for his acerbic comments from the bench or in speeches….

They generally did not materialize, though the justice did apologize to reporters in 2004 after a deputy federal marshal ordered them to destroy recordings of a half-hour speech by Justice Scalia at a Mississippi high school….” — NYT reporting.

Destroying records — belonging to the press — of a sitting Supreme Court Justice’s own public speech remarks?

Well…

It strikes me that this sort of very public speaking (against an entire class of protected persons, under the Fourteenth Amendment — and by that I mean people of color) is more demeaning of the Court’s role in our system of ordered liberty than Justice Ginsburg voicing her grave reservations — in the context of an interview for a book about her life — over a politician (she is free to voice her views of politicians, after all — as was Justice Scalia) — and the salient fact that Mr. Trump refuses to disclose his tax returns.

Update — 07.14.16: The Justice has expressed regret for her remarks, saying they were intemperate and ill-advised. That should be plenty enough to end this. Not that Mr. Trump is likely to let it die.

But I guess the far right sees it the other way. Okay. Trump will lose in a landslide, and it will ultimately be of no moment. Namaste.