Randy Barnett says that the charges of impropriety in the L.A. Times story about Justice Ginsburg are “preposterous”:

Supreme Court justices are not like the Oracles in Minority Report who must be segregated from the population in general, or from people with opinions in particular, and guarded by eunuchs. They get invited to speak by groups for a variety of motives. Sometimes the groups want to hear from justices who they admire and with whom they agree. Other groups who want to hear from a justice who challenges their views. Still others just want to hear a Supreme Court justice, though in my experience they tend to be rather boring. By the same token justices get invited to dinner parties. Justices play poker or golf with their friends. Justices go to the movies. They read the paper or magazines. Justice[s] are people.

Although I wouldn’t use the word “preposterous,” I tend to agree with Barnett. Justices shouldn’t have to lead cloistered lives, as I have stated in virtually every post I have written on the issue. I have seen Justice Scalia (and other judges) speak, and have benefitted from the experience.

My point has been simply that a newspaper shouldn’t pick on only the most conservative Justice, while giving a pass to the liberal ones.