community

THE MICHIGAN CHRONICLE

March 24-30, 2010

By Dr. Jason Johnson

Everyone would like to be-

Justice Thomas, your wife is on the docket

LBLA scholarship banquet

Cooley Law School President Don LeDuc was honored March 12 by the Lansing Black Lawyers Association at its 13th annual Otis M. Smith Scholarship Banquet for increasing diversity within the legal profession and for outstanding community service in the greater Lansing Area. Also at the banquet Cooley student Darlene Jolibois was awarded the Stuart Dunnings Jr. Scholar- ship, and Cooley student Zeely Stewart was awarded a Bar Scholarship. Pictured (from left) are the Hon. Amy Krause, judge, 54-A District Court, Lansing; Don LeDuc, Cooley Law School president; Darlene Jolibois; and Dawn C.M. Jack, president of the Lansing Black Lawyers As- sociation.

Maple Syrup Day at

Hartwick Pines State Park,

the Michigan Forest Visi- tor Center and the Logging Museum in Grayling will pres- ent Maple Syrup Day on Satur- day, March 27, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Learn about North Ameri-

ca’s oldest agricultural prod- uct – maple sugar.

Visitors are invited to:

walk into the sugarbush to help tap a maple tree; observe the boil-down process which converts maple sap to maple syrup; learn about the his- tory of maple sugar making in North America; view videos titled “Maple Sugar Farmer,” “Maple Sugaring” and “The Maple Sugaring Story”; ask an expert about how to start making maple syrup and tap trees in your own backyard; taste maple sap and the fin-

Fundraising

dinner-dance in Wayne

Hartwick Pines State Park

ished maple syrup; and pur- chase genuine maple sugar candy and syrup.

Children can participate in

tapping a maple tree and will learn how to build their own mokuk. A mokuk is a birch bark bucket that native peo- ples used to transport maple sugar. Making a paper mokuk replica provides a history lesson and discussion about how European settlers learned of the Native Americans’ sug- aring culture.

Tree tapping demonstra-

tions take place at 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m., 2:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. in the sug- arbush.

Some visitors will have a

chance to help staff tap the maple trees and all visitors can taste maple syrup and sap, smell the aroma around

Keisha Leonard, who will be

walking 60 miles in the Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk on behalf of the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk for the Cure, announces a dinner-dance on May 7 at the Wayne Tree Manor Banquet

an outside evaporator pan and welcome spring at this educa- tional and fun event.

Maple recipes will be avail-

able for those wishing to savor the sweetness of the day.

Along with the annual

Maple Syrup Day on March 27, schoolchildren will have a chance to visit the sugarbush and learn about the science and history of maple syrup making during the week of March 22-26.

There is no fee for this

event. Each hour-long presenta-

tion can accommodate up to three classes.

Interested teachers should

call (989) 348-2537 to arrange a visit.

Center, 35100 Wayne Road, in Wayne, 6:30 p.m. to midnight, to help her reach her fundrais- ing goal. Dinner will be served at 7:30 p.m. The donation is $30. For more information, call her at (734) 728-3020.

lieve that even if your boss’s wife doesn’t like you that it won’t affect your performance evaluation. We also want to believe that if our best friend’s husband owns a struggling Ford dealership that she won’t be mad when we drive up in a new Hyundai. But deep down, we all know this is not the case. The bonds between hus- bands and wives will always affect how these men and women behave in their public lives.

That is why I’m perfectly

comfortable with suggesting that Clarence Thomas remove himself from several Supreme Court cases in the coming term.

Last week it was an-

nounced that Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, Clarence’s wife, was starting her own official off- shoot of the Tea Party move- ment called “Liberty Central Inc.” The conservative group will help get the country back on track, and away from the brink of tyranny, by raising a lot of money from conserva- tive activists and sharing in- formation on how the Obama administration is out of con- trol. Virginia Thomas has a history of conservative activ- ism for many years, so this is not a radical change for her. Of course none of that matters, since her creation of such a public group creates a huge conflict of interest for her hus- band, Supreme Court Justice Thomas.

During the last State of

the Union address President Obama publicly chastised the Supreme Court for their ruling in the “Citizens United” case. In “Citizens United” the Court ruled that private businesses and organizations can now spend unlimited amounts of money during political cam- paigns.

And now Justice Thomas’s

wife is starting an organization that will be able to raise un-

Jason Johnson

limited funds to promote their cause without having to reveal any of the donors or the size of their contributions. Clar- ence Thomas is a conserva- tive, and he ruled on this case prior to his wife’s new political adventure. However, there is no doubt that Virginia Thomas running an organization with a “Tea Party” agenda associ- ates him with policies and po- tential rulings that bring his objectivity into question.

When his wife’s organiza-

tion is dependent on the ability to raise and spend funds with- out limitation, do you think that Thomas will rule objec- tively when Citizens United is eventually challenged? Or any other case dealing with their political agenda? We would like to think so, but in recent years it has been clear that conservatives on the court have never had a huge prob- lem with skirting the spirit of conflict of interest.

During the Bush vs. Gore

recount case in 2000, Justice Scalia conveniently forgot to mention that two of his sons were working for law firms that represented the Bush ad- ministration. He claimed that since they weren’t directly in- volved in Bush vs. Gore he felt no need to share that informa- tion. Nice cover, but that didn’t pass the smell test with many appeals judges at the time who

felt Scalia was not being forth- coming with the public or the Court.

During that same case Clar-

ence Thomas’s wife was work- ing for the pro-Bush conser- vative think tank The Heritage Foundation and was solicit- ing résumés from Republi- can Congressional staffers for “transition jobs” with the new administration. Somehow this too was deemed okay and Thomas chose not to remove himself from the case.

It seems that Supreme

Court justices don’t believe they need to rescue them- selves from a case unless they carpooled to the Court that morning with one of the defen- dants. The Supreme Court of the United States is our final ruling on any issue of great moral, financial or political importance in this country.

Any suggestion, whether

through sons, daughters or wives, that the justices can be influenced by outside sources should be removed so as to at least maintain the image that the Court is impartial. Yes, this may put a slight burden on the spouses of justices but that’s a small public price to pay for the private influence they all exhibit on American’s lives.

Plenty of men and women

married to elected officials, members of the military and other high federal offices have voluntarily limited their public actions out of respect for their spouse’s office.

Thomas is really that desper- ate to take a stand on an issue she should take a hint from Michelle Obama.

I am sure that the most

important issue to Michelle is not childhood obesity, but she’s become a champion of an issue that in no way can negatively impact her hus- band’s professional duties.

What’s so controversial

about wanting to help fat kids? Virginia Thomas, you should be taking notes.

Be Wise. Advertise in the Michigan Chronicle for the Best Results. Call Us at (313) 963-5522 or Fax Us at (313) 963-8788.

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