Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I happened to catch Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) on this segment of the Rachel Maddow Show on Friday, May 27 in which Maddow asked Rep. Weiner about his being in the news on Friday regarding his pressuring Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (and his wife Ginni) to release his financial disclosure forms because he believes Justice Thomas has a conflict of interest with respect to the Affordable Care Act for which Justice Thomas should have to recuse himself when the appellate court cases make their way to the U.S. Supreme Court (around the 11:20 mark).

Friday, May 27th – msnbc tv – Rachel Maddow show:

MADDOW: You have been in the news today because you have been pressuring Supreme Court justices to release their financial disclosure forms. Clarence Thomas‘ form shows his wife Ginni earns salary and benefits from an anti-health reform group called Liberty Central, as well as another group Liberty Consulting.

I was reading the forms after you posted them, I felt like there was also some sort of reference maybe to Clarence Thomas himself receiving funding from Liberty consulting. What do you interpret those disclosure? What do you think they mean?

WEINER: So everyone understands it‘s required that every year, members of the Supreme Court disclose anything that might be a conflict in their background. Well, as it turned out for almost 20 years, Clarence Thomas‘ spouse was getting money not only from think tanks but think tanks that were actively trying to persuade the court to do something. Things like the Heritage Foundation and others.

And so, now, when that became public, we‘ve been paying extra attention to when these filings are reported. And here‘s the conflict. It is clear under the law that if any member of your household is going to benefit one way or another from the outcome of a case, you got to refuse yourself.

Well, Ginni Thomas is actively raising money, taking money from organizations that would benefit if the health care reform act were struck down. It‘s clear that Clarence Thomas should recuse himself. And let me just say this to make it very clear: Clarence Thomas‘ spouse can earn money anyway she wants and be free to speak.

But the question becomes: does that income to the household present a conflict for Clarence Thomas? And so, you know, we‘ve started a Web site ConflictedClarenceThomas.com, where we‘ve put all of these documents up. And it‘s pretty clear that Justice Thomas should recuse himself from health care reform debate at least because it‘s clear his household is benefitting from one side of that debate.

MADDOW: Benefitting financially because she would not be getting the income that she‘s getting from these ideological groups if it were not for her perceived influence on her husband?

WEINER: Exactly. As a matter of fact, she goes as far as to advertise that and to talk about the idea. You know, she makes fun of the idea. She says, oh, yes, I‘ve got a great deal of influence over these proceedings.

And remember something, she‘s basically—her organizations are raising money by saying if you give money to me, we‘re going to try to stop health care reform from being implemented. Well, she returns home to Justice Thomas who has to make that decision and probably in less than a year.

So, we‘re pressuring him to recuse himself. To me, it‘s a pretty clear case to the law that he should.

MADDOW: And, of course, there‘s no way to force him to do it except by shame.

WEINER: That‘s right.