Law professor Ronald Rotunda, a noted expert on legal ethics and constitutional law, disagrees with those legal academics who argue Judge Roberts should have recused himself in the Hamdan case once he was asked to interview with White House officials about a potential Supreme Court opening. His letter to Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter–apparently written in response to a request from Specter (contrary to this insinuation)–is available here. I am not an expert on such matters myself, but it seems to me Rotunda makes a strong case.

As one might expect, the folks at the Center for American Progress have a different view of the Rotunda letter, and are all exercised about Rotunda’s former employment with the Department of Defense. Yet what’s interesting about the various posts on this issue at Think Progress, particularly those by Judd Legum, is their complete lack of substance. Legum does his best to impugn Rotunda’s motives, but never addresses the substance of his remarks. In my mind, this simply reinforces the strength of Rotunda’s arguments.