Cain calls for Kagan to recuse herself from Supreme Court healthcare case

GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain is calling on Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan to remove herself from next year’s hearing on the Affordable Care Act.

“I request that Justice Kagan recuse herself immediately from hearing the Obamacare case,” Cain said in a statement. “Members of the highest court in the land should be impartial, strictly follow the Constitution and should not carry water for former employers in the White House.”

Cain cited an email published by Judicial Watch, a conservative legal watchdog group, in which Kagan seemed to express joy over the passage of the healthcare reform law to Justice Laurence Tribe:

“I hear they have the votes Larry!! Simply amazing,” the email said.

The Cain campaign also argued that Kagan’s time as solicitor general should disqualify her from the case.

“As a political appointee in President Obama’s Justice Department, Justice Kagan strongly advocated for the government takeover of health care and during the bill’s debate, then-Solicitor General Kagan actively supported a government-run system,” Cain's campaign said in a statement.

Kagan says she did not participate in any of the ACA deliberations while she was the head of the solicitor general’s office.

Activists on both sides of the debate are looking for an edge in what some have dubbed the Supreme Court’s “case of the century.”

Liberal groups have called for Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself because his wife profited from groups that oppose the healthcare law.

Recusal decisions are up to the individual justices, and both Kagan and Thomas are expected to participate in the hearing.