The ethical judgments of the Supreme Court justices have become an important issue recently. The court cannot (1)_______ its legitimacy as guardian of the rule of law (2)_______ justices behave like politicians. Yet, in several instances, justices acted in ways that (3)_______ the court’s reputation for being independent and impartial.

    Justice Antonin Scalia, for example, appeared at political events. That kind of activity makes it less likely that the court’s decisions will be (4)_______ as impartial judgments. Part of the problem is that the justices are not (5)_______ by an ethics code. At the very least, the court should make itself. (6)_______ to the code of conduct that (7)_______ to the rest of the federal judiciary.

    This and other similar cases (8)_______ the question of whether there is still a (9)_______ between the court and politics.

The framers of the Constitution envisioned law (10)_______ having authority apart from politics. They gave justices permanent positions (11)_______ they would be free to (12)_______ those in power and have no need to (13)_______ political support. Our legal system was designed to set law apart from politics precisely because they are so closely (14)_______ .

    Constitutional law is political because it results from choices rooted in fundamental social (15)_______ like liberty and property. When the court deals with social policy decisions, the law it (16)_______ is inescapably political—which is why decisions split along ideological lines are so easily (17)_______ as unjust.

    The justices must (18)_______ doubts about the court’s legitimacy by making themselves (19)_______ to the code of conduct. That would make their rulings more likely to be seen as separate from politics and, (20)_______, convincing as law.

答案精析：名词辨析题。空处所填是the court（法院）和politics（政治）之间的存在的东西，下文提到司法和政治本来是分开的，可见两者之间本来是有界限的，前面事例表明司法和政治有了交集，因而引发人们质疑这种界限是否依然（still）存在，故正确答案为A选项。

错项排除：原文只是提到司法应该独立于政治，并未提及二者之间有障碍或冲突，故B、D选项错误。司法和政治相对独立，属于不同体系，故不存在相似点，故C选项错误。

长难句分析：This and other similar cases raise the question of whether there is still a line between the court and politics.

本句是复合句，主句主干是This and other similar cases raise the question，是主谓宾结构，of whether…politics是介词结构做后置定语修饰the question。whether引导的宾语从句是介词of的宾语，其中使用了there be句型，between the court and politics是介词结构作后置定语修饰line。

句意为：这一事件以及其他类似的事件引出一个问题，即法院和政治之间是否依然存在界限。