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Tuesday, May 30, 2017

SCOTUS Symposium: More recusals

Leah flags the summary disposition in Jaffe v. Roberts, where all Justices but Gorsuch were the respondents on the petition and all were recused, leaving only Gorsuch to act on the petition. Below that is a second no-quorum affirmance in Arunga v. Obama, in which Kennedy, Ginsburg, Breyer, and Kagan were recused.

A quick Google search shows that Arunga is a serial crazy litigator, with past lawsuits against President Clinton, Mitt Romney, and the ACLU. So I doubt there was much comprehensibility or merit to the lawsuit. Still, I am curious why those four Justices were recused.

Posted by Howard Wasserman on May 30, 2017 at 02:10 PM in 2018 End of Term, Howard Wasserman | Permalink

Comments

I think the excerpts in this post http://joshblackman.com/blog/2015/10/13/because-the-court-lacks-a-quorum/ explain why those four Justices recused. (I particularly enjoyed Johnny Robert$.)

Posted by: Greg651 | May 30, 2017 5:04:58 PM

Not purposeful. Just bad writing.

Posted by: Howard Wasserman | May 30, 2017 3:16:27 PM

Howard, agreed we should further examine recusals, especially on the SCOTUS level because the justices rarely provide any reasoning. Are you purposefully using passive voice when you state both times, "were recused," rather than those four justices who recused themselves? SCOTUS has repeatedly said decisions on recusal are up to the individual justice.

Posted by: Caprice Roberts | May 30, 2017 3:14:27 PM

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