Linkmeister

Recusal rules revisited?

In light of this information, perhaps there should be stronger rules for judges and their potential conflicts of interest when court cases are assigned to them.

. . . the U.S. District Court Judge who declared illegal the Obama administration’s blanket, 6-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, had income in 2008 from a host of energy stocks.

I don't want to impugn Judge Feldman's integrity, but it seems to me that he might have concluded that his ownership of stock in at least 12 energy companies would be at minimum perceived to be in conflict with the objectivity required to render a judgment in the moratorium case. Particularly, it seems to me, when he must have known how politically sensitive his decision was going to be.

Had I been in his shoes I'd have recused myself.

Posted by Linkmeister at June 25, 2010 11:28 AM | TrackBack