Free Republic

All of Maine’s federal judges recuse themselves from Rep. Laurel Libby’s lawsuit against House speaker None of the judges gave any reasoning for the recusals and the Republican state lawmaker's case will now be considered by a judge in Rhode Island. All of Maine’s active federal judges have recused themselves from a Republican state lawmaker’s lawsuit against the Speaker of the House. Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, and six of her constituents filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Bangor on Tuesday in response to Libby’s party-line censure by the Legislature last month. Democrats argued Libby crossed a line by...

CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said Thursday that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh got the better of Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) when grilling the judge on hypotheticals about whether he would recuse from matters that “do not require recusal.”

The Supreme Court's upcoming term will include the most emotionally charged freedom-of-speech case in recent history along with the usual assortment of high-profile challenges focusing on hot-button issues such as immigration and prosecutorial misconduct.But the term, which begins Monday, also is notable for what it often will not include, namely new Justice Elena Kagan.Justice Kagan, who won confirmation this summer to replace retired Justice John Paul Stevens, has said she must step aside for about half the roughly 50 cases the court has so far agreed to hear this term. It is not uncommon for justices to have to...

In last week's cover story, Jennifer Rubin described the run around she received in response to her Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for documentation of recusals by Justice Department lawyers who previously represented Guantanamo detainees. The official responsible for documents from the top offices at DOJ--the attorney general, deputy attorney general, and associate attorney general--told Rubin the documents were not in a readily accessible place, that three individual attorneys' offices would need to be searched, and it would take a total of eight to eleven months to produce them. However, THE WEEKLY STANDARD has now managed to obtain...