Recusal law doesn't apply to Pat DeWine - LimaOhio.com
By Andrew J. Tobias - cleveland.com (TNS)
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Under Ohio law, lawyers or parties in a court case can seek to force the recusal of a judge over what they see as a conflict of interest.
But the recusal law doesn’t apply to members of the Ohio Supreme Court. That means there likely is no way for groups behind the high-stakes lawsuits challenging new Ohio state legislative maps to try to block Ohio Supreme Court Justice Pat DeWine from ruling on maps that were approved in part by his father, Gov. Mike DeWine.
Judicial ethical rules require Ohio judges to recuse themselves from hearing cases involving their close family members, or “whenever the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” And state law allows for parties, if they think a judge handling their case is biased, to file what’s called an affidavit of disqualification, a written request to the Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court to replace that judge at the municipal, county, state appellate or state court of claims level.
But the process does not apply to Supreme Court justices. Instead, under the Supreme Court’s internal rules, “it is essentially up to the judge to determine whether disqualification is required,” according to Cassandra Burke Robertson, a professor who is the director of the Center for Professional Ethics at Case Western Reserve University’s law school.
Justice DeWine said last week he would not recuse himself from the redistricting cases, arguing ethical restrictions don’t require him to do so. DeWine has recused himself from lawsuits against actions his father has taken as governor. But when it comes to redistricting, he said his father is just one of seven members of the redistricting commission, diluting the personal influence he had over the process.
Robertson said of DeWine’s decision in part: “I am not seeing a lot of room for discretion here.”
Both DeWines are Republicans.
The groups who filed the lawsuits were publicly silent, but Democrats harshly criticized Justice DeWine’s decision.
One member of the Ohio Supreme Court, Democratic Justice Jennifer Brunner, on Monday criticized DeWine’s decision not to recuse himself from the case. Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, a Republican, declined to comment following an unrelated court function on Monday, while messages have been left with the other justices on the court.
Brunner, who is running for chief justice next year against Republican Justice Sharon Kennedy, said DeWine “needs to think long and hard about whether he needs to get off the case”, and said she would recuse herself from hearing any cases involving family members were the situation to ever come up.
She also said that while attending family functions last weekend, people in separate instances approached her unsolicited to question DeWine’s decision to not recuse himself.
“I don’t think that looks good for the court,” Brunner said. “Because what I know about not just government, but especially the judiciary, is that every judge has to work to promote the confidence in the judiciary because democracy’s only as good as people believe it is.”
Justice Michael Donnelly, a Democrat, declined to directly weigh in on DeWine’s decision. But Donnelly said he’s recused himself from cases involving judges he’s friends with to avoid the appearance of impropriety.
“I think he’s got to follow his own conscience, but judges have to be mindful of not only of whether you feel you can be fair, but the appearance is also equally important,” Donnelly said.
Under Ohio Supreme Court rules, parties can file a written request for a justice to recuse themselves. The justice must respond in writing, either a week before oral arguments for the case or, if oral arguments aren’t scheduled, “as soon as practicable.” The rules give justices discretion to decide whether they think they have a conflict.
If a justice thinks they might have a personal conflict, they have the option of formally asking parties in the case to overlook it.
DeWine’s status as a judge hearing cases involving his father is an issue that’s popped up over the years, given the elder DeWine’s longtime prominence in state politics. In one instance, it led to him being subject to a disciplinary complaint while his father was state attorney general.
A three-judge panel in 2018 dismissed the complaint against the younger DeWine after he didn’t recuse himself while on the Ohio Supreme Court from cases involving his father’s Ohio Attorney General’s Office. The complaint, which became public after a three-judge panel found it had “good cause” and was worth investigating, sought to disqualify Justice DeWine from hearing cases involving the attorney general’s office in the future.
While acknowledging the judicial ethical standards forbidding judges from hearing cases involving their family, the panel wrote “the totality of the circumstances must be considered when disqualification is at issue.” Relevant factors, the panel wrote, included the elder DeWine not personally appearing in any of the cases, and his not having a financial interest in any of the case’s outcomes.
In extraordinary cases, the U.S. Supreme Court has intervened to remove a state supreme court justice from a case, according to Robertson, the ethics expert from Case Western Reserve University. In 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision forced the recusal of Brent Benjamin, a West Virginia state supreme court justice who had cast a deciding vote on a lawsuit against a coal executive who had spent $3 million supporting Benjamin’s election campaign. In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court found the conflict of interest was a federal due-process violation.
source: https://www.limaohio.com/news/479694/recusal-law-doesnt-apply-to-pat-dewine
Your content is great. However, if any of the content contained herein violates any rights of yours, including those of copyright, please contact us immediately by e-mail at media[@]kissrpr.com.