In a 1952 Supreme Court decision, the late Justice Felix Frankfurter wrote, “It is desirable to state why one takes himself out of a case.” The justices on the current Court, however, rarely if ever explain their reasons for recusal. This regular feature by Supreme Court correspondent Tony Mauro will report on justices’ recusal actions, offering possible explanations based on financial, family or other connections that are publicly known.
Recusals noted on November 13:
- Justice Stephen Breyer recused in the denial of review in Lewis Perdue v. Dan Brown, et al., a copyright dispute involving Dan Brown’s bestseller “The Da Vinci Code.” Perdue, the author who claims the book infringed on his earlier copyrighted work, sued Brown’s publisher Random House as well as Brown. Breyer does not appear to have any conflicting stock ownership, but his 2005 book “Active Liberty” was published by Knopf, a division of Random House.
- Chief Justice John Roberts recused in the Court’s decision to deny review in Mihretu Dasisa v. University of Massachusetts, et al. In this dispute with several universities over the cancellation of Dasisa’s student financial aid, one of the parties, California State University, is represented by Hogan & Hartson, Roberts’ former firm. The representation appears to date back to when Roberts was still at the firm.
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