Breitbart Asked Whether Prior DHS Service Required Recusal. No Court Ordered It.

COMMENTARY

On March 21, 2017, five days after the IRAP preliminary injunction, Breitbart published “Impartiality of Federal Judge Who Blocked Trump EO May Be in Question.” The piece argued that prior service as DHS deputy general counsel put Judge Chuang’s impartiality in question on a case naming DHS officers as defendants.

That is a published recusal argument. It is not a judicial-ethics finding. It is not an order to recuse. The 2017 materials located for this file do not include a reviewing-court order requiring recusal in TDC-17-0361.

The underlying DHS title is documented in the FJC directory and the Obama White House nomination release. The leap from “he used to work at DHS” to “he was legally required to step off IRAP” is the column’s leap. This site keeps that leap in the commentary band.

Sources

Breitbart. “Impartiality of Federal Judge Who Blocked Trump EO May Be in Question,” March 21, 2017. breitbart.com — commentary.

Federal Judicial Center career line (DHS 2009–2014). fjc.gov

IRAP opinion PDF (no recusal order in that filing). mdd.uscourts.gov

Opinion

The following is commentary by this site. It is not a finding of fact and not a legal conclusion.

Compiler take

He came out of DHS and then sat in judgment of DHS. The ethics code has a word for the appearance. No one made him step aside. That is the record. The reader can do the rest of the math.