Looks like Maryland has become the California of the East Coast (see our earlier news about Montgomery County coddling illegal aliens) and now see Michael Patrick Leahy at Breitbart with an analysis of why the Maryland judge who ruled against Trump’s refugee EO should have disqualified himself.
Theodore Chuang, the Federal District Judge for the District of Maryland who halted most elements of President Trump’s latest executive order temporarily banning travel from six Middle Eastern countries, as well as refugees from all countries, served as deputy general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the Obama administration from 2009 to 2014.
His March 15 ruling in the case, International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) v.Trump, in which DHS, the State Department, and President Trump are defendants, raises legitimate questions about whether he should have recused himself from hearing the case in the first place.
Title 28, Part I, Chapter 21, Section 455 (a) “Disqualification of justice, judge, or magistrate judge” of the U.S. Code Annotated reads as follows: (28 U.S. Code § 455 )
Any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.
The Public Advisory Opinions concerning ethical standards of federal judges offer little further guidance on this particular standard.
As former deputy general counsel at DHS under an administration that pursued policies that are diametrically opposed to those of President Trump, it is not surprising that many legal scholars and political commentators have written articles which, taken as a whole, suggest that the impartiality of Judge Chuang’s March 15 ruling “might reasonably be questioned.”
Continue here to see what legal experts are saying.
And, go here to learn more about the role of federal refugee contractor, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, and this case.