Six federal judges have recused themselves from hearing a lawsuit filed by a state lawmaker against Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, meaning the case will be heard by a judge from another state.
In an unusual move, the six judges cited the federal code allowing them to disqualify themselves from hearing Rep. Laurel Libby's case stemming from her controversial posts on social media about a transgender athlete. Maine's Chief U.S. District Judge Lance Walker — who was among the six recusals — wrote Wednesday that the lack of local judges gave rise to an "emergency" situation requiring the case to be referred to Rhode Island District Court.
Walker later released a statement shedding some light on the recusal "because of circumstances unique to this case."
"The Judges of the District of Maine independently concluded that they are compelled by the Code of Conduct for United States Judges to recuse themselves because an employee of the District of Maine is involved in or directly impacted by the controversy underlying this litigation," Walker wrote.
Federal law requires judges to recuse themselves if their impartiality "might reasonably be questioned." The code then provides a variety of other potential reasons, including harboring a "personal bias or prejudice" against a party in a case or a judge, his or her spouse or a close relative being involved in the case or having an interest "that could be substantially affected by the outcome of the proceeding."
The six federal judges who recused themselves — magistrate judges John Nivison and Karen Frink Wolf, and district court judges Lance Walker, John Woodcock, Stacey Neumann and Nancy Torresen — have been appointed by both Democratic and Republican presidents.
University of Richmond School of Law professor Carl Tobias, who studies the federal judiciary, said it is rare for a state's entire bench of federal judges to recuse themselves. But Tobias said he has seen similar things in other rural states with small numbers of active federal judges because of the possible appearance of conflicts of interest.
Tobias also noted that the federal recusal law is very broad.
"It's a very open-ended kind of standard and judges tend to err on the side of believing there is a conflict," Tobias said. "They are not required to explain their decision to recuse. Sometimes judges do, but not always. And so my sense of this is this is a hotly contested political dispute. And maybe the judges just feel that it's not appropriate for them to resolve it in this situation, so they've all recused."
The Democratic-controlled Maine House censured Libby, R-Auburn, last month for posting the picture and name of a transgender high school athlete on Facebook as a way to criticize Maine's policies. The posts quickly went viral and drew national attention — as well as online threats and harassment — to the juvenile. The censure resolution accused Libby of endangering the welfare of a child in an effort to “advance her political agenda."
Libby responded by accusing Democrats of attempting to "silence" her and girls on the issue of transgender athletes. And on Tuesday, she sued Fecteau alleging that the censure — an official reprimand that prevents her from speaking or voting on the House floor — aimed to silence her and the voices of her constituents and violates the 1st and 14th Amendment.
Libby could have regained her right to speak and cast votes by formally apologizing to the House from the chamber floor. But she refused to apologize and, instead, has sought to use the censure vote in her campaign against a "woke" policy that she contends is harming girls by forcing them to compete against transgender athletes who were born male.
The posts also drew national attention to Maine's policy of prohibiting discrimination against students in extracurricular activities based on their gender identity and have since landed the state in the Trump administration's crosshairs.
Days after Libby's post, President Trump pressed Maine Gov. Janet Mills on whether the state planned to comply with an executive order that he signed banning men from competing in girls' or women's sports. Trump then threatened to withhold federal funding from Maine, prompting Mills to reply "See you in court."
Since then, the Trump administration has launched several investigations and moved to cut off federal funding to some programs, including at the University of Maine System.
