To recuse or not recuse
From the good folks at the Associated Press:
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - The federal judge scheduled to sentence former House Speaker Jim Black later this month should recuse himself, Black's attorney said Thursday, citing the judge's history in a legislative redistricting case.
Click here to read the full order.
More from the AP:
Ken Bell, Black's lawyer, said U.S. District Court Judge James C. Dever III, while still an attorney in private practice, sued Black and other state officials on behalf of state Republican leaders and a GOP voter earlier this decade. The lawsuit challenged the maps approved by the General Assembly for its own House and Senate districts.Dever's clients won the redistricting case at the state Supreme Court, forcing Black and other lawmakers to redraw the districts. If Dever sentences Black on May 18, Bell wrote, "it will appear to the public that Judge Dever will indeed have had the last word on the redistricting battle engaged in during his private practice."