Questions About Alito's Failures to Recuse
by TChris
Two articles today raise questions that Judge Alito must address at his confirmation hearing. This Boston Globe article reports that Alito failed to recuse himself from a case in which his sister’s law firm represented a party.
In a written response to questions from the US Senate during his 1990 confirmation hearings to be an appeals judge, Samuel Alito promised: "I would disqualify myself from any case involving my sister's law firm, Carpenter, Bennett & Morrissey of Newark, New Jersey."
Rosemary Alito left the Carpenter firm in 1994, when she joined McCarter & English. That firm represented a bank seeking a rehearing before the Third Circuit. Court records indicate that Judge Alito didn’t recuse himself, but voted to deny the rehearing. Judge Alito says he doesn’t remember the case.
This article reports that Judge Alito failed to disqualify himself from a case involving Vanguard, a mutual fund company that managed Alito’s investments. The case involved a woman’s claim that Vanguard refused to give her funds that belonged to her deceased husband. Judge Alito removed himself from the case only after the woman complained, causing the appeal to be reheard.
The eight Democrats on the Judiciary Committee sent a letter to the Third Circuit’s chief judge, Anthony Scirica, seeking more information about Alito’s participation in the case.
The letter asked for documents relating to the Vanguard case, including records of "any communication between Judge Alito and you, any other member of the court, or the court's staff" discussing a promise by Judge Alito in 1990, made in a Senate questionnaire submitted as part of his appeals court confirmation, to recuse himself from matters involving Vanguard.
In a third incident, Alito considered a case that involved Smith Barney, another brokerage firm that managed some of Alito's investments.
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