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Tully Mars · 11-11-2010, 04:26 PM

Looks like the judge assigned to hear Millers case has withdrawn-

Quote:

Here's the story behind U.S. District Court Judge John Sedwick's decision to have nothing to do with Joe Miller's efforts to block less-than-perfect votes cast for Lisa Murkowski.

Joe Miller's lawsuit to stop misspellings of Murkowski's name from counting as valid write-in votes was originally assigned to Sedwick, but Sedwick quickly removed himself from the case. It turns out Sedwick was the chief judge under whom Miller once worked as a part-time U.S. magistrate judge in Fairbanks, and Miller's sudden departure from the post to instead seek political office left Sedwick with a less than stellar opinion of the man. In fact, Sedwick openly admits he formed a "negative opinion of Mr. Miller," as explained in Sedwick's recusal of himself:

Plaintiff Joe Miller was once employed by this court as a part-time magistrate judge in Fairbanks. Subsequent to Mr. Miller's appointment to that position, I became chief judge of the district. As a result, I also became Mr. Miller's direct supervisor.

Mr. Miller's service came to an abrupt end when he called me to say that he planned to run for elective office and so would have to resign. Mr. Miller called at about 4:20 PM on the day of his resignation. The process for filling a part-time magistrate judge position is lengthy, a fact well known to Mr. Miller because he had gone through that process. Mr. Miller's failure to give reasonable notice of his resignation left the court with no judicial officer resident in Fairbanks, and no ability to fill the vacancy for many months. This incident caused me to form a negative opinion of Mr. Miller.

As a federal judicial officer, it is my duty to discourage political activity by my family members, and I do so. Nevertheless, members of my family have civil rights which they are entitled to exercise. Following the primary election, my spouse contributed to the write-in campaign of Senator Murkowski.

A reasonable person with knowledge of the above facts would conclude that my impartiality might reasonably be questioned. I recuse. The Clerk of Court will please re-assign this case to another judge.

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