Case No. 09-Cv-2292 JW Brief of Amici Curiae
Case No. 09-Cv-2292 JW Brief of Amici Curiae
Case No. 09-Cv-2292 JW Brief of Amici Curiae
1 TABLE OF CONTENTS
2
5 I. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1
6 II. ARGUMENT ................................................................................................................................. 2
7
A. Rulings on Broad Constitutional Questions Affect Large Segments of the Public
8 and Therefore Cannot Constitute a Basis For Recusal. .................................................... 2
9 B. Recusal on the Basis of Sexual Orientation Is Neither Required Nor Permitted ............. 4
10
1. Exclusion on the Basis of a Same-Sex Relationship Is the Same as Exclusion
11 on the Basis of Sexual Orientation. .............................................................................. 4
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1 TABLE OF AUTHORITIES
2
CASES
3 Blank v. Sullivan & Cromwell
4 418 F. Supp. 1 (S.D.N.Y. 1975) .................................................................................................. 1, 5
Bray v. Alexandria Women’s Health Clinic
5
506 U.S. 263 (1993) ........................................................................................................................ 5
6 Christian Legal Soc’y v. Martinez
7 561 U.S. --, 130 S. Ct. 2971 (2010) ................................................................................................ 5
In re Houston
8
745 F.2d 925 (5th Cir. 1984)........................................................................................................... 2
9 Irizarry v. Bd. of Educ.
10 251 F.3d 604 (7th Cir. 2001)........................................................................................................... 3
Johnson v. California
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543 U.S. 499 (2005) ........................................................................................................................ 3
12 Kaufman v. McCaughtry
13 419 F.3d 678 (7th Cir. 2005)........................................................................................................... 3
Lawrence v. Texas
14
539 U.S. 558 (2003) ........................................................................................................................ 4
15 Li v. Oregon
16 338 Ore. 376 (2004) ........................................................................................................................ 6
MacDraw, Inc. v. CIT Group Equipment Financing, Inc.
17
138 F.3d 33 (2d Cir. 1998) .............................................................................................................. 5
18 Melendres v. Arpaio
19 No. CV-07-2513-PHX-MHM, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65069 (D. Ariz. Jul. 15, 2009)......... 3, 4, 5
Mississippi Univ. for Women v. Hogan
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458 U.S. 718 (1982) ........................................................................................................................ 3
21 Ortiz v. Stewart
22 149 F.3d 923 (9th Cir. 1998)....................................................................................................... 2, 6
Pennsylvania v. Local Union 542
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388 F. Supp. 163 (E.D. Pa. 1974) ................................................................................................... 4
24 Perry v. Schwarzenegger
25 704 F. Supp. 2d 921 (N.D. Cal. 2010) ............................................................................................ 3
Singer v. Wadman
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745 F.2d 606 (10th Cir. 1984)......................................................................................................... 5
27 United States v. Alabama
28 828 F.2d 1532 (11th Cir. 1987)....................................................................................................... 2
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6 STATUTES
14 Carlton, Jr., Alfred P., Justice in Jeopardy: Report of the American Bar Association
Commission on the 21st Century Judiciary 12 (July 2003) ........................................................... 7
15
Chen, Edward M., The Judiciary, Diversity, and Justice for All, 91 Cal. L. Rev. 1109
16
(2003) .............................................................................................................................................. 8
17
Ginsburg, Ruth Bader, Human Rights Hero: Tribute to Constance Baker Motley, Human
18 Rights Magazine, Fall 2005, available at
http://www.americanbar.org/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/irr_hr_Fall
19 05_bakermotley.html (last visited May 10, 2011) .......................................................................... 1
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1 I. INTRODUCTION
2 Proponents’ motion is part of an ugly history of attempts to disqualify federal judges on the
3 basis of their personal characteristics. In a famous 1975 case alleging sex discrimination against a
4 law firm, Judge Constance Baker Motley was accused of “‘strongly identif[ying] with those who
5 suffered discrimination in employment because of sex or race’” on account of her work as a civil
6 rights advocate prior to joining the federal bench. See Blank v. Sullivan & Cromwell, 418 F. Supp. 1,
7 4 (S.D.N.Y. 1975). Judge Motley rightly refused to recuse herself, and as Supreme Court Justice
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1 sexual orientation. Chief Judge Walker’s sexual orientation provides no basis for recusal in this case.
2 First, rulings on broad constitutional questions routinely affect large segments of the public at large,
3 and the fact that judges are part of the public does not warrant their recusal. Second, a rule that
5 disqualification of lesbian and gay judges. The notion that a gay judge could not fairly preside over
6 this case is incorrect, offensive, and damaging to the credibility of the judiciary itself, and should be
8 II. ARGUMENT
9
A. Rulings on Broad Constitutional Questions Affect Large Segments of the Public and
10 Therefore Cannot Constitute a Basis For Recusal.
11 By design, constitutional rights belong to everyone, and a ruling by a judge will often affect
12 large segments of the public, and may even affect rights that judges along with others might exercise.
13 But that does not constitute a disqualifying interest for purposes of recusal nor create a circumstance
14 where a judge’s impartiality could reasonably be questioned. 28 U.S.C. §§ 455(a) & (b)(4). It is
15 often the case that a judge is called upon to decide issues that could directly or indirectly affect that
16 judge along with large segments of the public, whether the issues concern the right to freedom of
17 speech, the right to free exercise of religion, the right against unlawful search and seizure, the right to
18 bear arms, or, as here, the right to be free from governmental discrimination and the fundamental
19 right to marry. The fact that a pending case involves important constitutional rights in which broad
20 groups or all citizens share an interest has never been held sufficient to require recusal. See, e.g., In
21 re Houston, 745 F.2d 925, 930 (5th Cir. 1984) (“an interest which a judge has in common with many
22 others in a public matter is not sufficient to disqualify him”) (quoting 48A C.J.S. Judges § 123
23 (1981)) (judge was not disqualified from hearing a voting rights case where the judge was a member
24 of the class affected); United States v. Alabama, 828 F.2d 1532 (11th Cir. 1987) (refusing to
25 disqualify judge from hearing a race discrimination case involving public universities in Alabama
26 even though the judge’s children were in the class affected by the ruling). Central to the functioning
27 of the judicial system is “the general presumption that judges are unbiased and honest.” Ortiz v.
28 Stewart, 149 F.3d 923, 938 (9th Cir. 1998). That presumption applies with equal force when,
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1 because of the broad nature of the rights at issue or the facial unconstitutionality of a broadly
3 While this case is of unquestionable importance to lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals, the
4 legal rights at stake in it are universally applicable. To illustrate: one of the key questions raised by
5 this case concerns the proper standard of review required by the Equal Protection Clause of the
6 Fourteenth Amendment for laws that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. Perry v.
7 Schwarzenegger, 704 F. Supp. 2d 921, 997 (N.D. Cal. 2010). Because all individuals have a sexual
10 That is, the constitutional right to be free from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation
11 protects gay and non-gay people alike, see, e.g., Irizarry v. Bd. of Educ., 251 F.3d 604 (7th Cir. 2001)
12 (addressing equal protection claim asserted by heterosexual employee), just as the right to be free
13 from race discrimination protects persons of all races, see, e.g., Johnson v. California, 543 U.S. 499
14 (2005), the right to be free of sex discrimination protects both men and women, see, e.g., Mississippi
15 Univ. for Women v. Hogan, 458 U.S. 718, 723 (1982), and the rights protected by the Free Exercise
16 Clause protect people of all religions or of no religion, see, e.g., Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 U.S. 38, 52-
17 53 (1985); Kaufman v. McCaughtry, 419 F.3d 678, 682 (7th Cir. 2005) (atheism is a religion for
19 If the recusal statute were interpreted to require recusal on the basis of race, sex, religion,
21 prohibited, the result would be intolerable and would itself violate equal protection. See Melendres v.
22 Arpaio, No. CV-07-2513-PHX-MHM, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65069, at *26 (D. Ariz. Jul. 15, 2009)
23 (“the idea that an Hispanic judge should never preside over a controversial case concerning alleged
24 acts of racial profiling committed against Hispanics is repugnant to the notion that all parties are
25 equal before the law”). For example, in a case that raised the question of whether women should
26 have the right to vote, it would be unthinkable to suggest that a judge would have a duty to recuse
27 herself for the sole reason that she is a woman. That would be true even though it is obvious that the
28 injunctive relief ordered in such a case might have a more direct impact upon female judges rather
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1 than on male judges. “[T]he absolute consequence and thrust of [a contrary] rationale would amount
2 to, in practice, a double standard within the federal judiciary.” Pennsylvania v. Local Union 542,
3 388 F. Supp. 163, 165 (E.D. Pa. 1974) (Higginbotham, J.) (denying race-based recusal motion in
4 employment case alleging racial discrimination because “[t]o suggest that black judges should be so
5 disqualified would be analogous to suggesting that the slave masters were right when, during tragic
6 hours for this nation, they argued that only they, but not the slaves, could evaluate the harshness or
8 There is similarly no requirement to recuse based on whether a judge is more or less likely to
9 exercise a fundamental right or liberty interest that is at issue in a case. Female judges of
10 reproductive age have no duty to recuse themselves from cases involving reproductive freedom or to
11 disclose their pregnancy status. And surely a judge ruling on the constitutionality of a statue
12 criminalizing consensual sodomy has no responsibility to disclose or disclaim anything about his or
13 her intimate relationships or private conduct. See, e.g., Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558, 573 (2003)
14 (declaring all laws prohibiting consensual sodomy facially invalid, including those in nine states
15 outlawing both different-sex and same-sex conduct). Although judges must disclose certain types of
17 order to discharge their duties without the appearance of a conflict, that does not permit “an
18 untethered expansion of the recusal statute to the point where a litigant can engage in a broad based
19 fishing expedition to dig up potentially disqualifying ‘interests’ that a judge may be accused of
20 having in a particular case.” Melendres, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65069, at *26.
24 Proponents appear to recognize that sexual orientation is not an appropriate basis for recusal.
25 Mot. at 5 (“we are not suggesting that a gay or lesbian judge could not sit on this case”) (emphasis in
26 original). Rather, the discovery that has now purportedly shaken their confidence in the fairness of
27 the district court proceedings is not simply that Chief Judge Walker has said that he is gay—to which
28 they supposedly have no objection—but that, according to their motion, he has been in a ten-year
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1 relationship with a man. But that alleged distinction defies common sense: if sexual orientation is
2 not a basis for recusal, then neither is an intimate relationship with a person of the same sex, which is
3 the essential way in which a gay person’s sexual orientation is expressed. The Supreme Court has
4 expressly recognized that its “decisions have declined to distinguish between status and conduct in
5 this context.” See Christian Legal Soc’y v. Martinez, 561 U.S. --, 130 S. Ct. 2971, 2990 (2010)
6 (finding no difference between a policy of discriminating against lesbian and gay individuals and a
7 policy of discriminating against individuals engaged in “unrepentant homosexual conduct”); see also
8 Bray v. Alexandria Women’s Health Clinic, 506 U.S. 263, 270 (1993) (“A tax on wearing yarmulkes
9 is a tax on Jews.”).1
10 Proponents’ motion is therefore indistinguishable from the many other recusal motions that
11 have been historically levied against judges based on their personal characteristics, and that have
12 been rejected as thinly-veiled accusations of bias based on those characteristics. As noted above,
13 Judge Motley confronted a recusal motion in a sex discrimination case. Blank, 418 F. Supp. at 4.
14 Similar recusal motions have been filed based on a judge’s race. See, e.g., Local Union 542, 388 F.
15 Supp. at 157 (denying recusal motion in race discrimination case based on speech delivered by judge
16 to Association for Study of Afro-American Life and History); MacDraw, Inc. v. CIT Group
17 Equipment Financing, Inc., 138 F.3d 33 (2d Cir. 1998) (affirming Rule 11 sanctions against attorney
18 who brought recusal motion based on district judge’s involvement in Asian-American organizations);
19 Melendres, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65069, at *26 (denying recusal motion that “could easily be
20 interpreted as an argument that this Court’s alleged bias somehow flows from her racial heritage”).
21 The same is true for recusal motions based on a judge’s religion. See United States v. El-Gabrowny,
22 844 F. Supp. 955, 957 (S.D.N.Y. 1994) (denying recusal motion based on judge’s Orthodox
23 Judaism); Singer v. Wadman, 745 F.2d 606, 608 (10th Cir. 1984) (affirming denial of recusal motion
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1 Despite their attempt to disclaim such a categorical result, the logical conclusion of Proponents’
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reasoning can only be that all lesbian, gay, and bisexual people, as a class, would necessarily be
26 disqualified from presiding over this action. Proponents assert that a disqualifying interest is
triggered whenever a judge determines that he or she “might desire[] to marry” a person of the same
27 sex. Mot. at 3. Thus, recusal would be required of even an unpartnered lesbian or gay judge with no
romantic prospects on the horizon, but who might someday wish to marry a person of the same sex.
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1 where district judge was Mormon and lawsuit involved “theocratic power structure in Utah”). As in
2 El-Gabrowny, “[t]he objection here is not based on race or sex or the Mormon religion, but the
3 motion in this case is in all relevant ways the same as the motions in those cases; it is the same rancid
6 All of these historical recusal motions share a common and fatal flaw: the belief that a
7 judge’s personal characteristic clouds his or her ability to render a fair and impartial decision. While
8 every federal judge comes to the bench with a particular sexual orientation—as well as a particular
9 race, sex, religious viewpoint, and socioeconomic status—every judge also takes an oath to
10 “faithfully and impartially discharge and perform [their] duties” and to “administer justice without
11 respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich.” 28 U.S.C. § 453. Lesbian, gay,
12 and bisexual judges are entitled to the same presumption of impartiality that all other judges enjoy.
13 Ortiz, 149 F.3d at 938. Indeed, for that reason, any lesbian, gay, or bisexual judge who had been
14 randomly assigned to hear this case would have an affirmative obligation not to recuse on the basis of
15 his or her sexual orientation—as would be true for a heterosexual judge. United States v. Holland,
16 519 F.3d 909, 912 (9th Cir. 2008) (“in the absence of a legitimate reason to recuse himself, ‘a judge
19 determine how he or she would rule in a case involving claims of sexual orientation discrimination,
20 just as it would be offensive as to suggest that a judge’s race or sex would determine how he or she
21 would rule in a case alleging race or gender discrimination. This clearly is not the case. For
22 example, in 2004, an openly-gay justice on the Oregon Supreme Court voted to deny marriage to
23 same-sex couples asserting rights under the state constitution. See Li v. Oregon, 338 Ore. 376
24 (2004); Joan Biskupic, Amid Debate Over Rights, Number of Gay Judges Rising, USA Today, Oct.
26 (last visited May 9, 2011) (noting that the justice at issue considered and rejected the notion that he
27 had a duty to recuse himself from the case on the basis of his sexual orientation). Simply put, there is
28 no reason to believe that gay jurists will be unable to rule fairly and reject arguments made on behalf
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1 of gay people when they believe that that is what the law requires, just as members of all minority
2 and majority groups are able to do when considering claims made by members of populations to
6 Although Proponents’ motion is meritless, it is not costless. First, by placing Chief Judge
7 Walker’s sexual orientation at issue, Proponents seek to cast doubt on the impartiality of all lesbian,
8 gay, and bisexual judges. This harm is one-sided, because the thrust of the motion is that it would be
9 impossible for a heterosexual judge to be biased in this case on the basis of his or her sexual
10 orientation, whereas the same purportedly cannot be said of a gay judge. Second, the broader
11 proposition advanced by the motion is that any personal characteristic of a judge may be relevant to
12 whether he or she can render a fair and impartial decision, which damages the credibility of every
13 judge and therefore undermines public confidence in the judiciary as a whole. Third, to the extent
14 that members of minority groups are more likely to experience discrimination and seek redress for
15 those harms in court, judges of minority groups will be targeted for unwarranted recusal motions far
16 more often than other judges. As shown above, history has already proven that to be true.
17 Judicial diversity encourages public confidence in the judiciary, and efforts to require the
18 recusal of judges based on sexual orientation would ultimately impair public confidence by
19 undermining that diversity. See Alfred P. Carlton, Jr., Justice in Jeopardy: Report of the American
20 Bar Association Commission on the 21st Century Judiciary, at 12 (July 2003), available at
21 http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/migrated/judind/jeopardy/pdf/report.authcheckdam.pdf
22 ("We are becoming a more and more diverse people. Our judiciary . . . should reflect the diversity of
23 the society in which we live. If they do not, the legitimacy of the courts and the judicial system will
24 be called into question with increasing frequency.”). As then U.S. Magistrate (and now District)
25 Court Judge Edward M. Chen explained, “The case for diversity is especially compelling for the
26 judiciary. It is the business of the courts, after all, to dispense justice fairly and administer the laws
27 equally. It is the branch of government ultimately charged with safeguarding constitutional rights,
28 particularly protecting the rights of vulnerable and disadvantaged minorities against encroachment by
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1 the majority. How can the public have confidence and trust in such an institution if it is segregated –
2 if the communities it is supposed to protect are excluded from its ranks?” The Judiciary, Diversity,
3 and Justice for All, 91 Cal. L. Rev. 1109, 1117 (2003). A judicial system that would countenance the
4 forced recusal of a judge based on his or her sexual orientation—or race, sex, or any other protected
5 characteristic—is not one in which the public could reasonably have confidence.
6 III. CONCLUSION
7 For the foregoing reasons, amici respectfully request that this Court deny Proponents’ motion
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Dated: May 13, 2011 Respectfully submitted,
10
JON W. DAVIDSON
11 TARA BORELLI
PETER C. RENN
12 Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc.
13 ALAN L. SCHLOSSER
ELIZABETH O. GILL
14 ACLU Foundation of Northern California
15 SHANNON P. MINTER
CHRISTOPHER F. STOLL
16 ILONA M. TURNER
National Center For Lesbian Rights
17
By: __/s/ Peter Renn_________
18
Attorneys for Amici Curiae Lambda Legal Defense and
19 Education Fund, Inc., ACLU Foundation of Northern
California, National Center for Lesbian Rights, and
20 Equality California
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