Has a US Supreme Court justice ever recused himself from a case?

Answer 1

Yes. US Supreme Court justices have recused themselves from cases many times across the history of the Court.

Judges, justices and magistrates are required (or encouraged) under federal law to disqualify themselves from any case in which they may have a conflict of interest. Under 28 USC § 455:

"Any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned."

The law cites such issues as personal bias or prejudice, personal knowledge of disputed evidentiary facts, cases in which the judge has previously served as an attorney, advisor, or witness for any of the parties, cases in which the judge has a significant financial interest in the outcome, personal relationships with parties to a case, etc.

Supreme Court Justices are allowed discretion over which cases they hear and which they choose to recuse themselves from, which sometimes leads to tie votes or criticism that a participating justice was biased.

In 2008, four justices (Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Kennedy, Breyer and Alito), recused themselves from considering a petition for certiorari in Isuzu Motors, Inc., v. Ntsebezadue to investments in some of the companies that were party to the suit. This left the Court without the required quorum to hear the case and resulted in automatic affirmation of the Second Circuit's decision.

Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito had each disqualified themselves from earlier cases that resulted in tie votes, also leading to affirmation by an equally divided Court.

New Justice Elena Kagan has identified at least eleven potential cases from which she would disqualify herself due to earlier involvement while serving as US Solicitor General. This number pales in comparison to the 75 cases from which Justice Thurgood Marshall disqualified himself.

Some legal scholars have criticized Chief Justice John Marshall's decision not to disqualify himself from the US Supreme Court's seminal case Marbury v. Madison, (1803), despite having played a key role in the incident while serving as Secretary of State under President Adams. It should be noted, however, that the Court would have lacked a quorum if Marshall had recused himself, because two other justices, William Cushing and Alfred Moore, were unable to participate due to illness. (The Reporter of the Court from 1801-1806 noted that Marshall had recused himself from five cases during that period.)

More recently, Justice Antonin Scalia was criticized for not disqualifying himself from Cheney v. US District Court,(2004), despite being a personal friend of Vice-President Dick Cheney. The Sierra Club filed a motion calling upon Justice Scalia to disqualify himself, to which Scalia responded with a 21-page answer defending his decision to hear the case.

The answer stated, in part: "[a] rule that required Members of this Court to remove themselves from cases in which the official actions of friends were at issue would be utterly disabling."