The "subject judge" in the Eleventh Circuit attended a partisan event for a District Attorney. That would create a conflict of interest for any matters affecting that District Attorney. The Memorandum focused at some length about a potential conflict with the boyfriend's police department, but there was little focus on a conflict with the District Attorney.
The Eleventh Circuit's decision to make the reprimand private is confounding on so many levels. Perhaps the most problematic aspect is that the memorandum identified a clear conflict of interest, but deprived the public from knowing which judge had that conflict of interest. How could a litigant who has a case before the subject judge determine whether there is a basis to disqualify?
This question is not a mere hypothetical. The United States sued Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia Secretary of State, for election records. The case was assigned to Judge Eleanor Ross. She, apparently, thought there was no conflict and continued to preside over the case. Then again, given the fact that this is a civil matter, it is unlikely that Judge Ross read any of the briefs or made any actual decisions. She may not even know the case was assigned to her!
