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The Word is Recusal

Posted By mike On June 23, 2010 @ 8:36 am In News, Politics, Connect the Dots, Small Foot Print, Global Warming | 1 Comment

When there is a conflict of interest or the appearance of conflict, the ethical step is to withdraw from presiding over the court action. This is called recusal.

Judge Feldman is no doubt familiar with the concept and he may even have made a reasonable decision in overturning the ban on deepwater drilling, but by failing to recuse himself from a case in which he clearly has a financial interest he has shown very poor judgment.

Let’s see, a judge with poor judgment. Kind of goes to the heart of the job, doesn’t it?

[1] clipped from [2] www.google.com

Judge who nixed drilling ban has oil investments

By CURT ANDERSON and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
(AP)
–
5 hours ago
NEW ORLEANS — The Louisiana judge who struck down the Obama administration’s six-month ban on deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico has reported extensive investments in the oil and gas industry, according to financial disclosure reports. He’s also a new member of a secret national security court.
U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman, a 1983 appointee of President Ronald Reagan, reported owning less than $15,000 in stock in 2008 in Transocean Ltd., the company that owned the sunken Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.
Feldman overturned the ban Tuesday, saying the government simply assumed that because one rig exploded, the others pose an imminent danger, too.

Feldman’s 2008 financial disclosure report — the most recent available — also showed investments in Ocean Energy, a Houston-based company, as well as Quicksilver Resources, Prospect Energy, Peabody Energy, Halliburton, Pengrowth Energy Trust, Atlas Energy Resources, Parker Drilling and others. Halliburton was also involved in the doomed Deepwater Horizon project.

Feldman did not respond to requests for comment and to clarify whether he still holds some or all of these investments.

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