Partial Recusal and the Supreme Court Article
Date of Publication:
Recommended Citation
Louis J. Virelli, Partial Recusal and the Supreme Court, Mich. St. L. Rev.: MSLR Forum (2022)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
This essay uses the framework of the affirmative action litigation to introduce and preliminarily explore the concept of “partial recusal” at the Court. Part I briefly introduces judicial recusal, including the unique features of recusal at the Supreme Court. Part II addresses the idea of partial recusal, which has been generally undertheorized and effectively overlooked with respect to the justices’ recusal practices. It then distinguishes between two types of partial recusal—horizontal and vertical—and makes a case for why each could be useful for the Court.