Liberal SCOTUS justices recuse themselves from 2020 election-related case

In a rather unusual turn of events, three U.S. Supreme Court justices have recused themselves from participation in a matter that has come before the panel.

As The Signal reports, Justices Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Sonia Sotomayor have decided they will not take part in a case filed against them concerning a prior lawsuit related to the 2020 election results.

Unusual scenario unfolds

At issue was the justices' rejection of the aforementioned previous case in which an argument to overturn the results of the 2020 contest was lodged.

The justices declined to hear a case brought by Raland Brunson, a Utah resident who has made a name for himself for legal activism in favor of former President Donald Trump.

In the current controversy, Brunson sued the liberal justices for their 2023 votes to deny his petition for certiorari of the prior matter in which he had sued a host of lawmakers, arguing that they violated their official oaths by not probing election fraud claims and certifying Joe Biden as the victor.

Ultimately, the high court denied Brunson's petition for review in the underlying case, doing so in an unsigned order in which no dissent was indicated, and several weeks later, the court denied a petition for rehearing, and again, no dissents were recorded.

Just this week, the justices denied a petition for certiorari in the subsequent case in which the liberal justices were named as defendants for, as Brunson said, “giving aid and comfort to enemies of the Constitution, which is an act of treason, fraud and a breach of contract,” though all three of those jurists declined participation in the vote.

Recusal becomes hot topic

The concept of a Supreme Court justice removing him or herself from involvement in a case has also come to the forefront in recent weeks with regard to conservative jurist Samuel Alito, whom Democrats have urged with withdraw from participation in Jan. 6-related cases.

Alito became embroiled in controversy when the New York Times published images of an upside-down American flag being flown at his Virginia home several years ago as well as of an “Appeal to Heaven” flag flying at his vacation property.

Some believe those flags to be associated with the “Stop the Steal” movement and those involved in January 2021 Capitol unrest, though Alito noted that it was his wife who chose to fly the flags and he had no role in the decision.

As CBS News notes, Alito has since rejected calls for his recusal in cases involving Trump, saying, “A reasonable person who is not motivated by political or ideological considerations or a desire to affect the outcome of Supreme Court cases would conclude that this event does not meet the applicable standard for recusal.”

“I am therefore duty-bound to reject your recusal request,” he told Democrat lawmakers, a move that was surely met with approval by the millions who view him as an indispensable member of the panel at a most crucial time in our nation's history.