Fowler v. Butts
From Conservapedia
In Fowler v. Butts, 829 F.3d 788 (7th Cir. 2016), Judge Frank Easterbrook overruled two lines of precedents in the Seventh Circuit in order to require recusal by a federal district judge for presiding over a case involving the same defendant that she had sentenced while on the state court bench.
Judge Easterbrook held:
| “ | It follows from this discussion that Ruzzano, Johnson, and any similar decisions in this circuit must be, and are now, overruled to the extent they forbid appellate review of judicial-disqualification issues in the absence of a motion in the district court.
Because this opinion overrules two lines of decisions in this circuit, it was circulated before release to all judges in active service. See Circuit Rule 40(e). None of the judges favored a hearing en banc. |
” |
Id. at 795.
