Politically charged Central District case lands circuit judge

LOS ANGELES -- After a ninth federal judge was taken off from a politically charged case in the Central District of California involving prominent members of the legal community, the chief judge of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals assigned a judge from his own circuit Monday to hear the case in district court.

The lawsuit arises from the 2017 decision by the former Western Justice Center executive director and retired Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Judith Chirlin to cancel an event featuring John Eastman, chairman of the National Organization for Marriage. Its stated mission, according to its website, is to promote marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

The Pasadena Republican Club sued for injunctive and declaratory relief as well as damages, claiming the nonprofit and the city violated its First Amendment right by canceling the event hours before it was to begin. Pasadena Republican Club v. Western Justice Center, 18-CV9933 (C.D. Cal., filed Nov. 28, 2018).

The case was last assigned to openly gay U.S. District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald. Before him, U.S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt opted out of the case Friday, stating he had a "personal relationship" with a party to the litigation. 9th Circuit Chief Judge Sidney R. Thomas assigned Senior Circuit Judge A. Wallace Tashima to the case following Fitzgerald's assignment.

"I think at this point, we've finally been assigned to a judge that will hold on to it," said the plaintiff's lawyer, Anthony T. Caso of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence in Orange.

"I'm making the assumption, and I really don't know, but the whole reason why Judge Tashima was assigned is because he doesn't have the connection with any of the other parties that the other judges felt would disqualify themselves," he added.

Previously, U.S. District Judge Fernando M. Olguin, who is on the board of directors for the nonprofit, recused himself and U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson returned the case for reassignment.

Other judges to opt out of the case were S. James Otero, Christina A. Snyder, R. Gary Klausner, Percy Anderson and Dale S. Fischer.

Otero last month filed a motion stating he was a colleague of Chirlin's as well as the nonprofit's attorney's, Debra Wong Yang of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, when they sat on the Los Angeles County Superior Court. Yang was unavailable for comment Tuesday.

Professor Arthur Hellman of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, who is not involved in the case, pointed out that Eastman also has strong ties to the legal community and is a well-known professor at Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law.

"You have two litigants on both sides who are connected to many legal organizations and entities," Hellman said. "That could be the basis of recusal, given their prominence and their very active professional lives."

Hellman said some in the legal community are pushing for legislation that would require district judges to fully disclose their reasons for recusal.

"There is a group in Washington pushing for a recusal amendment requiring judges to explain their reasons for recusal." Hellman said. "If such a statute were applied, you would see something of the network of relationships, but since they are not required to explain, we don't know what the precise reasons were."

Currently pending is a motion by the Western Justice Center to dismiss the complaint and a motion by the city of Pasadena for summary judgment.