US judge recuses himself from Gaza case after visiting Israel

A federal appeals court judge on Thursday recused himself from hearing a bid by Palestinian rights activists to block the Biden administration's military support of Israel after he joined a delegation of judges for a trip to the country following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

US Circuit Judge Ryan Nelson, an appointee of Republican former President Donald Trump on the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, in a brief order, said it was "far from certain that an objective observer would reasonably question my impartiality."

But Ryan said that "out of an abundance of caution," he would recuse himself from participating in the case, which is set to be argued on Monday before a three-judge panel in San Francisco.

His recusal came two days after lawyers for the groups Defense for Children International-Palestine and Al-Haq and their co-plaintiffs moved for his disqualification,  citing a trip Nelson joined with 13 other judges to Israel in March.

"We sought this relief because this case, about the US role in furthering a genocide in Gaza, raises questions of supreme importance for our clients and the public, so the appearance of impartiality is of paramount importance," Baher Azmy, a lawyer for the plaintiffs at the Center for Constitutional Rights, said in a statement.

Those plaintiffs have been seeking an injunction that would block Democratic President Joe Biden's administration from providing support to Israel’s attacks to prevent its "commission of genocidal acts against the Palestinian people of Gaza."

The plaintiffs are appealing US District Judge Jeffrey White's Jan. 31 decision, dismissing their case, which the judge said was one of the "rare cases in which the preferred outcome is inaccessible to the Court."

The March trip's organizer, the World Jewish Congress, has said the delegation of judges "met with Israelis affected by the Oct. 7 assaults, saw towns affected by Hamas, and heard from specialists on international legal matters."

Judges met with Israeli government and judicial officials and members of the military, the plaintiffs said. They said the trip was reported as being meant to allow judges to gain a better understanding of the Oct. 7 attack, which killed some 1,200 people.

Nelson was joined on the trip by two other Trump appointees on the 9th Circuit, US Circuit Judge Patrick Bumatay and Judge Lawrence VanDyke, according to the plaintiffs and news reports on the trip.

The plaintiffs said reports of the trip showed that it appeared "designed to influence US judicial opinion regarding the legality of Israeli government actions that are a core issue in this case," raising questions about Nelson's impartiality that warranted his recusal.

Following Nelson's recusal, US Circuit Judge Consuelo Callahan was assigned to hear the case alongside two earlier-assigned judges, US Circuit Judges Jacqueline Nguyen and Daniel Bress.

The case is Defense for Children International-Palestine v. Biden, 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 24-704.

Reuters