somewhere in america and you have a conflict, they can find another trial judge to take your place. same with the courts of appeal. there are no spare supreme court justices. so any time a justice recuses that leaves the court at a dean minutishes capacity. it s usually up to the justices themselves to decide whether to recuse. and they usually recuse for direct conflicts of interest. they have a family member. they were a judge that on the lower court when a case was decided. they worked on the issue when they were at the justice department. or they have some personal financial stake. they own stock in the company, that kind of thing. those are the usual reasons for recusal. recusals on political grounds are really exceptional. remember, ruth bader ginsburg made some very harsh comments about president trump, saying she might move out of the country if he got elected that kind of thing. she later apologized. there were some suggestions that maybe she d have to recuse from
united states political system of the early 2000s, what goes around comes around. all right, joining me now from outside the department of justice is pete williams. here in studio with me, nico lus christoph, column nus for the new york times. pete, in a speech we ve heard parts of from brett kavanaugh, he talked about, you know, what happens at georgetown prep stays at georgetown prep, and that s the part that most people heard. he talks about being a supreme court justice or being a judge as an umpire, leaving your politicians at the door so you re able to be a fair arbiter of all things that come before you. in those comments that we just played there are many people who say brett kavanaugh wasn t behaving like somebody who would be that umpire. that s the question here. the rules for recusal of supreme court justices are different than they are for the lower court judges for the simple reason if you re a trial judge