In 1974 , federal judge Leon Higginbotham issued his decision in '' Comm . of Pa. v. Local 542 , Int ' l Union of Operating Engineers '' , explaining why he as an African American judge with a history of active involvement in the civil rights struggle was not obligated to recuse himself from presiding over litigation concerning claims of racial discrimination . He held , in an opinion that was followed by later judges , including a series of black judges who faced recusal requests , that a judge should not be forced to recuse solely because of their membership in a minority group . Jewish federal Judge Paul Borman relied on the Higginbotham opinion in part in his 2014 decision not to recuse himself from the trial of Palestinian-American Rasmea Odeh . Similarly , in 1994 , Jewish then-federal-Judge Michael Mukasey refused to recuse himself in a case concerning the 1993 World Trade Center bombing , warning that his recusal would " disqualify not only an obscure district judge such as the author of this opinion , but also Justices Brandeis and Frankfurter ... each having been both a Jew and a Zionist "
1993 World Trade Center bombing
1993 World Trade Center bombing
Judicial disqualification