Sotomayor Follows Witness Prep Advice in Deflecting Question on Supreme Court Recusals

Justice Sonia Sotomayor was careful to avoid a simmering controversy over Supreme Court recusals when answering audience questions on Friday after receiving a diversity award from the Philadelphia Bar Association. The recusal questioner was Abraham Reich, co-chairman of Fox Rothschild in Philadelphia and a member of the ABA House of Delegates. The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court have not adopted a comprehensive code of judicial ethics, Reich says. As a result, issues of recusal or disqualification are left up to individual justices, with no requirements for review or transparency. “In a high profile case, the failure to recuse could have a significant impact,” Reich tells the…