) It technically could. Under 28 U.S.C. § 294(a), “[a]ny retired Chief Justice of the United States or Associate Justice of the Supreme Court may be designated and assigned by the Chief Justice of the United States to perform such judicial duties in any circuit, including those of a circuit justice, as he is willing to undertake.”If you have any experience with similar recusal issues or designations under any of the discussed statutes, have insight into the questions raised above, or any other thoughts on these issues, please feel free to comment below.Finally, while I’ve made this post because the case raises interesting issues of federal appellate procedure, it cannot be ignored that those issues ultimately arise from one of the worst domestic terror events that this country has ever seen.

All the judges in the Seventh Circuit declined to hear the civil case against Judge Warren, so an out-of-circuit judge had to come in. This required a certificate of necessity from the Chief Judge of the Seventh Circuit and a designation and assignment by the Chief Justice of the United States of a senior judge, under 28 U.S.C. § 294(d). Chief Justice Burger assigned Senior District Judge Edward J. Devitt, from the District of Minnesota, to the case.