Disqualifying Federal District Judges Without Cause

This Comment will examine the desirability of adopting a without cause disqualification procedure to allow either party to remove a federal district judge from a particular case. After a discussion of the need for disqualification mechanisms, existing procedures for removal, either from a particular case or from the bench entirely, are discussed. Proposals for change, especially the Bayh bills, are outlined and evaluated in light of the practical problems peculiar to the federal district courts. The Comment concludes that a procedure to disqualify federal district judges without cause, as contained in the Bayh bills, is sound and should be adopted.

Such a procedure would provide a middle ground between the existing extremes of the practicing attorney's almost total inability to remove a judge from a case and the spectre of removal from the bench entirely; the system should provide a healthy check on federal district judges without undue strain or humiliation for either the lawyers or judges involved.