PrepTest 143, Section 2, Question 11
The current approach to recusal and disqualification of(432 more words not shown)
It can be inferred from(35 more words not shown)
- AThe guidelines for(6 more words not shown)
- BSuch statutes are(10 more words not shown)
- CSuch statutes can(17 more words not shown)
- DSuch statutes conflict(18 more words not shown)
- EThere is no(11 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
Translate the statute into an ordinary situation: a party believes the judge is biased and asks for that judge's removal. What if the party doesn't know about the prejudice? A mechanism based on raising an allegation may miss bias that nobody outside the judge can see.
What we’re looking for
That's the second paragraph's concern: some actual bias is not apparent to outside observers, or even to judges themselves. Connect that concern to the people who would need to request disqualification.
Working the answers
- A
The author calls the guidance vague, not excessively rigid. The complaint is that the rules leave key judgments unclear, rather than prescribe too inflexible a result.
- B
The author recommends replacing these motions with transparent reasoning, but doesn't establish that the two requirements could not coexist. Preferring one approach does not make the alternatives logically incompatible.
- CCorrect
Parties to the case can be among the outside observers who do not recognize a judge's prejudice. If they don't know about it, their ability to request removal may fail to eliminate that actual bias. This applies the second paragraph's criticism to the particular mechanism in the question.
- D
The text doesn't establish a conflict between permitting a party's request and requiring a judge to recuse. Those responsibilities needn't contradict each other simply because different people can initiate the process.
- E
The author doesn't say every request should be granted. A system could reasonably deny an unsupported request. Lack of a guarantee is not the weakness identified here.
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