Wallace v. United States of America

Filing 6

ORDER denying 3 Motion for Recusal.. Signed by Chief Judge Frank D. Whitney on 4/4/17. (clc)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
WESTERN DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA
CHARLOTTEDIVISION
NO. 3:17CV117-FDW-DCK
DON BRADLEY WALLACE,
Plaintiff,
v.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Defendant.

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ORDER

PLAINTIFF DON BRADLEY WALLACE moves the Court to recuse from the abovecaptioned matter because the Court formerly served in the United States Army Reserve and “could
carry an unfair bias towards the intelligence community.” (Doc. No. 3, Page 1).
A judge must recuse when his or her impartiality might reasonably be questioned. 28
U.S.C. § 455(a). This Court handles hundreds of cases each year where the United States
government (or a component thereof such as the Department of the Army) is a party. If the Court
were to recuse in the above case, the Court would have to recuse in all matters where the United
States government is a party.
Furthermore, Plaintiff has made no showing of any bias or prejudice by this Court, despite
a ten year history of this Court presiding over trials where the United States is a party. Robinson
v. N. Carolina Employment Sec. Comm’n, No. 3:09-CR-00088 at *1, 2009 WL 3150324 (recusal
not required upon spurious or loosely based charges of partiality).

Finally, the Court has no extrajudicial knowledge of this matter or of PLAINTIFF
WALLACE; thus the Court is not required to recuse. Shaw v. Martin, 733 F.2d 304, 308(4th Cir.
1984).
THEREFORE PLAINTIFF’s motion to recuse (Doc. No. 3) is DENIED.
Signed: April 4, 2017