The Trial Lawyer Fall 2024 | Page 56

EVEN WHEN BIG CASES INTERSECT WITH THEIR FAMILIES ’ INTERESTS , MANY JUDGES CHOOSE NOT TO RECUSE

By Noah Pransky , Brooke Williams , and Andrew Botolino for ProPublica

Soon after longtime New Orleans attorney Wendy Vitter became a federal judge in the Eastern District of Louisiana , she heard a lawsuit against the local government in Plaquemines Parish , a peninsular province encompassing the final 70 miles of the Mississippi River , between New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico .

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