Easley v. University of Michigan Bd. of Regents
| Decision Date | 06 September 1990 |
| Docket Number | No. 86-1483,86-1483 |
| Citation | 906 F.2d 1143 |
| Parties | 61 Ed. Law Rep. 465 Kendrix M. EASLEY, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN BOARD OF REGENTS; Terry Sandalow, Individually, and as Dean of the Law School; et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Kendrix M. Easley (argued), Detroit, Mich., pro se.
Doris M. Harker (argued), Ann Arbor, Mich., for defendants-appellees.
Before MERRITT, Chief Judge, RYAN, Circuit Judge, and PECK, Senior Circuit Judge.
Kendrix M. Easley has been engaged in an ongoing effort to obtain, through litigation, a law degree and damages from The University of Michigan. The history of the case, and our final disposition of all the issues previously raised, save one, may be found in Easley v. Univ. of Michigan Bd. of Regents, et al., 853 F.2d 1351 (6th Cir.1988). The one issue not resolved in Easley is the plaintiff's appeal of the refusal of the district judge who tried the case, Honorable John Feikens, to recuse himself. We declined to resolve that issue on the record before us when the district court's judgment was first appealed and we remanded the matter with instructions to the district court to conduct a hearing, enlarge the record, and make specific findings of fact and conclusions of law relating to the claim that Judge Feikens abused his discretion in declining to recuse himself under the provisions of 28 U.S.C. Secs. 144 and 455. We retained jurisdiction.
The Honorable Barbara Hackett conducted the required hearing and concluded in a written opinion that Judge Feikens did not abuse his discretion in denying the recusal motion. For the reasons that follow, we resolve the recusal issue against the appellant, deny the emergency motion for recusal, and affirm the judgment of the district court at 632 F.Supp. 1539 (E.D.Mich.1986).
For the reader's convenience, we shall recount briefly such details of the case as are necessary to an understanding of the recusal issue and the context in which it is presented.
I.
On November 21, 1984, appellant Easley, formerly a student at The University of Michigan School of Law, but who was suspended for plagiarism, 1 filed an eight-count complaint in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan against a number of officials of the University. In Easley, we described the appellant's eight claims as follows:
Count I: The University of Michigan lacks jurisdiction and authority to rescind a degree.
Count II: A violation of procedural due process and rights secured by the fourth amendment.
Count III: A violation of substantive due process.
Count IV: Race discrimination.
Count V: A violation of the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, Michigan Complied Laws Annotated (MCLA) Sec. 37.2101, et seq.
Count VI: Breach of contract.
Count VII: Negligence.
Count VIII: Intentional interference with contractual relations.
Defendants moved to dismiss the complaint and Easley responded. In addition, he filed a motion to disqualify Judge Feikens based upon the Judge's association with the University's Law School and "his well-publicized Negrophobia."
Prior to trial, the court dismissed Count I of the complaint because it alleged no basis for federal jurisdiction, denied summary judgment, declined to dismiss Counts II, III and IV, and declined to exercise pendant jurisdiction over the state law claims alleged in Counts V, VI, VII and VIII, 619 F.Supp. 418 (E.D.Mich.1985), dismissing those claims without prejudice.
For an understanding of what occurred next, we burden this opinion with a quotation from a portion of what we said in Easley:
After this court denied Easley's subsequent petition for a writ of mandamus directing Judge Feikens to disqualify himself, the district court held a bifurcated bench trial on Easley's equitable claim. The court found it unnecessary to determine whether Easley's equitable claim was grounded in procedural or substantive due process because based upon its view of the facts, the court concluded, as a matter of law, that since Easley had never completed his degree requirements, he, therefore, never obtained a property interest in a J.D. degree. Easley v. University of Michigan Bd. of Regents, 627 F.Supp. 580 (E.D.Mich.1986). Accordingly, the court denied Easley's claim for injunctive relief and entered a judgment of no cause of action.
Easley renewed his motion to disqualify Judge Feikens and also moved for a new trial before an unbiased judge. The motion was predicated upon the same allegations of bias underlying Easley's earlier unsuccessful motion to disqualify and was apparently filed without the knowledge or consent of Easley's attorney, causing the latter to withdraw. Defendants moved for summary judgment on Easley's remaining legal claims.
Judge Feikens subsequently denied Easley's motions to disqualify and for a new trial. Easley v. University of Michigan Bd. of Regents, 632 F.Supp. 1539 (E.D.Mich.1986). Further, after examining the pleadings and documents, and after an extended colloquy with Easley, who was proceeding pro se at this point, Judge Feikens granted defendants' motion for summary judgment on Easley's equal protection and first amendment claims and dismissed Easley's search and seizure claim for failure to plead brief, simple, and clear facts showing a basis for relief. Id. This appeal followed.
853 F.2d at 1355 (footnote omitted).
We then rejected Easley's appeal on the substantive issues, concluding:
Assuming that Judge Feikens should not have disqualified himself, we find no error in the court's disposition of Easley's equitable and legal claims. However, given the strong interest in promoting public confidence in the integrity of the judicial process, we must look more closely at the affiliations alleged by Easley to determine if Judge Feikens abused his discretion in denying Easley's two motions for disqualification under 28 U.S.C. Secs. 144 and 455.
In parts III. and IV. of our opinion in Easley, 853 F.2d at 1355, et seq., we discussed in detail Easley's motions to disqualify Judge Feikens under 28 U.S.C. Secs. 144 and 455. We observed that Easley made a number of allegations in support of his motion for recusal relating to Judge Feikens' alleged association with The University of Michigan and his alleged racial bias. We rejected Easley's claim of racial bias as entirely unwarranted and then turned to the allegations of Judge Feikens' association with The University of Michigan.
We noted that while some of the grounds advanced for seeking Judge Feikens' disqualification on the basis of his own and his sons' affiliation with The University of Michigan are patently meritless, out of an abundance of caution, others deserved scrutiny on remand. That "abundance of caution," we said, derived principally from "the strong interest in promoting public confidence in the integrity of the judicial process." To fully protect that "strong interest," we reserved our decision on the recusal issue as it relates to Judge Feikens' alleged association with the University and remanded the matter to the district court. We directed that:
[T]he district court shall conduct an evidentiary hearing for the limited purposes of (1) enlarging the record regarding the nature of Judge Feikens' associations and affiliations with the Law School, its faculty, and its administrators; (2) determining whether Judge Feikens acquired extra-judicial knowledge of matters material to this controversy through these associations, particularly the Law School's Committee of Visitors; and (3) determining, notwithstanding the court's findings regarding (2) above, whether, because of such associations, Judge Feikens' impartiality in this matter might "reasonably be questioned."
Prior to the hearing on remand, appellant filed a number of requests to obtain discovery through interrogatories, requests for admissions, and depositions upon oral examination. In a scheduling order dated January 13, 1989, Judge Hackett set the closing date for discovery at March 6, 1989, limited the form of discovery to interrogatories and request for production of documents, and set a date for the evidentiary hearing at which "[a]n opportunity for examination of witnesses will be available." On February 17, 1989, the district court denied Easley's motion to modify the scheduling order to permit "depositions upon oral examination" and "requests for admissions" for the reason that Easley was not being denied access to information. On March 9, 1989, in response to defendants' objection to certain of Easley's interrogatories, the district court granted defendants a protective order because they
have complied with the discovery order entered by the court and have made...
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