Chief justice denies Beshear request to remove Kentucky judge from COVID-19 case
Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice John D. Minton Jr. has denied a request by Gov. Andy Beshear to remove a circuit court judge who ruled against the governor’s COVID-19 executive orders.
Beshear reacted to the decision Thursday by saying “we will move beyond it.” The governor said he thinks the public understands why he sought the judge’s disqualification and that the Supreme Court will be the final arbiter on all his COVID-19 decisions.
Earlier this month, Beshear asked Scott Circuit Judge Brian Privett to disqualify himself from a lawsuit brought by state Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles and a Georgetown agritourism business. It challenged Beshear’s restrictions on businesses to curb the coronavirus pandemic. Attorney General Daniel Cameron joined the plaintiffs in the case.
Beshear sought disqualification of Privett and the other judge in the circuit’s division, Jeremy Mattox.
The Democratic governor said the judges “have engaged in conduct that calls their partiality into question.” He referred to various social media posts and political activities by the judges that he said showed they have a personal friendship and professional relationship with Quarles, who is from Georgetown.
One showed Quarles attending a political event in support of Privett and the judge thanking him and referring to Quarles as “my friend.” Another Twitter post showed the judge with Quarles at a separate political event.
Privett issued a restraining order on the governor’s restrictions. Privett’s order also limited the governor’s ability to sign future executive orders dealing with the coronavirus pandemic unless they follow certain procedures.
Privett’s court ruling and all other lower court rulings about the legality of Beshear’s executive orders have since been put on hold by the Kentucky Supreme Court.
In an 11-page order Thursday, Minton said Privett asserted that he does not have a close relationship with Quarles and and knows him only as an elected official.
Privett also said the Twitter photos in question were taken at his campaign event and that Quarles was attending a different campaign event at the same venue and only stopped by the judge’s event to meet prospective voters.
Minton said the photos “fall short of a political endorsement of Quarles” and said the circumstances in this case are “fundamentally different” from a recent case in which Minton disqualified Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd for his social media activity in a case before him.
“While Kentucky law provides no guidance on the issue of whether a judge’s social media post containing a picture with a political figures amounts to an endorsement of that official, it seems that Judge Privett’s Twitter post did not go so far,” said Minton.
“The post makes no mention of a campaign for Quarles, and, other than identifying Quarles as ‘my friend,’ the post does not imply support for Quarles as a political candidate.”
Quarles spokesman Sean Southard said of Minton’s order, “Today the chief justice rejected the governor’s attempt to bulldoze our independent judiciary — and anyone else who doesn’t agree with him.”
“We now turn our attention to the merits of the case, which is about due process and the rights of Kentuckians to be included in policy making,” Southard said. “Everyone recognizes we are in a global pandemic and we need to put public health first, but we do not need to sacrifice public input along the way.”
Beshear had included in his motion to disqualify the Scott judges a Sept. 27, 2019, order from Minton that disqualifed Franklin Circuit Judge Shepherd from overseeing a lawsuit filed by then-Attorney General Andy Beshear dealing with teacher sick-outs earlier that year. Minton transferred the case to Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate.
The disqualification came after Shepherd turned down a request by Gov. Matt Bevin’s administration to remove himself because the judge liked a Facebook post that praised volunteers on Beshear’s campaign for governor. Beshear, a Democrat, defeated the Republican governor in last Nov. 5’s general election.
Minton noted in his decision that he was convinced Shepherd would preside over the case in “a completely fair, neutral and unbiased manner.”
But, Minton said, the state’s standard for disqualification does not require actual proof or bias. “Rather, the standard simply requires disqualification in circumstances where the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned,” he said.
This story was originally published July 23, 2020 at 3:51 PM.
