Judge conflict disclosures
Aquila v. Lorrie Sinclair Taylor
In brief
- Where it stands
- Petition Pending
Awaiting an order on the petition
- What it’s about
- Andrew Aquila asks whether the Fourth Circuit could dismiss his appeal of a later order as an appeal of an earlier one, whether the later order is separately appealable, and whether his objection that the judge should step aside was given up without full disclosure.
- What's at stake
- For Aquila, whether the Supreme Court will review the Fourth Circuit's handling of his appeal remains unresolved.
Summary: written with AI from the case record.
What it's about
His petition was distributed for conference and remains pending.
Aquila's petition raises questions about which court orders can be appealed and when an objection that a judge should step aside can be given up.
Question presented
1. Whether, consistent with the party-presentation principle reaffirmed in Margolin v. National Association of Immigration Judges, 608 U.S. (2026), and the functional notice principle reaffirmed in Parrish v. United States, 605 U.S. 376 (2025), a court of appeals may dismiss an appeal by substituting an antecedent nonfinal order for the later Rule 60(b)(4) order actually identified in the notice of appeal. 2. Whether an order denying timely relief under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b)(4) is an independently appealable final order under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and whether a court of appeals may avoid review of that order by collapsing it into the earlier order alleged to be void. 3. Whether 28 U.S.C. § 455(e)’s requirement of “full disclosure on the record” is a mandatory precondition to any valid waiver of disqualification under § 455(a), and whether, in the absence of such disclosure, courts may treat disqualification objections as waived, forfeited, harmless, or curable without applying the retroactive-vacatur framework required by Liljeberg v. Health Services Acquisition Corp., 486 U.S. 847 (1988).
What happens next
The Court must decide whether to hear the case; the petition was distributed for a Dec. 4, 2026, conference, but that does not guarantee a decision date or mean review was granted. Oral argument has not been scheduled.
Documents
Docket activity
New analysis added
AI analysis generated: Case Briefing
Case data updated: summary, question_presented, generation_metadata
Case data updated: question_presented, extraction_metadata
Brief added: Petition
More questions
- Why does Aquila object to how the Fourth Circuit read his appeal notice?
- He asks whether the court could treat his appeal as challenging an earlier order that did not end the case, rather than the later order named in his notice.
- Can Aquila appeal the later order by itself?
- He asks whether an order denying relief under Rule 60(b)(4), a rule for asking a court to set aside a judgment said to be void, can be appealed on its own.
- What does Aquila ask about his objection to the judge?
- He asks whether a party can give up an objection that a judge should step aside without full disclosure in the court record, and what courts must do if disclosure is missing.
Sources
Primary materials plus reporting. Best-effort analysis: this explainer relies on a mix of primary materials and trusted secondary sources. Official filings and opinions remain authoritative.