Judicial Recusals

Answer choices

1. A

   Out of Scope24% picked this

   The standards in place fail to assure the general public that the legal system is adequately

   Out of Scope: fail to assure public This is a pretty tempting answer. "Failing to assure someone of X" is a pretty soft idea, because assuring someone of X is pretty strong. We might keep this on a first pass, but ultimately the author isn't saying that the problem with the current approach is that it's failing to assure the general public that we're protecting against bias -- it's that we're not actually doing a good job protecting against bias. Since the current approach "focuses on appearances", it is actually probably good at convincing people we're eliminating bias. The author isn't concerned that people are discouraged about the protections against bias. The author is concerned that the current system might leave people feeling satisfied that we've protected against bias, while "sources of actual bias that are not apparent to outside observers (like the public) go overlooked".

   24%
2. B

   Out of Scope: considered meddlesome1% picked this

   The professional codes of conduct for judges are considered meddlesome and ineffective

   We have no support for the notion that judges find their professional codes of conduct meddlesome or ineffective. This has nothing to do with our Support Text at the end of the 2nd paragraph.

   1%
3. C

   Too Strong: rarely / many8% picked this

   Judges are rarely removed from cases for bias when they are not actually biased, but they are allowed to sit on many

   The end of the second paragraph is suggesting that "sources of actual bias may be overlooked", but it is a little stronger to say "in many cases, judges are allowed to sit on the case even though they're biased". More egregiously, though, is the claim that judges are rarely removed for bias when they are not actually biased. That's equivalent to saying that "most of the time that judges are removed for bias, the judge is actually biased". We don't have any text support for a claim that strong. The middle sentence of the 2nd paragraph sounds like the author thinks that "judges would be cognitively capable of handling lots of these cases they're removed from without bias. They are just taking themselves off the case (or being taken off) because of the appearance of bias."

   8%
4. D

   Too Strong: rarely / many3% picked this

   Judges are rarely allowed to sit on cases when they are biased, but judges are removed from many cases for bias even

   Just like (C), this is using quantifiers that are more extreme than any support text we have available. Can we point to any sentence where the author is suggesting that "Most of the time when the judge is biased, they are not allowed to sit on the case"? Not really, but that's what the first half of this answer says. The final sentence of the 2nd paragraph opens up the possibility that sources of actual bias could be overlooked by outsiders, so it's possible that the author thinks that most of the time that judges are biased, they don't appear biased, and so there's no mechanism to take them off the case. Can we point to any sentence where the author suggests that judges are removed from many cases, even though they weren't biased? Somewhat. The middle sentence of the 2nd paragraph sounds like the author thinks that "judges would be cognitively capable of handling lots of these cases they're removed from without bias. They are just taking themselves off the case (or being taken off) because of the appearance of bias." If we didn't have a softer answer available, we would probably be okay with supporting the second half of this answer.

   3%
5. E

   Correct64% picked this

   Judges are sometimes removed from cases for bias even though they are not actually biased, while some instances of judicial bias

   Why this is right

   This is instantly our most lovable answer on a first pass, because of the soft language: sometimes / some instances The middle sentence of the 2nd paragraph suggests that judges are sometimes removed from cases because of the appearance of bias, even though their involvement in the case would not make them cognitively incapable of properly reaching a just outcome. The final sentence of the 2nd paragraph suggests that an actual source of bias might be present but overlooked by outside observers and even judges themselves, and thus never detected.

   Skill tested: Author Opinion · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

   64%