AP and WWL-TV reported on Saturday that federal district court judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana, Greg Guidry, has refused to recuse himself from reviewing matters related to the bankruptcy reorganization proceedings of the Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans. An investigation by the Associated Press found:
... [S]ince being nominated to the federal bench in 2019 by then-President Donald Trump, [Guidry] has given nearly $50,000 to local Catholic charities from leftover contributions he received after serving 10 years as a Louisiana Supreme Court justice.
Most of that giving, $36,000 of it, came in the months after the archdiocese sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May 2020 amid a crush of sexual abuse lawsuits. That included a $12,000 donation to the archdiocese's Catholic Community Foundation in September 2020 on the same day of a series of filings in the bankruptcy, and a $14,000 donation to the same charity in July of the following year.
At a pre-trial status conference last Friday, Guidry read from an advisory opinion he had received from the federal Judicial Conference's Committee on Codes of Conduct. It concluded that no reasonable person would question Guidry's impartiality. The Advisory Opinion said in part:
none of the charities to which you contributed some of your wind-down campaign funds has been or is an actual party in any proceeding before you....
AP had also reported that Guidry had once served as a board member on the Archdiocese's charitable arm for eight years. The Advisory Opinion said, however:
[Y]our leadership as a board member of one of the charities ended 15 years ago, which is a significant span of time.
Guidry, who as district court judge would hear appeals from rulings of the district's bankruptcy judge, told the lawyers at the status conference:
Based upon that advice and based upon my certainty that I can be fair and impartial, I have decided not to recuse myself.
