The Third Circuit issued a short little unpublished opinion in a bankruptcy appeal last week. The most interesting thing about it was that the panel was three judges from other circuits; I wrote about the case before oral argument, here. After that post, a couple intrepid readers helped me figure out that the apparent reason all the Third Circuit judges recused was that one of them had a peripheral financial stake in the outcome.

If the wisdom of the Third Circuit’s court-wide recusal were not clear before, it sure is clear now.

Today’s Philadelphia Inquirer features this story by Jessica Parks, about the controversy that’s erupted after one county judge refused to recuse himself from a case in which one of his fellow county judges had a massive financial interest. The Pennsylvania Superior Court recently split evenly over whether the judge’s failure to recuse was error. Even the lawyer who’s defending the trial judge’s ruling was quoted saying:

“The message was sent loud and clear to every lawyer and every judge in the state. Next time someone is in front of any court in Pennsylvania where one of the judges has a piece of the action on that case – no one’s going to ever do it again.”

“Next time.” The Third Circuit judges did the right thing this time. Reading about the Pennsylvania judiciary’s latest embarrassment, I bet they’re glad they did.