A federal trial judge in North Dakota has rejected a request that he step back from a lawsuit over protests against the Dakota Access pipeline, after he signed a letter saying he won’t hire law clerks from Columbia University over the institution’s handling of pro-Gaza protests on its campus.
US District Judge Daniel Traynor on Friday quickly rebuffed a motion seeking his disqualification, as current and former Columbia Law School faculty are representing the plaintiffs in that lawsuit.
It appears to be one of the first times that a judge who signed the Columbia letter last May has been asked ...