William Muhr v. Kristin Lee, aka Kristin Ellias

Whether the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause permits judges who have recused, are disqualified, or have a disqualifying conflict of interest to control which judge will decide a case—by using recusal, transfer, or other assignment mechanisms to select their successors—instead of allowing neutral statewide procedures to determine reassignment.

Whether the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause permits state appellate courts to presume a lawful successor-judge assignment and place on the litigant the burden to disprove it before the very judge whose authority is challenged—even after a disqualified judge has engineered the assignment, the State’s records custodian has confirmed there is no statewide assignment order, and the same tribunal continues to decide this child’s case without any demonstrably neutral assignment on the record?