Judge in Notre Dame Pro-Life Protest Case Married to Pro-Abortion ND Professor
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
September 28, 2009
South Bend, IN (LifeNews.com) — An attorney for the pro-life protesters arrested on the campus of Notre Dame University is asking for the judge in the case to recuse herself. That is because Judge Jenny Pitts Manier, assigned to the ND88 case, is married to pro-abortion Notre Dame professor Edward Manier.
Attorney Tom Dixon today filed a second motion for recusal in the “ND 88” case.
In his papers, he provided details support for his assertion in his previous recusal motion that there exists sufficient actual and perceived bias.
Dixon also cites Indiana state law in saying that Judge Manier is require to recuse herself because her spouse works for a party in the case.
"Edward Manier has no personal or professional interest in the outcome of these cases,’ the judge said in dismissing the previous request.
Dixon responds: "When one analyzes Edward Manier’s political contributions to pro abortion candidates and political action committees when one reads Edward Manier’s writings referencing members of the Christian right — calling them "fundamentalist mullahs" and "jackleg preachers” — it is hard to comprehend how Judge Manier could derive from her husband’s writings the notion that he has no interest in the outcome of these cases."
The motion notes that Judge Jenny Ann Manier graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1982, that Edward Manier was her professor during her undergraduate years.
Pitts graduated from the University of Notre Dame law school in 1985 and married Professor Manier the same year, according to the ND88 web site.
"The affidavit does not mention that Edward Manier and Jenny Ann Pitts were the focus of a major scandal on the Notre Dame campus when Professor Manier, married with seven children, left his wife for Pitts, his former student and thirty-years his junior," the web site alleges.
In the new recusal motion, Dixon addresses an exchange that occurred during the August 2009 hearing on his original recusal motion.
Dixon describes how Judge Manier struggled to respond when asked whether her husband had ever written on the topic of abortion before choosing to disregard the question and say only "I’m not my husband."
"Neither Dixon nor anyone has alleged that Judge Manier is her husband but rather that her husband has been so outspoken in his pro-abortion stance that it creates actual and perceived bias," the web site says.
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