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Judicial Ethics

Magistrate Judge Declines to Recuse After Sanctioning Rabbi Shmuley Boteach for Violating Court Order in Anti-Semitism Lawsuit

An interesting discussion of recusal, timeliness, and the social relationships between judges and lawyers and their families.

Eugene Volokh | 9.15.2026 11:32 AM

From Magistrate Judge Marty Fulgueria Elfenbein yesterday in Fontainebleau Florida Hotel, LLC v. Botach(for more on the sanctions decision, see this post):

On December 19, 2024, Plaintiff Fontainebleau Florida Hotel, LLC ("Plaintiff") filed this action in state court alleging claims against Defendant for defamation, aiding and abetting defamation, tortious interference with business relationships, and aiding and abetting tortious interference with business relationships. Thereafter, on January 16, 2025, Defendant removed the lawsuit to the Southern District of Florida and the case was assigned to the Honorable K. Michael Moore. On January 21, 2025, Judge Moore referred all pretrial discovery matters to the undersigned….

At the commencement of a discovery hearing held on September 30, 2025, the Court sua sponte made a disclosure to the Parties—one that was prompted by Mr. Friedman's filing of his Notice of Appearance [on behalf of Plaintiff]. At the beginning of the discovery hearing, the Court advised the Parties of the following:

THE COURT: OK. Well, good morning to all of you. I did want to before we start this hearing today to disclose, because I see Mr. Friedman entered an appearance last night in the case, I do want to disclose to the parties that I am friends with Mr. Friedman's wife. She and I worked as [Assistant] United States attorneys together for five years at the U.S. Attorney's Office. Nonetheless, my friendship is with Mr. Friedman's wife, not with Mr. Friedman. So I do disclose that. Nonetheless, for the parties to know that, I don't think there is any kind of basis to recuse, but I like to make those disclosures in an abundance of caution.

Nearly one year after this disclosure, on September 8, 2026, Defendant moved to recuse and or disqualify the undersigned from this matter on the basis of undisclosed facts that, according to Defendant, would lead "an objective observer, fully informed of the undisclosed relationship" to "doubt" the undersigned's "impartiality." Specifically, Defendant points to five undisclosed facts, which are the following: (1) that the undersigned and Mr. Friedman's wife, Lindsey Lazopoulos Friedman, prosecuted two cases together while working at the United States Attorney's Office; (2) that Mrs. Lazopoulos Friedman served on the Court's Magistrate Judge Merit Selection Panel in 2023 that ultimately resulted in the undersigned's appointment as a Magistrate Judge by the District Judges of the Southern District of Florida; (3) that Mrs. Lazopoulos Friedman was one of the speakers at the undersigned's investiture; (4) that the Friedman family belongs to the same Jewish congregation as the undersigned and both participated as "Captains" at Temple Beth Am's Mitzvah Day program in 2023 and 2024; and (5) that the undersigned served on the Court's Jewish American Heritage Month Committee with Mrs. Lazopoulos Friedman and [one of plaintiff's lawyers,] Mr. Burstyn….

Defendant then argues that these non-disclosures coupled with the Court's recent Report and Recommendations on Plaintiff's Motion for Sanctions, recommending case-dispositive sanctions against........

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