“Prejudice” is derived from the Latin term, praeiudicium. Literally, “prior judgement”. As it got handed down into English, it came to mean that pre-judging a case was a very bad idea.
The American high school girls suing for the right of females to exclusively compete in female sports have recently learned that the judge set to hear the case is very prejudiced indeed.
On [May 9], attorneys representing three female high school track athletes legally moved to call on the judge overseeing their case, Soule et al v. Connecticut Association of Schools et al., to recuse himself after he chastised and forbade the attorneys from describing biologically male transgender athletes as male.
That the athletes in question are indeed male, is the whole crux of the girls’ case. If the judge is forbidding the plaintiffs to even describe them as male, how has he not pre-judged the case?
As highlighted by The Daily Wire in February, student-athletes Selina Soule, Alanna Smith, and Chelsea Mitchell, represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) for permitting biological boys to compete in events and win awards that would otherwise have gone to girls.
A conference call transcript obtained by The Daily Wire from April 16 included District Judge Robert Chatigny scolding ADF attorneys for describing biologically male trans athletes as male[…]
Then, the judge ordered, “So going forward, we will not refer to the proposed intervenors as ‘males’; understood?”
Mr. [Roger] Brooks [lead ADF attorney representing the Plaintiffs] was not allowed to respond to the judge until he told him he “understood” what he was saying.
“The entire focus of the case has to do with the fact that male bodies have a physiological advantage over female bodies that gives them an unfair advantage to competition,” Brooks explained. “The entire focus of the case is the fact that the CIAC policy allows individuals who are physiologically, genetically male to compete in girls’ athletics.”
What’s worse is that the judge is either so biased or so uninformed that he actually thinks claiming that males are females is “science”.
“Referring to these individuals as ‘transgender females’ is consistent with science, common practice and perhaps human decency. To refer to them as ‘males,’ period, is not accurate, certainly not as accurate, and I think it’s needlessly provocative; and, for me, civility is a very important value, especially in litigation.”
As always, leftists pontificate about “civility” – all the while cry-bullying and brow-beating anyone who disagrees with them.
On Saturday, ADF attorneys filed a motion arguing that Judge Chatigyny’s order is “legally unprecedented” and calling for his recusal, National Review reported Monday.
“A disinterested observer would reasonably believe that the Court’s order and comments have destroyed the appearance of impartiality in this proceeding. That requires recusal,” the motion reportedly says.
The judge has undermined the girls’ entire case, before they even set foot in the courtroom. This is prejudice, writ large.
What hope can these girls possibly have of getting an impartial hearing?
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