We've been calling on the justices to recuse from these types of cases — given the large payouts and the obvious conflicts — for years.
It’s regrettable, though, that decisions as important as whether to recuse, affecting fundamental questions of accountability, currently rest on each individual justice’s private discretion.
Justice Gorsuch did not participate in the case, likely because he had participated in earlier litigation involving Glossip while serving as a judge on the Tenth Circuit.