Harvard DHS lawsuit revives Supreme Court conflict of interest questions

Harvard University’s lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security for moving to ban foreign students at the Ivy League school could be on a fast track to the Supreme Court, reviving a longstanding debate over when justices should recuse themselves from cases.

Four Supreme Court justices attended Harvard. While being an alumnus of a university involved in litigation does not typically warrant recusal from a case, other factors, such as deeper involvement with a school, could change matters.

Professor James Sample, a constitutional law professor at Hofstra University, told Fox News Digital recusals from every case involving universities justices attended or were linked to would be "untenable," but recusals could be appropriate in certain circumstances.

A recusal is "entirely subjectively applied by the justice in his or her own case, and, rightly ...