Pro-Wal-Mart Ruling Let Stand Despite Judge’s Stock Ownership

A suit against Wal-Mart Lousiana LLC won’t be revived, even though the judge who dismissed it owned stock in the company and should have recused herself, the Fifth Circuit said.

Judge Rebecca Doherty owned Wal-Mart stock when she dismissed Sloane Roberts’s 2015 suit against the company and law enforcement officers, which grew from injuries she sustained during her arrest in 2010.

After the conflict was discovered in 2021, Roberts filed for relief from the judgment, but it was denied.

The appellate opinion comes in the face of a new law requiring more transparency in the financial holdings of federal judges. ...