An Iranian-American immigration judge who challenged a U.S. Department of Justice order that she recuse herself from cases involving Iranian nationals has struck a deal with the DOJ that looks an awful lot like a government capitulation. Under a settlement announced on November 4, the DOJ agreed to lift its order and to pay the judge and her attorneys at Cooley $200,000.
In summer 2012, Judge A. Ashley Tabaddor’s routine request for permission to attend a White House roundtable honoring prominent Iranian-Americans was flagged for review by Jeffrey Rosenblum, the general counsel at the DOJ’s Executive Office for Immigration Review. Rosenblum, in issuing an approval, said that given Tabaddor’s public profile in the Iranian-American community, she should recuse herself from immigration matters involving Iranian nationals.
