Every active federal judge in Nashville recused from Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s suit against Jack Smith over Arctic Frost phone records, a move that leaves the case without a local bench.

Chief U.S. District Judge William L. Campbell Jr. signed an order on October 5 stating that every active district judge in the Middle District of Tennessee had stepped aside from the case. The lawsuit, filed September 30 by Republican Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn against former special counsel Jack Smith, now waits for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit to designate a judge from outside the district before reassignment.

Newsweek reported the order’s plain language: “All District Judges of the Middle District of Tennessee have recused in this matter.” The filing gave no reason. It did not claim any judge held a specific conflict of interest or bias tied to the litigation.

Blackburn sued Smith personally over toll records and phone metadata his Arctic Frost team obtained through subpoenas. Those records covered a cellphone she used for legislative work. They showed who she contacted plus the times and lengths of the calls. The complaint does not claim investigators captured the contents of any conversations.

The 46-page filing alleges violations of the Speech or Debate Clause, the First Amendment, and the Fourth Amendment. It also challenges the legality of Smith’s appointment as special counsel. Blackburn seeks court declarations that both the appointment and the records collection were unlawful, orders requiring the return or destruction of certain records, and $1 in nominal damages from Smith.

Blackburn frames the case as a check on weaponized power

Blackburn has cast the suit as accountability for what she calls an abuse of federal power. Her public statement tied the subpoenas to a broader probe she says targeted conservatives and even the president.

"Through his Arctic Frost witch hunt that targeted conservatives across America and even the President of the United States, Jack Smith perpetrated one of the worst abuses of government power in our nation's history."

She added a second point on the purpose of the litigation.

"This lawsuit is solely about holding Mr. Smith accountable and ensuring that our nation's justice system can never again be weaponized against the American people."

Attorney Margaret Harker of the New Civil Liberties Alliance, which represents Blackburn, confirmed the recusals reached her team but offered no extra detail on the judges’ thinking. Readers following related Senate scrutiny of the same subpoena tactics will recognize the pattern from Grassley hearing pressure on Arctic Frost NDOs.

"New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) received notice that the district judges in the Middle District of Tennessee have recused themselves from the case, but has no further information concerning the basis for recusal. We look forward to vindicating Senator Blackburn's civil liberties as the case continues."

Four judges, two parties of appointment, one empty bench

The four recused judges are Campbell, Aleta A. Trauger, Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr., and Eli J. Richardson. Campbell, nominated by President Donald Trump in July 2017 and confirmed in January 2018, has served as chief judge since 2024. Richardson, also a Trump nominee, won confirmation in October 2018.

Trauger was nominated by President Bill Clinton in September 1998 and confirmed the next month. Crenshaw was nominated by President Barack Obama in February 2015, confirmed in April 2016, and served as chief judge from 2017 until 2024. Party of appointment did not change the outcome. All four left the case.

Federal law under 28 U.S.C. § 455 requires a judge to disqualify whenever “impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” The statute also lists more specific grounds such as personal bias, prior involvement as a lawyer or government official, certain financial interests, or close relationships. The Code of Conduct for United States Judges carries similar rules. The October 5 order never cited any of those provisions as its basis.

House investigators have already released material on the same secret phone-record subpoenas aimed at GOP lawmakers, a paper trail detailed in coverage of Jack Smith transcripts on lawmaker phone records. Blackburn’s suit puts those tactics before a federal civil court instead of a hearing room.

Smith’s prior defense and the Arctic Frost backdrop

Arctic Frost examined efforts surrounding the certification of the 2020 presidential election. Investigators obtained phone metadata linked to Blackburn and several other lawmakers. Smith has said the records did not include call contents. His office has also said it consulted the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section before issuing the subpoenas and that the effort was cleared by that section and complied with department regulations.

Those characterizations sit in tension with Blackburn’s constitutional claims. She argues the collection of legislative-related toll records crossed lines the Speech or Debate Clause and the First and Fourth Amendments protect. The suit names Smith in his personal capacity, not the government as an institution.

Parallel fights over alleged political targeting by prosecutors have surfaced elsewhere, including claims that staff inside another Democratic office were directed to focus on Trump and his allies, as raised in a whistleblower account from Letitia James’ office. Blackburn’s filing keeps the focus on one special counsel’s subpoena power and its reach into a sitting senator’s communications metadata.

What happens next in the Middle District case

Until the 6th Circuit designates an outside-district judge, the matter lacks a permanent assigned district judge. The order is clear on the process and silent on timing. No public schedule has been announced for the designation or the subsequent reassignment.

Blackburn filed on September 30. The full-bench recusal order followed on October 5. In between, Smith appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 29, and Blackburn spoke at a committee hearing days earlier. The civil case now moves on a separate track from those oversight sessions.

Federal courts sometimes see high-stakes political cases produce sharp procedural turns, including a recent instance in which a federal judge referred Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner to the DOJ over alleged perjury and obstruction. Here the turn is collective recusal rather than a referral, yet the effect is the same: the original local bench is out, and an outside judge must take the file.

Open questions remain exactly where the order left them. The judges supplied no written explanation beyond the fact of recusal. The 6th Circuit has not named the replacement. The full docket number and complete case caption details beyond the CourtListener path reference were not laid out in the initial reporting. How many “several other lawmakers” had similar metadata collected is also not quantified in the available account.

Blackburn still seeks the return or destruction of the records at issue, formal findings that Smith’s appointment and the collection were unlawful, and the symbolic $1 award. Smith’s earlier statements about Public Integrity Section clearance and the absence of call contents remain his public posture as described in the coverage. Neither side has a home-court judge in Nashville any longer.

When every local judge steps away from a senator’s challenge to a special counsel’s phone-record haul, the system is telling the public the fight over Arctic Frost tactics is too hot for the usual bench, and that accountability will have to come from somewhere else.