Ellis v. United States

SELYA, Circuit Judge.

These appeals, which have their genesis in an effort by the petitioner, Edward B. Ellis, to mount a collateral attack on his convictions for interstate transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, present challenging legal questions complicated by a strange procedural twist. That complication arose after the original trial judge denied Ellis’s section 2255 petition in part and then recused himself as to the unadjudicated portion of the petition. A limited order of reassignment followed. The transferee judge, acting partly on the basis of a…