Q: A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit will be assigned to hear the prosecution’s appeal of Cannon’s decision to dismiss the case. Can that panel of judges decide to boot Cannon from the case — even if neither of the parties ask for that?

A: The threshold for removing a judge from a case is quite high, and an unexpected decision like the one Cannon made is not necessarily grounds to do so.

But technically, yes, the 11th Circuit has supervisory authority over the district judges in its jurisdiction, which includes Cannon’s courthouse. That means that the appeals judges could decide on their own to remove Cannon, according to Jeffrey M. Cohen, an associate professor at Boston College Law School. But Cohen said that would be extremely rare.

“They would rather embarrass her by writing a firm opinion than removing her from the case,” Cohen said. “You want to be kind to the district court.”

It’s more common for one side to request that the judge be removed. A lawyer can argue that a judge is biased, has a pattern of wrongheaded decisions — or has become too immersed in a case and it would benefit from fresh eyes. In 2006, for example, the Justice Department successfully asked an appeals court to remove the judge overseeing a case involving billions in Native American oil and gas royalties, saying the judge seemed biased against the Interior Department.

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