Paul Egan

Detroit Free Press

LANSING — An attorney for Green Party candidate Jill Stein moved today to disqualify two Michigan Supreme Court justices from hearing cases related to the state presidential recount, saying both Chief Justice Robert Young Jr. and Justice Joan Larsen have been mentioned by President-elect Donald Trump as potential nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court, and their involvement in the case would create an appearance of impropriety.

Southfield attorney Mark Brewer said in a court filing that both Young and Larsen appeared on lists of names Trump said he was considering for filling a U.S. Supreme Court vacancy, and Trump has said the list of names is "definitive and I will chose only from it in picking future justices."

"Chief Justice Young and Justice Larsen have a substantial personal and professional interest in the election of Trump as president and in conducting themselves in a way which is favorable to him and/or hostile to, among others, other candidates for president," wrote Brewer, a former chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party.

►Related: What we know about the recount

►Related:Mismatched numbers in metro Detroit mean precincts can't be recounted

Both Trump and Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette have filed lawsuits in state court seeking to stop the recount, which began Monday, and both have asked that the cases be sent swiftly from the Michigan Court of Appeals to the seven-member Michigan Supreme Court.

A hearing is scheduled in the Michigan Court of Appeals in Lansing at 4 p.m. today.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4.