A federal appeals court judge’s speech supporting a Georgetown Law professor’s critical tweet about the nomination of a Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court has sparked debate among legal academics about whether it could raise recusal issues in the future.

Judge James Ho, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, appeared before the Georgetown Law’s chapter of the Federalist Society on Tuesday and defended professor Ilya Shapiro, who is currently on paid leave from the law school. Shapiro in January was widely criticized after tweeting that Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is “objectively” the best pick for the U.S. Supreme Court, and that any nominee President Joe Biden selects will be a “lesser black woman.”