Opinion
8:21-cr-271-KKM-MRM
09-09-2022
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, v. BRIAN CARROLL.
ORDER
Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, United States District Judge.
Upon further examination of this action, I recuse myself. Title 28, United States Code, Section 455 requires a judge to “disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” The standard for determining the presence of a “reasonable question” about a judge's impartiality is an “objective” standard. As such, the issue is not whether the judge is actually impartial, but whether a reasonable, informed, and disinterested third party would retain a substantial question about the judge's impartiality. The requirement of impartiality disqualifies a judge with either a favorable or an unfavorable inclination or disposition toward a party, if the inclination or disposition is based on extra-judicial events or relations.
In this action, a member of my nuclear family had a close relation for over three decades with an entity integrally involved with the allegations lodged in the indictment. That relation is well-known to me through which I have knowledge of that entity based on extra-judicial information. As a result, a reasonable and informed person might retain a question about my impartiality (although I have no question about my impartiality in fact). Accordingly, the Clerk is directed to reassign by random draw this case to another District Judge.
ORDERED.