Opinion ID: 186000
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Kieffer's Appointment as Monitor and as Special Master-Monitor

Text: 34 The Department concedes that [t]he court's order elevating the Court Monitor to the judicial role of Special Master would not generally be immediately appealable. Nevertheless the Department claims that Kieffer's appointment is subject to interlocutory review both because it forms an integral part of the relief the court believed was required and because it has the effect of an injunction. These claims are essentially a restatement of those we have already rejected as part of the Department's claim of judicial overreaching. We see no need to revisit them under a new heading. 35 The orders appointing Kieffer — first as Court Monitor, and later as Special Master-Monitor — and the order denying the Department's motion to revoke Kieffer's appointment as Court Monitor do, however, present an appropriate occasion for mandamus. First, as we explain below (in Part II.B), the Department's entitlement to relief is clear. Second, there is no other way for the Department to obtain effective relief on its claims that Kieffer should not have been appointed Special Master-Monitor, nor permitted to continue as Court Monitor. 36 The ordinary route to relief from an adverse interlocutory order is to appeal from the final judgment. When the relief sought is recusal of a disqualified judicial officer, however, the injury suffered by a party required to complete judicial proceedings overseen by that officer is by its nature irreparable. As the Supreme Court has explained: 37 The remedy by appeal is inadequate. It comes after the trial and, if prejudice exist, it has worked its evil and a judgment of it in a reviewing tribunal is precarious. It goes there fortified by presumptions, and nothing can be more elusive of estimate or decision than a disposition of a mind in which there is a personal ingredient. 38 Berger v. United States, 255 U.S. 22, 36, 41 S.Ct. 230, 234, 65 L.Ed. 481 (1921); see In re United States, 666 F.2d 690, 694 (1st Cir.1981) (A case involving a motion for disqualification is clearly distinguishable from those where a party alleges an error of law that ... may be fully addressed and remedied on appeal). The parties agree that after his elevation to Special Master-Monitor status, Kieffer was serving as a judicial officer. 39 Although this court does not seem to have ruled upon the propriety of seeking the recusal of a judicial officer by petition for a writ of mandamus, every circuit to have addressed the issue has found it proper. The First through Seventh Circuits and the Tenth Circuit have each issued the writ for this purpose, see In re Boston's Children First, 244 F.3d 164 (1st Cir.2001); In re IBM Corp., 45 F.3d 641 (2d Cir.1995); In re Antar, 71 F.3d 97 (3d Cir.1995); In re Sch. Asbestos Litig., 977 F.2d 764 (3d Cir.1992); In re Rodgers, 537 F.2d 1196 (4th Cir.1976); In re Faulkner, 856 F.2d 716 (5th Cir.1988); In re Aetna Cas. & Sur. Co., 919 F.2d 1136 (6th Cir.1990) (en banc); In re Hatcher, 150 F.3d 631 (7th Cir.1998); In re Edgar, 93 F.3d 256 (7th Cir.1996); Nichols v. Alley, 71 F.3d 347 (10th Cir.1995), and the Eighth, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits have suggested they would do so in an appropriate case. See Pfizer, Inc. v. Lord, 456 F.2d 532, 536-37 (8th Cir.1972) (holding mandamus is an appropriate avenue to review recusal decision but denying the writ on the facts presented); Cordoza v. Pac. States Steel Corp., 320 F.3d 989, 999 (9th Cir.2003) (similar); In re Lopez-Lukis, 113 F.3d 1187, 1188 (11th Cir.1997) (denying writ seeking review of recusal decision because petitioners have not carried their burden of showing their right to issuance of a writ of mandamus). The Federal Circuit looks to the law of the regional circuit in which the officer to be recused sits. Baldwin Hardware Corp. v. Franksu Enter. Corp., 78 F.3d 550, 556-57 (1996); In re Solex Robotics, Inc., 56 Fed. Appx. 490 (Fed.Cir.2003) (unpublished). We join the unanimous view of our sister circuits and hold that we will issue a writ of mandamus compelling recusal of a judicial officer where the party seeking the writ demonstrates a clear and indisputable right to relief. 40 We also find it appropriate to issue the writ in order to clarify that the district court exceeded its authority when it reappointed Kieffer as Court Monitor over the Department's objection. As we discuss below, the Department's right to relief is clear, and the injury it alleges — interference with the internal deliberations of a Department of the Government of the United States — cannot be remedied by an appeal from the final judgment. In re Sealed Case, 151 F.3d at 1063.