Opinion ID: 593181
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: the petitions relating to disqualification

Text: 29 We now consider the petitions of Pfizer, ACandS, and Asten Group, which request that we direct Judge Kelly to disqualify himself because of his attendance at a conference on the hazards of asbestos in place. The conference, which was sponsored by an organization of scientists called the Collegium Ramazzini, took place in early June 1990 and was entitled The Third Wave of Asbestos Disease: Exposure to Asbestos in Place. Public Health Control (the Third Wave Conference, for short). 30 A. Mandamus as a Means to Review a District Judge's Failure to Disqualify Himself or Herself 31 Initially, we must determine whether a mandamus petition is a proper means for a court of appeals to review a district judge's refusal to disqualify himself or herself from a case. The plaintiffs contend that Green v. Murphy, 259 F.2d 591 (3d Cir.1958) (in banc), and City of Pittsburgh v. Simmons, 729 F.2d 953 (3d Cir.1984), hold that mandamus does not lie for that purpose, but that a refusal to disqualify is reviewable only after final judgment. The petitioners respond that even though Green and its progeny have held that appeal after final judgment suffices where actual bias is alleged under 28 U.S.C. § 144 (1988), 6 this court has never taken a position on the use of mandamus to enforce the broader command of 28 U.S.C. § 455, which additionally requires disqualification upon the appearance of partiality. 32 Section 455 is addressed directly to judicial officers, requiring them to act sua sponte when confronted with situations requiring their disqualification. Subsection (a) provides: 33 Any justice, judge, or magistrate of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned. 34 Subsection (b), in turn, lists a number of specific circumstances in which a judge is required to disqualify himself or herself. Most relevantly, disqualification is required when there is a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party, or personal knowledge of disputed evidentiary facts concerning the proceeding. 28 U.S.C. § 455(b)(1). While the parties may, after full disclosure on the record, waive the grounds of disqualification under subsection (a), a judge may not accept a waiver of the grounds listed in subsection (b). 7 35 The petitioners urge us to adopt the consensus position of our sister circuits and hold that mandamus is a proper means of challenging a district judge's refusal to disqualify himself or herself under section 455. As we shall explain, we agree with the petitioners. 36 Thirty-four years ago in Green, this court, sitting in banc, sharply divided over the use of mandamus to rectify the alleged failure of a district judge to disqualify himself for actual bias under 28 U.S.C. § 144. Chief Judge Biggs, writing for four of the seven judges, refused to consider the merits of the complaint on a petition for mandamus, holding that appeal from final judgment was an adequate means of relief. 259 F.2d at 594. The reach of the majority opinion is somewhat unclear, however. Much of the language appears to endorse a blanket rule that refusals to disqualify under section 144 are not reviewable on mandamus. The case, however, can also be read as a holding under the circumstances [t]here present. Id. See also id. at 595 (Hastie concurring) (We understand the majority opinion to say that in extraordinary enough circumstances it might be proper for this court to use mandamus or prohibition to prevent a district judge from arbitrarily or scandalously disregarding his plain duty to disqualify himself from hearing a case under Section 144 of Title 28 of the United States Code, but that such circumstances do not appear in this case.). 8 37 Green remains the law of this circuit, and this panel may not question it. See Third Circuit Internal Operating Procedure 9.1. Further, contrary to the petitioners' suggestion, our in banc decision in Rapp v. Van Dusen, 350 F.2d 806 (3d Cir.1965), did not overrule or narrow Green. Rather, it distinguished Green on two grounds. First, our opinion in Green was premised on the availability of appeal to cure the alleged harm to the petitioner. Green, 259 F.2d at 594 (We think that the remedy which can be afforded the petitioner by appeal is adequate for this court can strike down a judgment of conviction if we should find that the affidavit filed by the petitioner was legally sufficient to disqualify Judge Murphy under the provisions of Section 144.). In Rapp, however, we explained that if the cases were transferred, as the district judge had ordered, there would be no opportunity to review the final judgment. Rapp, 350 F.2d at 810. Second, we acknowledged that the impropriety in Rapp had arisen as a result of our own order requiring the district judge to participate as respondent in the earlier mandamus action. We accordingly felt obligated to correct the impropriety that we had caused and d[id] so in the exercise of our supervisory authority. Id. at 810, 814. Neither ground of distinction applies here. 38 The petitioners also suggest that our decision to consider the merits in Rapp but not in Green supports a distinction between petitions brought under section 455, as in Rapp, 9 and those brought under section 144, as in Green. Neither Rapp nor subsequent decisions of this court have either endorsed or rejected such a distinction. The plaintiffs argue against a distinction based on City of Pittsburgh v. Simmons, 729 F.2d 953 (3d Cir.1984), where we cited Green and held that a refusal to recuse is reviewable only after final judgment, id. at 954. The petition there, however, did not identify whether the motion for disqualification was based on section 144 or on section 455. Accordingly, our discussion in City of Pittsburgh should not be read as having taken any position on section 455 petitions given that Green was a section 144 case. 39 In Moody v. Simmons, 858 F.2d 137, 143-44 (3d Cir.1988), without mentioning Green or City of Pittsburgh v. Simmons, we held that mandamus lay to challenge the district judge's continued nonministerial actions after having announced the necessity of, and his intention to, disqualify himself under section 455. Although Moody can be read broadly to state that mandamus is appropriate to vacate the orders of a judge who acted when he should have recused, id. at 143, because we did not grapple with our earlier precedents, Moody is better read narrowly as authorizing mandamus when a district judge continues to sit despite previously having expressed the intent to disqualify himself or herself. 40 In short, while Green still precludes the use of mandamus to correct a district judge's failure to disqualify himself or herself for actual bias under 28 U.S.C. § 144, we are satisfied that neither Green nor our subsequent cases have decided whether mandamus lies to enforce the broader commands of 28 U.S.C. § 455. 41 The plaintiffs submit that review after final judgment is an adequate remedy for a section 455 violation as well as for section 144. However, we find a crucial difference between the two statutes and will not extend Green to the section 455 context. Section 144 concerns the interests of the individual litigant. Section 455, in contrast, concerns a wider range of interests. In addressing the mere appearance of partiality, section 455 addresses not only fairness to the litigants but also the public's confidence in the judiciary, which may be irreparably harmed if a case is allowed to proceed before a judge who appears to be tainted. See Liljeberg v. Health Services Acquisition Corp., 486 U.S. 847, 859-60, 108 S.Ct. 2194, 2202, 100 L.Ed.2d 855 (1988); H.R.Rep. No. 93-1453, 93d Cong., 2d Sess. 5 (1974), reprinted in 1974 U.S.C.C.A.N. 6351, 6355. While review after final judgment can (at a cost) cure the harm to a litigant, it cannot cure the additional, separable harm to public confidence that section 455 is designed to prevent. 42 We are not alone in our decision not to extend precedents concerning review of section 144 rulings to expanded section 455. Before SCA Services, Inc. v. Morgan, 557 F.2d 110 (7th Cir.1977) (per curiam), the Seventh Circuit had (like us) taken the minority position that mandamus did not lie to review section 144 rulings. Nevertheless, it ruled in Morgan that the specificity and legislative intent of section 455 are sufficiently different from section 144 to warrant a departure from our previous position. Id. at 117. We agree. 43 We also note that Congress's great concern for the public's confidence in the judiciary has led it to adopt 28 U.S.C. § 372(c) (West, 1992) (most recently revised by the Judicial Discipline and Removal Reform Act of 1990, Pub.L. No. 101-650, tit. IV, § 402, 104 Stat. 5122, 5122-23). Under that provision, any person, even a non-litigant, may complain to the chief judge of a circuit about the conduct of a judge prejudicial to the effective and expeditious administration of the business of the courts or about the judge's mental or physical inability to discharge the duties of office. 10 44 Nor do we believe that interlocutory appeal will ordinarily be an adequate remedy for a district judge's refusal to disqualify himself or herself. For a district judge to certify an order under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b), he or she must 45 be of the opinion that such order [ (1) ] involves a controlling question of law as to which [ (2) ] there is substantial ground for difference of opinion and that [ (3) ] an immediate appeal from the order may materially advance the ultimate determination of the litigation. 46 All three of those requirements pose obstacles to the use of interlocutory appeal to review a district judge's refusal to disqualify himself or herself. 47 Perhaps in some cases the necessity of disqualification can be deemed a controlling question of law, notwithstanding that it is a fact-intensive, somewhat discretionary issue collateral to the merits. Even so, a district judge's refusal to disqualify necessarily indicates a belief that his or her partiality cannot reasonably be questioned. In many, if not all, cases, that will in turn suggest that the district judge believes that there is no substantial ground for difference of opinion regarding the need to disqualify. Furthermore, disqualification may slow, not speed, the progress of a case to final judgment. Finally, as a practical matter, some district judges may consider a demand for disqualification as a personal attack (even if the motion is not meant as such) and may, therefore, be less inclined to certify the issue if they believe that disqualification is not required. 11 48 Accordingly, although we do not rule out the use of interlocutory and final appeals to review disqualification decisions, 12 we also refuse to rule out the use of mandamus petitions on the ground that those other avenues provide a presumptively adequate means of relief. Moreover, we believe section 455 reflects Congress's view that the adjudication of a case by a judge with an actual or apparent bias is an abuse of judicial power, Roche, 319 U.S. at 31, 63 S.Ct. at 944, because it is a threat to the integrity of the judicial system. Interlocutory review of disqualification issues on petitions for mandamus is both necessary and appropriate to ensure that judges do not adjudicate cases that they have no statutory power to hear, and virtually every circuit has so held. See, for example, In re United States, 666 F.2d 690, 694 (1st Cir.1981); In re IBM Corp., 618 F.2d 923, 926-27 (2d Cir.1980); In re Rodgers, 537 F.2d 1196, 1197 n. 1 (4th Cir.1976) (per curiam); In re Corrugated Container Antitrust Litigation, 614 F.2d 958, 961 n. 4 (5th Cir.1980); In re Aetna Casualty and Surety Co., 919 F.2d 1136, 1139-43 (6th Cir.1990) (en banc); SCA Services, Inc. v. Morgan, 557 F.2d 110, 117 (7th Cir.1977); Liddell v. Board of Education, 677 F.2d 626, 643 (8th Cir.1982); In re Cement Antitrust Litigation, 673 F.2d 1020, 1025 (9th Cir.1982); Bell v. Chandler, 569 F.2d 556, 559 (10th Cir.1978). 13 See also Mitchell v. Sirica, 502 F.2d 375, 387-90 (D.C.Cir.1974) (MacKinnon dissenting in case where majority did not reach this issue). 14 49 B. The Facts Surrounding the Conference on the Hazards of Asbestos in Place 50 We now describe the facts of this case so as to determine whether section 455 clearly and indisputably required the district judge to disqualify himself and hence requires us to issue a writ of mandamus directing him to do so. 15 51 The origins of this controversy date to November 1986, at which point Judge Kelly had been presiding over this litigation for more than three years. Dr. Irwin J. Selikoff of the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, a noted expert on asbestos-related diseases, invited Judge Kelly to attend a scientific conference on diseases caused by inhaling asbestos. Asbestos-related cases constitute a large percentage of the civil docket in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and Judge Kelly took the admirable view that judicial education about the scientific aspects of these cases would improve judicial case management. 16 Because of docket pressures, Judge Kelly declined that invitation. He did, however, express to Selikoff an interest in attending a similar conference in the future. 52 By Pretrial Order 137, dated August 8, 1988, the district court established a process by which it would approve the class plaintiffs' use of certain escrowed funds from prior settlements to pay for litigation expenses. Under that procedure, the class plaintiffs would apply under seal for installments of up to $50,000. Further distributions would not be authorized until the court had approved an accounting, also filed under seal, for the previous $50,000. 17 53 By late fall 1989, the plaintiffs' executive committee had become unhappy with the asbestos industry's sponsoring of what the committee perceived to be one-sided scientific conferences on the dangers of asbestos in place. As a result, the executive committee contacted Selikoff, who agreed to supervise an alternative conference on the dangers of asbestos in buildings and low-level asbestos exposure generally (hereinafter the Third Wave Conference). According to Selikoff's proposal, the conference would be conducted under the auspices of the nonprofit Collegium Ramazzini, a society of environmental and occupational health scientists of which Selikoff was president, and speakers would not be paid honoraria. 54 On December 1, 1989, the class plaintiffs applied under seal (and thus without the defendants' knowledge) for $50,000 from the settlement fund to help finance the proposed conference. The plaintiffs indicated that the conference was to be coordinated by Selikoff and that it would be helpful in supporting the plaintiffs' case. They emphasized that Selikoff was a world-renowned expert, yet a neutral in asbestos litigation, in addition to their belief that a balanced view of issues concerning asbestos in buildings is not being presented to the public or scientific community at this time. On December 6, in sealed Pretrial Order 201, Judge Kelly granted the plaintiffs' request. Shortly thereafter, a $50,000 check was issued, which became the seminal source of funding for the conference. 55 On February 2, 1990, the plaintiffs' executive committee wrote to Selikoff and encouraged him to send a notice or invitation to Judge Kelly so that he is advised of the progress and details. The parties dispute whether or not the plaintiffs expected Selikoff to encourage Judge Kelly actually to attend. At all events, on February 15, 1990, Selikoff invited Judge Kelly, on Collegium Ramazzini stationery, to attend and enclosed an announcement describing the conference. The invitation mentioned neither the plaintiffs' role in the conference nor the court's earlier approval of funding for the conference. Selikoff also sent a blind copy to the plaintiffs' executive committee. On February 20, 1990, Judge Kelly accepted Selikoff's invitation. According to Judge Kelly, he had forgotten that the conference was supported by the plaintiffs' settlement funds; rather, he believed that Selikoff was extending a follow-up to his 1986 invitation. 18 56 In March and April 1990, the plaintiffs' executive committee supplied the Collegium Ramazzini with the names and research materials of various scientists whom the plaintiffs proposed to call as expert witnesses at trial. Many of these experts were then invited to speak at the Third Wave Conference. The plaintiffs' executive committee also supplied the Collegium Ramazzini with the names of various state and federal judges who had been handling asbestos matters. The Collegium Ramazzini in turn invited many of these judges, including Judge Kelly, to attend the conference as guests of the sponsors. Their registration fees were to be waived and their hotel accommodations provided; the judges, however, would have to pay for their own transportation and meals. A number of judges, including Judge Kelly, expressed an interest in attending the conference. On May 2, 1990, the Collegium Ramazzini confirmed to Judge Kelly that it would waive his registration fee and pay for his hotel room. 57 The Third Wave Conference took place in New York City from June 7 to June 9, 1990, and was attended by Judge Kelly and fourteen other judges. There were fifty-six presentations, with each day's proceedings lasting eight to ten hours. The views expressed were overwhelmingly consistent with the plaintiffs' position, although opposing views were not actively suppressed. 19 Representatives of numerous defendants attended, but did not speak. It is not clear which presentations Judge Kelly attended, although according to his later recollection he was primarily interested in personal injury questions rather than in the property injury questions that are at the heart of the school asbestos litigation. While Judge Kelly spoke with Selikoff, he did not converse with any other conference speakers. Regardless, it is clear that the Collegium Ramazzini (and hence the plaintiffs' settlement fund, at least indirectly) paid for Judge Kelly's registration fee and two nights' lodging. 58 In addition, the Collegium Ramazzini issued promotional literature and numerous press releases that trumpeted the appearance of the judges. It also informed the media and the public that the conference was supported by a grant approved by a federal court. In late July 1990, counsel for one of the defendants, W.R. Grace, began inquiring about the court grant. About that time, the plaintiffs filed their list of eighteen expected expert trial witnesses, thirteen of whom had spoken at the Third Wave Conference. If Judge Kelly noticed the overlap, he made no mention of it to the parties. On September 14, 1990, counsel for W.R. Grace wrote to Judge Kelly on behalf of numerous defendants to request an in camera meeting to discuss his role in approving the funding for the conference. On September 19 and 20, 1990, Judge Kelly responded in writing, with copies to all counsel of record, candidly detailing the events as he recalled them, but declining a meeting. 59 Eventually, through hard-fought discovery and over the course of more than six months, the full details about the conference, including the formerly sealed documents, were revealed. In the meantime, the district court tentatively explored narrowing the focus of the first phase of trial to conspiracy and concerted action and deferring other issues to later phases. One issue that Judge Kelly proposed to drop from Phase I (and later did drop) was the level at which friable asbestos products in place are dangerous, a topic covered at the conference. 20 60 On April 18, 1991, twelve defendants moved for Judge Kelly's disqualification on the grounds that his partiality could reasonably be questioned and that he had personal knowledge of disputed evidentiary facts. On May 29, 1991, the court held extended oral argument on the motion. At that hearing, Judge Kelly saw his choices as three: (1) disqualify himself; (2) deny the motion and proceed as if nothing had happened; or (3) deny the motion, but, to assuage fears of taint, refuse to allow conference participants to appear as witnesses at trial. On June 17, 1991, in Pretrial Order 318, he selected the third option. 61 On September 30, 1991, in Pretrial Order 338, Judge Kelly granted in part the plaintiffs' motion for partial reconsideration of Pretrial Order 318. Judge Kelly modified his previous order to permit Plaintiffs' witnesses who were presented at the conference to testify at trial, providing purely factual information. Memorandum opinion at 6. On October 21, 1991, Pfizer filed its petition for a writ of mandamus with this court seeking to force Judge Kelly to disqualify himself. On October 29, 1991, Kaiser Cement filed a separate petition seeking a writ of mandamus to end the ex parte process of approving the use of settlement funds and to require the unsealing of past funding applications and the rulings thereon. On November 12 and 25, 1991, respectively, ACandS and Asten Group filed their petitions for mandamus seeking both disqualification of Judge Kelly and the vacatur of certain adverse rulings issued after the motion for disqualification had been filed. 62 C. Disqualification--Appearance of Partiality 63 The petitioners argue, as they did before the district court, that the above circumstances required Judge Kelly to disqualify himself under both 28 U.S.C. § 455(a), because his partiality might reasonably be questioned, and 28 U.S.C. § 455(b)(1), because he has personal knowledge of disputed evidentiary facts concerning the proceeding. Because we conclude that subsection 455(a) mandated disqualification, we do not decide the more difficult question whether subsection 455(b)(1) also required disqualification. 21 64 We emphasize at the outset the nature of our inquiry. The petitioners argue at length that the plaintiffs engaged in a calculated plan to lure Judge Kelly and other judges to a deliberately biased conference in order to prejudice them. The plaintiffs respond at equal length that they expected the conference to be neutral and scientific, and that it was. They assert that the ultimate contents of the conference and invitations thereto were entirely up to the Collegium Ramazzini, and that while they intended Dr. Selikoff to advise Judge Kelly, as approver of the funds, of the progress of the conference, they did not intend him personally to encourage Judge Kelly to attend. Whether plaintiffs' counsel were calculating or merely careless is immaterial. Our role is not to ascribe blame to anyone. Rather, we must determine whether a reasonable person, knowing all the acknowledged circumstances, might question the district judge's continued impartiality. 65 We are convinced that a reasonable person might question Judge Kelly's ability to remain impartial. To put it succinctly, he attended a predominantly pro-plaintiff conference on a key merits issue; the conference was indirectly sponsored by the plaintiffs, largely with funding that he himself had approved; and his expenses were largely defrayed by the conference sponsors with those same court-approved funds. Moreover, he was, in his own words, exposed to a Hollywood-style pre-screening of the plaintiffs' case: thirteen of the eighteen expert witnesses the plaintiffs were intending to call gave presentations very similar to what they expected to say at trial. We need not decide whether any of these facts alone would have required disqualification, for, as we shall explain, we believe that together they create an appearance of partiality that mandates disqualification. 66 Congress enacted subsection 455(a) precisely because people who have not served on the bench are often all too willing to indulge suspicions and doubts concerning the integrity of judges. Liljeberg v. Health Services Acquisition Corp., 486 U.S. 847, 864-65, 108 S.Ct. 2194, 2205, 100 L.Ed.2d 855 (1988). In high profile cases such as this one, the outcome of which will in some way affect millions of people, such suspicions are especially likely and untoward. A reasonable person might suspect that Judge Kelly's plaintiff-subsidized attendance at the preview of the plaintiffs' case would have predisposed him toward the plaintiffs' position. Alternatively, others may reasonably believe that because he now knows that the plaintiffs indirectly paid his way, he might be angry at them for compromising him and might overreact to their prejudice. 67 Any such (perceived) bias could manifest itself in a number of ways. Although Judge Kelly correctly noted that a jury trial has been demanded, section 455 properly makes no distinction between jury and nonjury trials. The district judge in a jury trial must still make numerous pretrial rulings, including crucial summary judgment rulings, and will doubtlessly be called on to make numerous rulings on the qualification of witnesses and on evidentiary matters, not to mention post-trial motions. 68 We are also concerned that the public may view the conference as having caused Judge Kelly to believe that the case has moved beyond the issue of whether and at what level friable asbestos in place is dangerous. The topic of the conference was the danger of low-level asbestos exposure. Judge Kelly subsequently elected to delay trial of the dangerousness of asbestos in place in schools, and his comments at one pretrial conference might be read to suggest that he believed that the defendants' products clearly were dangerous. See note 20. Although it would not necessarily be improper for him to reach that view through the adjudication of record-based motions, assuming that the record supported it, reasonable but suspicious minds might question whether he had already concluded this issue prior to trial and whether his views were influenced by the conference. 69 We underscore that we are not intimating that Judge Kelly actually harbors any illegitimate pro-plaintiff bias. The problem, however, is that regardless of his actual impartiality, a reasonable person might perceive bias to exist, and this cannot be permitted. See In re Murchison, 349 U.S. 133, 136, 75 S.Ct. 623, 625, 99 L.Ed. 942 (1955) (Such a stringent rule may sometimes bar trial by judges who have no actual bias and who would do their best to weigh the scales of justice equally between contending parties. But to perform its high function in the best way 'justice must satisfy the appearance of justice.'  (citation omitted)). 22 70 We find it significant that at oral argument and in his opinion accompanying Pretrial Order 318, Judge Kelly recognized that some people could reasonably suspect a taint. He stated that had he known of the connections between the plaintiffs and the conference, he would not have attended. Moreover, invoking what he later described in the opinion accompanying Pretrial Order 338 as his  'inherent power' to remedy Plaintiffs' counsels' disregard of the integrity of the judicial process, memorandum opinion at 5, he excluded the expert testimony of conference participants. In his original opinion accompanying Pretrial Order 318, he described this ruling as sensible action ... to eliminate, as much as is possible, any circumstances legitimately viewed by the defendants as potentially prejudicial to their interests in this case. Memorandum opinion at 28. Section 455, however, clearly requires that judges shall disqualify themselves where such a taint appears, rather than attempt creative, alternative remedies such as disqualification of witnesses. In any event, we believe that a reasonable person might still suspect a prospective taint notwithstanding the district court's nonstatutory remedy. 71 The Code of Conduct for United States Judges 23 points to the same result. The language of section 455 was based on the nearly identical language of Canon 3C of the Code, which is reprinted in II Guide to Judiciary Policies and Procedures at I-7 to I-9. See H.R.Rep. No. 93-1453, 1974 U.S.C.C.A.N. at 6353-57. This fact suggests that appearances of partiality are likely if conduct is inconsistent with the related canons of judicial ethics regarding judges' out-of-court associations with actual and potential litigants. 72 Opinion No. 67 of the Judicial Conference's Advisory Committee on Codes of Conduct interprets Canon 5C(4) (regarding the receipt of gifts) and advises judges that they should not attend educational seminars related to a litigation issue if the sponsor or source of funding is involved, or likely to be involved, in the litigation. II Guide to Judiciary Policies and Procedures at IV-183. 24 The plaintiffs were undoubtedly a primary source of funding for the conference, although Judge Kelly was evidently unaware of the connection at the time. 73 Likewise, Advisory Opinion No. 17, interpreting Canons 2B (regarding external influence on judges) and 6B (regarding expense reimbursement) of the Canons of Judicial Ethics of the American Bar Association, 25 observes that an appearance of impropriety may arise if lawyer organizations identified with a particular viewpoint regularly advanced in litigation pay for a judge's hotel and travel expenses. II Guide to Judiciary Policies and Procedures at IV-33. Because the plaintiffs were the main source of the conference funding and because they maintained a close association with the Collegium Ramazzini for purposes of the conference, a reasonable person could impute the Collegium Ramazzini's subsidization of Judge Kelly's conference expenses to the plaintiffs. This creates an untoward appearance, even if Judge Kelly was wholly unaware of the connection at the time he attended the conference. Indeed, Judge Kelly stated in his opinion accompanying Pretrial Order 318 that had he known the facts, the Code of Conduct for United States Judges would have counseled him not to attend the Third Wave Conference. 74 That Judge Kelly was unaware in 1990 of the circumstances creating the appearance of impropriety cannot change our conclusion. The Supreme Court has squarely held that a judge need not have had actual knowledge of facts creating an appearance of partiality to violate subsection 455(a). Liljeberg, 486 U.S. at 859-61, 108 S.Ct. at 2202-03. As the Court observed, a  'judge's forgetfulness ... is not the sort of objectively ascertainable fact that can avoid the appearance of partiality.'  Id. at 860, 108 S.Ct. at 2203 (quoting the Fifth Circuit's opinion below). Thus, we cannot assume that a reasonable person would believe that Judge Kelly simply forgot the connection between Selikoff, the conference, and the source of funding for the conference. Even making that assumption, however, we cannot further assume that a reasonable person would believe that this episode will have no prospective effect on the litigation. 75 In Liljeberg, the Court held that, although it is impossible for a judge to disqualify himself or herself based on something he or she does not know, he or she can and should disqualify himself or herself retroactively upon discovery of the facts that led to the current appearance of partiality. Id. at 861, 108 S.Ct. at 2203. By the time of the motion to disqualify in April 1991, Judge Kelly knew the facts that created an appearance of partiality. He should, therefore, have disqualified himself at that time. 26 76 We suspect that Judge Kelly chose not to disqualify himself because he felt duty-bound to shepherd this extraordinarily complicated and protracted litigation to its conclusion and out of concern about creating additional delay. These are both laudable sentiments, and we must acknowledge that the newly assigned district judge will face a gargantuan task in becoming familiar with the case. We also recognize that the delay may disadvantage the plaintiffs, although that result is, to some degree, of their own doing. Nevertheless, a district judge has no duty to sit, and under 28 U.S.C. § 455 he or she may not sit where his or her partiality may reasonably be questioned and the parties refuse to waive that objection. See H.R.Rep. No. 93-1453, 1974 U.S.C.C.A.N. at 6355 (expressing intent to abolish the duty to sit gloss on the prior statute). Indeed we believe that this episode is precisely the kind that Congress contemplated in broadening section 455. If Judge Kelly were to continue presiding, the outcome of this massive, important, and widely followed case would be shrouded with suspicion. Accordingly, we are compelled to order Judge Kelly to disqualify himself. 77 D. Remedy--Vacatur of Past Rulings? 78 It does not follow, however, that this litigation must return to square one, or even to where it stood on June 6, 1990, the day before Judge Kelly attended the Third Wave Conference. As Justice Stevens wrote for the Supreme Court in Liljeberg, [t]here need not be a draconian remedy for every violation of § 455(a). 486 U.S. at 862, 108 S.Ct. at 2203-04. The Court observed that [a]lthough § 455 defines the circumstances that mandate disqualification of federal judges, it neither prescribes nor prohibits any particular remedy for a violation of that duty. Congress has wisely delegated to the judiciary the task of fashioning the remedies that will best serve the purpose of the legislation. Id. at 862, 108 S.Ct. at 2204. 79 In Liljeberg itself, the Court affirmed the ruling of the Fifth Circuit, which, on a motion under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b), had vacated the final judgment entered by a district judge who should have disqualified himself. The Court held, however, that such postjudgment relief was neither categorically available nor categorically unavailable for violations of subsection 455(a). Instead, it suggested that in deciding whether to vacate a judgment, courts should consider [ (1) ] the risk of injustice to the parties in the particular case, [ (2) ] the risk that the denial of relief will produce injustice in other cases, and [ (3) ] the risk of undermining the public's confidence in the judicial process. Id. at 864, 108 S.Ct. at 2205. 27 80 Although we are not considering a Rule 60(b) motion, we believe that a similar balancing should inform the decision as to which prior rulings to vacate. We will therefore consider both prejudice to the litigants--the likelihood of actual bias and the harm from upsetting and delaying this massive litigation--and systemic interests--including the likely extent of lost public confidence in the district court's rulings, and the strong public interest in avoiding unnecessary, costly duplication of work and in propelling this case to a speedy and just conclusion. 28 81 Our earlier cases provide little guidance. In Moody, we required the district judge to vacate all orders entered and findings made after the date on which he had announced that he needed to disqualify himself. 858 F.2d at 144. That case was unusual, however, because the district judge on his own motion had recognized and announced the need to disqualify himself but had nevertheless temporarily continued to sit. The date for vacatur was fairly obvious and was administratively unproblematic. Mims v. Shapp, 541 F.2d 415, 416-17 (3d Cir.1976), and other cases decided under section 144 have vacated all orders entered after the date of the motion for disqualification, but, as we have noted above, section 144 differs significantly from section 455. 82 Cases from other circuits are of greater help. In particular, some suggest that, especially in complex litigation, vacatur of rulings ought to be as limited as possible while remaining consistent with the purposes of section 455. See, for example, In re Allied-Signal Inc., 891 F.2d 967, 972-73 (1st Cir.1989) (extended dictum that violation of subsection 455(a) would not have justified retrial of phase of megalitigation); Polaroid Co. v. Eastman Kodak Co., 867 F.2d 1415, 1420-21 (Fed.Cir.1989) (applying Liljeberg in a subsection 455(b) case and refusing, as a matter of fairness, to vacate judgment after six and a half years of litigation); In re Cement and Concrete Antitrust Litigation, 515 F.Supp. 1076, 1081-82 (D.Ariz.1981) (suggesting that rulings made before discovery of violation of subsection 455(b)(4) ought to remain intact), mandamus denied, 688 F.2d 1297 (9th Cir.1982), aff'd for lack of quorum, 459 U.S. 1191, 103 S.Ct. 1173, 75 L.Ed.2d 425 (1983). We agree. 83 Another theme that emerges is that failure to disqualify (and hence failure to vacate a ruling) may be harmless error when a court of appeals will later review a ruling on a plenary basis. See, for example, Parker v. Connors Steel Co., 855 F.2d 1510, 1526-27 (11th Cir.1988) (summary judgment ruling); In re Continental Airlines Corp., 901 F.2d 1259, 1263 (5th Cir.1990) (same). See also United States v. Vespe, 868 F.2d 1328, 1342 (3d Cir.1989) (dictum that if district court had abused its discretion in refusing to disqualify, the error would have been harmless because plenary review applied to ruling on motion for judgment notwithstanding verdict). We find this logic persuasive. 84 In this case, we have a wide range of options. We could vacate all orders after the date on which the appearance of partiality arose, which presumably is June 7, 1990--the date on which the Third Wave Conference began. Alternatively, we could vacate all orders after the date on which Judge Kelly was informed of the facts creating the appearance of partiality (and hence should have disqualified himself), which would be approximately September 14, 1990--the date on which several defendants notified him of most of the details. We could also vacate all orders after the date on which certain defendants moved for disqualification, April 18, 1991. Or we could choose to vacate orders qualitatively, rather than chronologically--according to the nexus between the order and the subject of the Third Wave Conference. Finally, we could, as several petitioners suggest, combine the qualitative and chronological approaches. For the following reasons, however, we choose not to vacate any of the district court's orders at this time. 85 Preliminarily, we note that we do not believe that leaving Judge Kelly's orders in place will cause any serious injustice to the parties in this case. To the contrary, vacatur of more than a handful of orders would upset tremendously this huge yet fragile litigation, to the severe disadvantage of the plaintiffs and numerous defendants. For example, approximately seventy pretrial orders have been entered since the original disqualification motion was filed. Moreover, according to the plaintiffs' count, various defendants have filed twenty-six motions for summary judgment since Judge Kelly attended the Third Wave Conference, nine of which were granted. Not surprisingly, not a single party responded to our specific request for supplemental briefing on this point by requesting us to vacate all orders entered after even the latest date listed above--April 18, 1991 (the date of the disqualification motion). Rather, they have all asked that we show sensitivity to the complexity of this litigation. 86 Most of the controversial pretrial orders since the Third Wave Conference have dealt with two types of subjects: summary judgment motions and trial structure. 29 Even if any of the summary judgment rulings were affected by unintentional bias, those rulings will be subject to plenary review upon final judgment. To vacate all those rulings now and to order full reconsideration by the incoming district judge would entail enormous cost to the parties and to the judicial system with little corresponding gain. Accordingly, we will not do so, especially since we believe that none of Judge Kelly's orders were infected with actual bias. 30 87 The largely discretionary orders affecting trial structure are more problematic. Deferential review after final judgment might not cure any prejudice in this regard in the unlikely event that it occurred. We do not think, however, that wholesale vacatur of these rulings is in order. Instead, we will authorize, but not require, the incoming judge to reconsider earlier rulings on these matters at his or her discretion. We believe that this is appropriate in any case since the new judge may bring a different perspective to the case and may have different ideas about how it should be tried. To prevent undue delay, however, the parties should file any motions for reconsideration within thirty days of the assignment of the new district judge. 31 88 Finally, we return, as we must, to the keystone of section 455: public confidence in the judicial system, both in the particular case and in general. Our prospective disqualification of Judge Kelly should guarantee public confidence in the critical trial and post-trial rulings. The availability of later plenary review of the disposition of summary judgment motions and our authorization of reconsideration of discretionary trial structure motions should be adequate to assure public confidence in past rulings without needless disruption of this very important litigation. Vacatur of hundreds of past rulings might arguably be the most cautious course, but we believe that that is unnecessary and would be undesirable in these circumstances. 89