Opinion ID: 1268291
Heading Depth: 6
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Recap of Circuit Court Cases

Text: The theme of these Circuit Court cases is that the Supreme Court has set out only two (perhaps three), very specific, situations in which something less than actual bias  that being a significant probability of bias  is sufficient to violate a party's constitutional right to due process. No case has held  or, more importantly, found the Supreme Court to have held  that mere appearance of bias is sufficient without something more. And no case has ever applied the possible-temptation test to find a sufficiently biasing interest resulting from mere kinship. Quite to the contrary, two circuit courts have held that mere kinship, without something more, is insufficient under the prevailing Supreme Court precedent. See Davis, 506 F.3d at 1325 (judge and prosecutor were brothers); Dyas, 705 F.2d at 993 (judge and prosecutor were uncle and nephew, respectively).