Court Opinion

ID: 9489202
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 13:08:55.271046+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:53:23.729034
License: Public Domain

TATEL, Circuit Judge,
with whom WALD, Circuit Judge, and KESSLER, District Judge, join, concurring:
I agree that the judge’s failure to recuse himself from participating in the appointment of the independent counsel did not constitute “conduct prejudicial to the effective and expeditious administration of the business of the courts” under 28 U.S.C. § 372(c)(1). I write separately to underscore two principles that are implicit in the Council’s opinion.
First, Canons 2 and 3 of the Code of Conduct for United States Judges apply to judges’ activities on the Special Division. Canon 2 provides that “[a] judge should avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all activities”; Canon 3 requires that “[a] judge should perform the duties of the office” — which includes all “duties prescribed by law” — “impartially and diligently.” Code of Conduct for United States Judges Canons 2-3, reprinted in 2 Administrative Office of the'United States Courts, Guide to Judiciary Policies and Procedures, ch. II, at 1-2, 1-9 (1993 ed.) (emphasis added). Second, in determining whether a judge on the Special Division has violated 28 U.S.C. § 372(e)(1), the Judicial Council may base its decision on whether the judge has violated one of these general canons. See Hastings v. Judicial Conference, 829 F.2d 91, 106 (D.C.Cir.1987); S.Rep. No. 362, 96th Cong., 1st Sess. 9 (1979); Code of Conduct for *140United States Judges Canon 1 cmt. reprinted in 2 Administrative Office of the United States Courts, Guide to Judiciary Policies and Procedures, ch.I, at 1-1 to 1-2. While not finding sanctionable conduct in this instance, the Judicial Council today thus affirms that judges may be held accountable for failing to avoid the appearance of impropriety whether performing their traditional judicial roles or serving on the Special Division.
I also write separately because I am not entirely comfortable with certain aspects of the Council’s analysis of whether the judge’s conduct created an “appearance of impropriety.” In particular, I do not agree that “the circumstances here pose even less concern” than a “judge’s sitting on a case involving the constitutionality of a statute the Senator-friend sponsored.” Majority op. at 138 (emphasis added). In my view, the circumstances here present greater concern, although still not enough to create an appearance of impropriety.
An appearance of impropriety exists only when a reasonable person, “with knowledge of all the relevant circumstances that a reasonable inquiry would disclose,” would believe that “the judge’s ability to carry out [his] responsibilities with integrity, impartiality, and competence was impaired.” ' Code of Conduct for United States Judges Canon 2(a) cmt., reprinted in 2 Administrative Office of the United States Courts, Guide to Judiciary Policies and Procedures, ch.I at 1-3. Accordingly, the risk of an appearance of bias exists only when there is genuine risk of actual bias. Generally speaking, judges cannot appear biased if they have no opportunity for wrongdoing, such as when they perform purely ministerial tasks with full public disclosure, or if they have no incentive for wrongdoing, such as when neither a judge, nor anyone a judge knows, has a personal stake in the matter. In contrast, an appearance of impropriety would exist if a judge not only had an opportunity for impropriety, because the judge exercised discretion, but also had a strong incentive for impropriety, because, for example, the judge or the judge’s spouse had a direct financial stake in the matter before the court.
Like most judicial activities, Special Division proceedings provide some opportunity for actual impropriety. Whether or not the opportunity is less than in a merits panel, see Majority op. at 138 (stating that there is less concern “if only because the Special Division was not adjudicating the merits of a controversy between opposing parties”), an opportunity for impropriety exists because the special panel exercises some degree of discretion. Although the Special Division can appoint an independent counsel only upon the Attorney General’s recommendation, it has considerable latitude in deciding whom to appoint and in defining the initial scope of the counsel’s jurisdiction. See 28 U.S.C. § 593(b)(2)-(3) (1994). While not at issue here, the Special Division also has authority to expand the independent counsel’s jurisdiction or to appoint another independent counsel to pursue matters arising during the course of an investigation, see § 593(c)(2)(C), to terminate an independent counsel’s investigation, see § 596(b)(2), to award attorneys’ fees, see § 593(f), and to release information to Congress and the public, see §§ 592(e), 593(b)(4), 593(g), 594(h)(2). The Special Division also exercises its discretion without all of the institutional safeguards — such as oral argument in open court and the obligation to follow precedent — that help to assure impartiality in more conventional judicial proceedings.
With respect to the incentive for wrongdoing, because this case involves not only a social relationship between the judge and the Senator, but also a professional relationship between the judge’s wife and the Senator, I think the incentive for wrongdoing is potentially greater than when a judge reviews a statute sponsored by a Senator-friend. The wife’s employment poses additional potential risks: that a judge might want to tilt the scales in order to do a favor either (1) for his wife, because she had a professional interest in the matter, or (2) for the Senator, in return for employing the judge’s wife. Notwithstanding these potential risks, I agree that the incentives here were insufficient to create an appearance of impropriety under Canon 2.
*141By itself, the judge’s friendship with the Senator poses an insufficient incentive for wrongdoing to lead a reasonable observer to doubt the judge’s impartiality. Reasonable observers understand that federal judges may in the course of their lives have established friendships with those serving in the other branches of government; reasonable observers also presume that federal judges, like the vast majority of unelected public officials, are able to disregard the political views of their friends and carry out their responsibilities in a fair and impartial manner. See United States v. Jordan, 49 F.3d 152, 157-58 & n. 6 (5th Cir.1995) (friendship between judge and a person with an interest in the ease does not necessarily result in an appearance of impropriety); United States v. Murphy, 768 F.2d 1518, 1537-38 (7th Cir. 1985) (an ordinary friendship between judge and lawyer appearing in case does not create an appearance of impropriety).
The only additional circumstance that could affect the judge’s impartiality is the professional relationship between the judge’s wife and the Senator. While a reasonable person could believe that a judge acted to further his wife’s professional interests when the wife has been involved in the matter before the court, see 2 Administrative Office of the United States Courts, Guide to Judiciary Policies and Procedures, ch. 5, § 3.2-2(a), (a — 1), (f), (l), no one has alleged that the judge’s wife in this ease was involved either directly or in a supervisory capacity in developing the Senator’s stance on the appointment of the independent counsel. Nor could a reasonable person possibly believe that the wife’s initial or continued employment hinges on the judge’s decisions. No one has alleged that the Senator customarily makes employment decisions based on how his employees’ spouses perform their jobs, or that he has done so in this case.
In sum, because the alleged relationships with the Senator would not cause a reasonable person to doubt the judge’s impartiality, I agree that the judge’s failure to recuse himself did not constitute “conduct prejudicial to the effective and expeditious administration of the business of the courts.”