Court Opinion

ID: 8408207
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-11-02 16:40:45.461778+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:47:33.062328
License: Public Domain

JACOBS, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur entirely in the panel opinion. I write separately and briefly to make an observation that may be obvious.
The standard that properly governs the panel opinion is what a reasonable person would believe, knowing the salient circumstances — not what a reasonable person would think who had the benefit of inside knowledge about the work of courts, of particular judges, and of judges in general. A reasonable person would not know that it is possible (and efficient) for a judge conducting a bench trial to pay little attention to the pedigree testimony in which witnesses give their employment history, and to adopt verbatim without close attention the undisputed findings concerning a party’s merger history where that history has no bearing on the complex merits of the case. Similarly, a reasonable person knowing the facts and circumstances would nevertheless not know that the reputation of a particular judge would preclude a knowing conflict, that a judge’s personal financial resources may render a sizeable investment insignificant, or that many judges avoid reading newspaper accounts of mergers, transactions and other matters that may come before them.
No findings are made or considered as to these circumstances in the panel opinion or in this concurrence, because analytically they do not matter. I mention them only to emphasize that the panel opinion cannot be fairly read to cast the slightest aspersion on an estimable senior judge.