Recusal

Legal standard.

Recusal is mandatory where a judge's impartiality might reasonably be questioned.

The question is whether a reasonable and informed observer would question the judge's impartiality." The touchstone for recusal is not the reality of bias or prejudice, but its appearance.

The very purpose of this statutory provision is to promote confidence in the judiciary by avoiding even the appearance of impropriety whenever possible.

One can ask a priest of course, but one can look into such things.

I've had to get, and of course I'm not gonna name names, but I've had conversations with judges, uh, who are Catholic about what do you think the limits of my ability to participate in this decision are? And of course if the individual judge makes the determination, "I can't participate in this," the remedy is recusal, right? The remedy is not, "Well, let me sort of suppress my m- [laughs] my conscience and participate in the decision." You can't do that, right? Recusal would be.

Now as, as Josh says, we do live in a mostly just society.

It ain't perfect.