Judges See Tougher Recusal Guidelines Over Financial Holdings

The federal judiciary has tightened one of its guidelines for when judges should recuse when they have a potential financial stake in a court proceeding.

The code of conduct for US judges says that they should disqualify themselves from presiding over a case when they or their spouse or minor child have a financial interest in the proceeding, or in one of the involved parties. A revised advisory opinion published Monday now states that judges should view a parent corporation in which they have a financial stake in turn having a 10% holding in a subsidiary as creating “a threshold ...