By: Derek Hawkins//June 21, 2016//
7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Case Name: United States of America v. Jose Herrera-Valdez
Case No.: 14-3534
Officials: POSNER, WILLIAMS, and SYKES, Circuit Judges.
Focus: Motion to Disqualify – Immigration
Court erred in failure to grant appellant motion to disqualify
“We do not question Judge Der-Yeghiayan’s impartiality in presiding over Herrera-Valdez’s illegal reentry case. But a judge’s actual bias is not dispositive of the question of his disqualification under § 455(a), and observers outside of the judicial process “are less inclined to credit judges’ impartiality and mental discipline than the judiciary itself will be.” Id., (citing Mason, 916 F.2d at 386). We conclude that a reasonable, disinterested observer could assume bias from the fact that the judge presiding over the defendant’s prosecution for illegal reentry was the same person who ran the office that pursued, and succeeded in obtaining, the removal order that is the source of his current prosecution. “
Reversed and Reassigned to new judge