In law, to recuse means to withdraw from a legal case due to a potential conflict of interest or lack of impartiality. This action can be taken by a judge, juror, or other judicial official who recognizes that their involvement in the case could be biased or perceived as biased.
The Due Process clauses of the United States Constitution require judges to recuse themselves from cases in two situations:
- Where the judge has a financial interest in the case’s outcome.
- Where there is otherwise a strong possibility that the judge’s decision will be biased.
In either situation, it does not matter whether or not the judge is actually biased. What matters is that even if the judge is not biased, the high probability of bias still damages the integrity of the judicial system. Any party in a lawsuit may request that a judge recuse themself.
The Supreme Court addressed recusal in the 2009 case Caperton v. A. T. Massey Coal Co. (08-22). In this case, one party requested that a judge recuse himself because the other party’s CEO spent over $3 million getting the judge elected. Even though the Supreme Court found that there was no evidence that the judge was biased, it still held that he had to recuse himself. For additional information, see the LII’s oral argument preview.
[Last updated in May of 2024 by the Wex Definitions Team]