Davis v. Board of School Commissioners

How later courts describe this case

• holding that disqualification on the basis of bias or prejudice or lack of impartiality should focus on the party rather than counsel
• Section 144 and new section 455 are to be construed in pari materia and same substantive test of bias would be applied.
• controversy between lawyer and judge over the propriety of the lawyer’s use of a class action device did not suggest bias against the client
• vessel owner negligent when longshoreman slipped and fell on snow allowed to accumulate on deck of ship
• the fact that judge was acquainted with witnesses and defense counsel did not require recusal
• bias-in-fact standard governs all motions to disqualify under sections 144, 455(b)(1) and 455(a)
• distinctly non-collaborators with the Soviet Union were the objects of electronic surveillance
• also referred to as the “pervasive bias exception” to the extrajudicial source rule