28 U.S.C. § 455 — Disqualification of justice, judge, or magistrate judge

(a) Any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States^* must disqualify themself from any proceeding in which their impartiality might reasonably be questioned.

(b) A judge must also disqualify themself in these circumstances:
(1) The judge has a personal bias or prejudice about a party, or personal knowledge of disputed facts in the case.
(2) In private practice, the judge served as a lawyer on the matter in controversy, or a lawyer they used to practice with served on it during that association, or the judge or that lawyer has been a material witness about it.
(3) The judge worked in government employment and, in that role, took part as counsel, adviser, or material witness on the proceeding, or gave an opinion on the merits of the specific case.
(4) The judge knows that they, personally or as a fiduciary, or their spouse or minor child living in their household, has a financial interest in the matter in controversy or in a party, or any other interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome.
(5) The judge, their spouse, or a person within the third degree of relationship to either of them (or that person's spouse): (i) is a party to the proceeding, or an officer, director, or trustee of a party; (ii) is acting as a lawyer in the proceeding; (iii) is known by the judge to have an interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome; or (iv) is, to the judge's knowledge, likely to be a material witness in the proceeding.

(c) A judge should learn about their own personal and fiduciary financial interests, and make a reasonable effort to learn about the personal financial interests of their spouse and minor children living in their household.

(d) Definitions for this section: (1) "proceeding" includes pretrial, trial, appellate review, or any other stage of litigation; (2) the degree of relationship is calculated under the civil-law system; (3) "fiduciary" includes roles such as executor, administrator, trustee, and guardian; (4) "financial interest" means owning a legal or equitable interest, however small, or being a director, adviser, or other active participant in a party's affairs — except: (i) owning shares in a mutual or common investment fund holding securities is not a "financial interest" in those securities, unless the judge helps manage the fund; (ii) holding an office in an educational, religious, charitable, fraternal, or civic organization is not a "financial interest" in securities the organization holds; (iii) a policyholder's interest in a mutual insurance company, or a depositor's interest in a mutual savings association, or a similar proprietary interest, is a "financial interest" in the organization only if the case's outcome could substantially affect its value; (iv) owning government securities is a "financial interest" in the issuer only if the case's outcome could substantially affect the securities' value.

(e) No justice, judge, or magistrate judge may accept a waiver, from the parties, of any disqualification ground listed in (b). Where the only ground for disqualification arises under (a), the judge may accept a waiver — but only after fully disclosing, on the record, the basis for the possible disqualification.

(f) Despite the rest of this section: if a justice, judge, magistrate judge, or bankruptcy judge assigned to a matter would be disqualified — after substantial judicial time has already been spent on it — because it's discovered, after the assignment, that the judge, individually or as a fiduciary, or their spouse or minor child living in their household, has a financial interest in a party (other than an interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome), disqualification is not required if the judge, spouse, or minor child divests themself of that interest.