Cite as: 510 U. S. 540 (1994)
Opinion of the Court
area of overlap, it is unreasonable to interpret § 455(a) (unless the language requires it) as implicitly eliminating a limitation explicitly set forth in § 455(b). It would obviously be wrong, for example, to hold that "impartiality could reasonably be questioned" simply because one of the parties is in the fourth degree of relationship to the judge. Section 455(b)(5), which addresses the matter of relationship specifically, ends the disability at the third degree of relationship, and that should obviously govern for purposes of § 455(a) as well. Similarly, § 455(b)(1), which addresses the matter of personal bias and prejudice specifically, contains the "extra-judicial source" limitation—and that limitation (since nothing in the text contradicts it) should govern for purposes of § 455(a) as well.2
2 Justice Kennedy asserts that what we have said in this paragraph contradicts the proposition, established in Liljeberg v. Health Services Acquisition Corp., 486 U. S. 847 (1988), that "subsections (a) and (b), while addressing many of the same underlying circumstances, are autonomous in operation." Post, at 566. Liljeberg established no such thing. It established that subsection (a) requires recusal in some circumstances where subsection (b) does not—but that is something quite different from "autonomy," which in the context in which Justice Kennedy uses it means that the one subsection is to be interpreted and applied without reference to the other.
It is correct that subsection (a) has a "broader reach" than subsection (b), post, at 567, but the provisions obviously have some ground in common as well, and should not be applied inconsistently there. Liljeberg concerned a respect in which subsection (a) did go beyond (b). Since subsection (a) deals with the objective appearance of partiality, any limitations contained in (b) that consist of a subjective-knowledge requirement are obviously inapplicable. Subsection (a) also goes beyond (b) in another important respect: It covers all aspects of partiality, and not merely those specifically addressed in subsection (b). However, when one of those aspects addressed in (b) is at issue, it is poor statutory construction to interpret (a) as nullifying the limitations (b) provides, except to the extent the text requires. Thus, as we have said, under subsection (a) as under (b)(5), fourth degree of kinship will not do.
What is at issue in the present case is an aspect of "partiality" already addressed in (b), personal bias or prejudice. The "objective appearance" principle of subsection (a) makes irrelevant the subjective limitation of
553
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