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Comment by PragmaticPulp | Hacker News Reader

This article doesn’t answer the real questions: How much stock did he own, how did he own it, and what percentage of his portfolio was it?

Apple is one of the biggest companies in the US, so it comprises a significant portion of large-cap index funds. If any of your 401K or other portfolio includes an ETF or other fund with large-cap US companies, you own Apple stock.

If you’re invested 100% in a simple S&P 500 index fund, your portfolio is over 6% AAPL.

If the judge is simply reporting that he held large-cap index funds during this time, I think this is a non-story. Even a 10% drop in a company that makes up 6% of your portfolio is going to be negligible in your overall finances.

On the other hand, if he had something strange like options on AAPL around the time of his verdict, that would be a huge concern. However, I think these stories would have led with those details if they existed.

This is probably nothing.

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I really don’t think how much ownership is the real question now.

1. The judge disclosed it. Presumably he wasn’t doing anything sneaky because he is the one raising the issue.

2. Any ownership required the Judge to recluse himself. Thus (3)

3. (The real takeaway) The verdict of the case between Nokia and Apple is on much less strong legal grounds now. This is the real point.

> Any ownership required the Judge to recluse himself.

Where does this requirement come from? Citation please.

> It is unclear how many shares Judge Conley possessed during the case, but ownership of company stock in any capacity would have required his recusal under the Code of Conduct for United States Judges.

The apple insider article.

Only if ownership of the stock was substantially affected by the outcome of the case. Which gets back to OP's point of needing to know more specifics of the judge's holdings.

>but ownership of company stock in any capacity would have required his recusal under the Code of Conduct for United States Judges.

So, most judges? I assume they tend to be high net worth individuals, so it's very likely they own APPL in some capacity in their stock portfolios and/or retirement funds.

The Code of Conduct for United States Judges[1] Canon 3(C)(1):

> (C) Disqualification.

> (1) A judge shall disqualify himself or herself in a proceeding in which the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned, including but not limited to instances in which:

> …

> (c) the judge knows that the judge, individually or as a fiduciary, or the judge’s spouse or minor child residing in the judge’s household, has a financial interest in the subject matter in controversy or in a party to the proceeding, or any other interest that could be affected substantially by the outcome of the proceeding;

The interesting (IMO) tidbit here is the “knowledge” aspect of the canon. Presumably the Judge was unaware of their investment (rather than unaware of their ethical obligations) and, by my reading at least, where they had no knowledge of their financial interest they had no obligation to recuse. Although I do think it’s reasonable to expect Judges to conduct a conflicts check prior to hearing a case that would involve making themselves aware of any interest they might have in the public companies appearing before them.

[1] https://www.uscourts.gov/judges-judgeships/code-conduct-unit...

> 2. Any ownership required the Judge to recluse himself. Thus (3)

Probably a typo but recuse != recluse

Doesn’t look like this is just an index fund situation.

>ownership in a mutual or common investment fund that holds securities is not a “financial interest” in such securities unless the judge participates in the management of the fund

https://www.uscourts.gov/judges-judgeships/code-conduct-unit...

They could have someone managing their portfolio that basically does the same strategy as a mutual fund but technically isn't one. Unless they paid attention they wouldn't know what was being invested in at any given point in time.

This happens a lot and probably much more than people realize.

That is very possible, and I’d say the most likely answer here. It still doesn’t look great, but it’s not the kind of thing you’d expect to compromise the judge’s impartiality.

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