Source: https://openjurist.org/391/f2d/527
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 12:29:07+00:00

Document:
Jan. 4, 1968, Opinion Filed Feb. 9, 1968.
Denison Ray, Elliott C. Lichtman, Jackson, Miss., for appellants.
Will S. Wells, Asst. Atty. Gen., Joe T. Patterson, Atty. Gen. of Mississippi, Jackson, Mississippi, for appellees.
Before JOHN R. BROWN, Chief Judge, TUTTLE, WISDOM, GEWIN, BELL, THORNBERRY, COLEMAN, GOLDBERG, AINSWORTH, GODBOLD, DYER, SIMPSON and CLAYTON, Circuit Judges.
The Court on its own motion has ordered that this case be reheard by reargument argument before the Court en banc. Since it was argued before a panel of this Court made up of Senior Judge Rives, and Judges Goldberg and Ainsworth but no decision has been announced by that panel, the Court recognized that there might be some question as to whether Judge Rives is 'competent' to sit as a member of the Court, under 28 U.S.C.A. 46(c).
In response to the inquiry directed by the Court to counsel,1 one of the parties, with deference has raised the question and it is necessarily presented to the Court for judicial determination. As requested by the Court the parties submitted written briefs to the Court and each party having waived oral argument, the Court has taken the matter under consideration.
For reasons which we shall set forth in an opinion to be hereafter filed, the Court is of the clear view that such a retired senior judge is competent and therefore Judge Rives is competent to sit in the rehearing en banc now scheduled for January 10-11, 1968. Judge Rives will be a member of the Court hearing and determining the case en banc.
The question presented for decision is whether a Senior Circuit Judge who sat on a three-judge panel of this Court in the original hearing of a case in which no decision was rendered or opinion announced prior to the Court's order setting the case down for rehearing en banc is eligible to participate in the en banc determination of that case. Since the issue is squarely presented in the present case1A and because of its importance to sound judicial administration, this Court on its own motion advised counsel for both parties that some difference of opinion might exist as to whether such a Judge would indeed be 'competent' under 28 U.S.C.A. 46(c). / 2/ One of the parties in response to the Court's invitation ahving raised the question, it is now properly before us for consideration.
To assure that the Court hearing the merits of the case was properly constituted and the parties advised thereof in advance of submission, the Court3 announced its decision that such a Senior Judge is 'competent' and constitutes a member of the Court.4 But since this matter arises with some degree of frequency,5 poses problems of court administration to both the Court and litigants, and, more important, goes to the very vitals of just what constitutes the 'Court,' we think our determination warrants an exposition of our reasons.
With Senior Judges cutting such a big figure in this Court's effort to keep up with its exploding docket,6 see Shafroth, note 6 supra, the situation will recur even more frequently in the future.
On the one hand it is urged that a 'hearing' necessarily involves a determination of the case by the original three-judge panel. The consequence of this contention would be that a Senior Circuit Judge would not be eligible to sit on an en banc hearing unless the case had been decided and the judgment or opinion of the panel announced. On the other hand it is asserted that such a reading of the statute is unduly restrictive. And because such a reading would deprive the Court sitting en banc of the the work, research, study and deliberation done earlier by the Senior Circuit Judge during the pendency of the case before the panel, it is not reasonable to suppose Congress desired or intended any such wasteful consequences.
Although it was introduced in the Eighty-Sixth Congress (1960),12 the bill was not enacted (note 7 supra) until 1963 (Eighty-Eighth Congress),13 subsequent to the American-Foreign decision. The legislative history is not too instructive. It does take note of the Supreme Court's American-Foreign decision, but the Supreme Court had earlier taken note of the proposed legislation. Consequently as a matter of chronology it is a mistake to assume that the Act was a mere response to, or to be read as a solution for, the unique situation of that precise case. The purpose of the bill, as stated in the legislative history, was 'to permit (a Senior Circuit Judge) to sit on a rehearing in banc of a case where he participated at the original hearing thereof.' 1963 U.S.C. Cong. & Ad. News 1105, 1106. The report also states the Committee's conclusion that a Judge 'who has sat on an issue in an appellate hearing on which a rehearing has been ordered should be a member of the court for rehearing purposes.' Id. at 1106. Although the legislative history is certainly not conclusive on the issue presented here, we perceive no Congressional intent to limit severely the participation of retired Judges in en banc hearings by putting any such narrow interpretation on the term 'hearing'. As did the Committee report, we think Congress spoke in broad general language to include within 'an appellate hearing' the submission to a panel for a judicial determination by it, whether or not culminating in a judgment (or opinion).
There are many considerations which dictate why the statute should be given a reading expansive enough to cover the situation present here in favor of allowing a Senior Circuit Judge to sit with the Court en banc. In the forefront is the benefit which the entire Court obtains from the prior work, research, study and deliberation done by a Senior Judge during his (and his two colleague's) initial consideration of the case.14 Additionally, this fits neatly into the underlying basic structure of the Courts of Appeals. Their work is ordinarily to be-- and today it must be15 -- done by three-judge panels. The decision of the three-judge panel should therefore be magnified, not disparaged or diminished16 as might be the case if, from a narrow construction of the statute (note 7 supra), litigants would know that the Senior Judge's vote counted but only tentatively-- only so long as en banc was not ordered.
Perhaps the best reason for this expansive reading is the total absence of any reason for distinguishing between a case in which a decision has been announced and one in which en banc is ordered prior to any decision. To the contrary, there are positive reasons against such distinction. The en banc device is essentially court controlled and court initiated (see note 23 infra). Frequently it is the travail of constructing an opinion after the routine submission17 of a case to a three-judge panel that the panel realizes for the first time either the extraordinary importance of the question, the likelihood of conflict with earlier decisions or the trend of those decisions or the pendency of like cases before different panels with divided views.
There are two main ways this can be handled. An opinion can be announced with an undisclosed likelihood that the case will be put en banc, or the case can be ordered en banc without decision.18 Where the panel entertains such doubt or concern it would often be substantively bad for a decision to be announced for the very act of writing or concurring in the opinion is a judgment amounting to-- at least in the eyes of litigants-- a pre-judgment of the soon-to-be ordered en banc. To this substantive defect should be added the factors bearing on the Judges as persons. The determination of the panel (or its majority) to request a pre-decision en banc poll (see note 18 supra and note 23 infra) whether consciously or not, would parhaps be affected by the awareness that such determination is 'voting a Judge off the case'-- a result which, although bad, is one which can be avoided readily by announcing a decision and incurring all the defects of that route. Worse, many of those same factors would be at work on the non-panel active Judges in their vote on the poll, especially if the poll were requested by a panel majority of two active judges over the dissenting opposition of the Senior Judge. This opens up a whole array of influences which for nearly all cases in the last termination of whether the case is enbancworthy.
1A This is one of the six cases heard en banc at Houston, Texas, January 10-11, 1968. The cases were: No. 23841, Palmer v. Thompson, 391 F.2d 324; No. 23125. Steele v. Taft; No. 24259, Miller v. Amusement Enterprises, Inc., 391 F.2d 86 (April 8, 1968); No. 24314, Allen v. Johnson, 391 F.2d 527; No. 23813, Luna v. Beto, 391 F.2d 329; No. 23963, United States v. Cocke.
'In (Allen v. Johnson) now set for en banc argument, Judge Rives, a Senior Circuit Judge, was a member of the Court hearing the arguments. As no opinion has been rendered by that panel (Judges Rives, Goldberg and Ainsworth), there may be some question as to whether Judge Rives is 'competent' to sit as a member of the Court hearing the reargument en banc as provided for in 28 USCA 46(c). See note*, Rabinowitz v. United States, 5 Cir., 1966, 366 F.2d 34 at 37 (en banc); and United States v. American-Foreign Steamship Corp., 363 U.S. 685, 80 S.Ct. 1336, 4 L.Ed.2d 1491.
'(5) The status of retired circuit and district judges.-- The Committees reported that various questions had arisen as to the status of retired circuit and district judges with respect to their participation in certain activities of their former courts when they are assigned to active duty therein. These include the participation of retired circuit and district judges in the appointment of officers of the court and in the promulgation of court rules and, in the case of retired circuit judges, mambership on the judicial council of the circuit and of the court of appeals sitting in banc. It was the view of the Committees that under the statute only judges who are in 'regular active service', that is, those who have hot retired under Section 371(b) or 372(a), Title 28, United States Code, are the judges in 'active service' to which the statutes refer. However, the Committees thought it proper to permit a retired circuit judge to be a member of the court of appeals sitting in banc in the rehearing of a case in which he has sat, by assignment, in the panel of the court which heard the case originally. The Conference agreed and thereupon approved the following draft of a bill, presented by the Committees, clarifying the statute and incorporating the change suggested.' (Here followed proposed bill in present form (note 7 supra)).

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