Opinion ID: 2973894
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: jurisdiction

Text: “As a threshold matter, we must first determine whether we have jurisdiction to consider [the defendants’] interlocutory appeal.” Sample v. Bailey, 409 F.3d 689, 694 (6th Cir. 2005). Appellate courts have “jurisdiction to hear appeals only from ‘final decisions’ of district courts.” Johnson v. Jones, 515 U.S. 304, 309 (1995) (citing 28 U.S.C. § 1291). “[I]nterlocutory appeals–appeals before the end of district court proceedings–are the exception, not the rule.” Id. The Supreme Court “has held that certain so-called collateral orders amount to ‘final decisions’ immediately appealable under the here-relevant statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1291, even though the district court may have entered those orders before (perhaps long before) the case has ended.” Id. at 310 (quoting Cohen v. Beneficial Indus. Loan Corp., 337 U.S. 541, 545 (1949)). The Supreme Court recently addressed the collateral-order doctrine in Will v. Hallock, 126 S. Ct. 952 (2006). Will involved the question of “whether a refusal to apply the judgment bar of the Federal Tort Claims Act is open to collateral appeal.” Id. at 956. The Court held that the judgment bar is not open to collateral appeal, id.; in so holding, the Court emphasized the “modest scope” of the collateral-order doctrine, id. at 958. The opinion explains: Since only some orders denying an asserted right to avoid the burdens of trial qualify, then, as orders that cannot be reviewed “effectively” after a conventional final judgment, the cases have to be combed for some further characteristic that merits appealability under Cohen; and as Digital Equipment explained, that something further boils down to “a judgment about the value of the interests that would be lost through rigorous application of a final judgment requirement.” Id. at 958-59 (quoting Digital Equip. Corp. v. Desktop Direct, Inc., 511 U.S. 863, 878-79 (1994)). Will established the following rule: “it is not mere avoidance of a trial, but avoidance of a trial that No. 04-6288 Barnes v. Wright et al. Page 4 would imperil a substantial public interest, that counts when asking whether an order is ‘effectively’ unreviewable if review is to be left until later.” Id. at 959 (emphasis added). The Court provided examples of orders that are immediately appealable, including “orders rejecting absolute immunity, Nixon v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 731, 742 (1982)), and qualified immunity, Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 530 (1985).” Id. at 958. We therefore have jurisdiction to review the defendants’ claims of qualified immunity pursuant to both Mitchell and Will.2 Because we hold that the defendants are entitled to qualified immunity, we do not address the question of our jurisdiction as to the defendants’ absolute-immunity claims.