Opinion ID: 413330
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: summary orders

Text: 16 Although our court believes itself bound by the two two-line orders in Duckworth and Rodriquez which simply remand habeas cases with instructions to dismiss, the Supreme Court has pointed out on several occasions that cursory consideration of summary dispositions does not, of course, foreclose [the] opportunity to consider more fully the question thought to be decided. Massachusetts Board of Retirement v. Murgia, 427 U.S. 307, 309 n. 1, 96 S.Ct. 2562, 2565 n. 1, 49 L.Ed.2d 520 (1976); Tully v. Griffin, Inc., 429 U.S. 68, 74-75, 97 S.Ct. 219, 223, 50 L.Ed.2d 227 (1976) (reaffirming the principal that summary orders should not be given full precedential weight). The members of the Supreme Court from Justice Rehnquist to Justice Brennan have expressed the view that no one seriously contends that summary dispositions receive the full consideration that is given to a case argued on the merits and disposed of by written opinion, Rehnquist, Whither the Courts, 60 A.B.A.J. 787, 790 (1974), and obviously they are not of the same precedential value, Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U.S. 651, 670-71, 94 S.Ct. 1347, 1359, 39 L.Ed.2d 662 (1974) (opinion of the Court by Rehnquist, J.). A summary disposition is not to be read as a renunciation of previously established doctrines or to receive full precedential treatment, Fusari v. Steinberg, 419 U.S. 379, 391-92, 95 S.Ct. 533, 540-541, 42 L.Ed.2d 521 (1975) (Burger, C.J., concurring). See also the dissents of Justice Brennan suggesting that summary dispositions should not receive any weight unless the issue decided is clearly expressed. See Colorado Springs Amusements, Ltd. v. Rizzo, 428 U.S. 913, 921-22, 96 S.Ct. 3228, 3232-3233, 49 L.Ed.2d 1222 (1976). 17 In the instant case all we have from the Supreme Court are two two-liners that do not refer to the retroactivity or waiver questions at all and contain no substantive discussion. It simply does not make sense to conclude that these questions have now been foreclosed by that Court when it is clear that the Court never even considered, much less decided, them. Therefore, unlike our Court, I would consider the retroactivity and waiver questions on the merits. I do not consider myself foreclosed by two two-line orders that do not purport to discuss or decide the issues. In light of our common law tradition it seems elementary that for a legal judgment to be binding as precedent--that is, to be binding on someone other than the parties--it must rest on some explicable principle of law or form of legal reasoning. When those elements are absent, a judgment cannot be a precedent in a rational system of law because there is no way to decipher its meaning.