Opinion ID: 187417
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Thomas's Appeal

Text: Thomas advances the same arguments for reversing his conviction that he did in his first appeal, again contending the district court erred in denying his suppression motion. His appeal is therefore barred by the law of the case doctrine, which holds that `[w]hen there are multiple appeals taken in the course of a single piece of litigation, . . . decisions rendered on the first appeal should not be revisited on later trips to the appellate court.' LaShawn A. v. Barry, 87 F.3d 1389, 1393 (D.C.Cir.1996) (en banc) (quoting Crocker v. Piedmont Aviation, Inc., 49 F.3d 735, 739 (D.C.Cir.), cert. denied, 516 U.S. 865, 116 S.Ct. 180, 133 L.Ed.2d 118 (1995)). Under the doctrine, we will not reconsider issues already decided `in the absence of extraordinary circumstances such as where the initial decision was clearly erroneous and would work a manifest injustice.' Id. (quoting Christianson v. Colt Indus. Operating Corp., 486 U.S. 800, 817, 108 S.Ct. 2166, 100 L.Ed.2d 811 (1988) (quoting Arizona v. California, 460 U.S. 605, 618 n. 8, 103 S.Ct. 1382, 75 L.Ed.2d 318 (1983))). Thomas asserts we should revisit our decision disposing of his first appeal because it was clearly erroneous on each issue. Thomas Br. at 22. We see no error, howevermuch less clear errorto justify disturbing our earlier decision. As we held in Thomas's first appeal, the district court correctly concluded that the officers were entitled to enter Thomas's apartment to serve the arrest warrant and that they discovered the contraband in the course of a permissible protective sweep after his arrest. We therefore treat our previous decision as the law of the case.