Opinion ID: 781164
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Review Function of the Courts of Appeals

Text: 19 As a general matter, the federal courts of appeals review decisions of the district courts. Different standards of review are to be applied, depending on whether the appellant's challenge focuses principally on issues of fact or issues of law. A district court's findings of fact are evaluated under the deferential clearly erroneous standard of review. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 52(a) (Findings of fact, whether based on oral or documentary evidence, shall not be set aside unless clearly erroneous ....). This standard is applicable to a district court's findings in federal habeas cases. See, e.g., Fed.R.Civ.P. 81(a)(2) (These [Federal Rules of Civil Procedure] are applicable to proceedings for ... habeas corpus ... to the extent that the practice in such proceedings is not set forth in statutes of the United States and has heretofore conformed to the practice in civil actions.); Wade v. Mayo, 334 U.S. 672, 683-84, 68 S.Ct. 1270, 92 L.Ed. 1647 (1948) (findings by the district court in a habeas case are reviewed under the clearly-erroneous standard); Quesinberry v. Taylor, 162 F.3d 273, 276 (4th Cir.1998) (same). 20 Where an appeal turns on factual issues, findings of fact by the district court are normally needed in order to permit meaningful appellate review. Although we will proceed with review of a district court's decision even where it lacks findings if we are able to discern enough solid facts from the record to permit us to render a decision, Davis v. New York City Housing Authority, 166 F.3d 432, 436 (2d Cir.1999), we, like other appellate courts, remand to the district court when the record is insufficiently clear to permit us to determine the basis for the district court's decision, see, e.g., id. at 437. In Von Moltke v. Gillies, 332 U.S. 708, 68 S.Ct. 316, 92 L.Ed. 309 (1948), for example, the Supreme Court vacated the denial of habeas and remanded in order to permit the district court to make explicit findings on issues relating to the petitioner's representation by counsel. Id. at 727, 68 S.Ct. 316; see also id. at 730-31, 68 S.Ct. 316 (Frankfurter, J., concurring) (noting that the crucial facts could not be determined from the record itself and that fathoming what the district judge concluded [f]rom what he wrote ... would be the most tenuous guessing). 21 A district court's conclusions of law are reviewed de novo, rather than for clear error, but it is normally useful to have those conclusions articulated. [I]f the District Court does not enter an opinion analyzing the relevant precedents in light of the record, or merely enters skeletal conclusions of law, the reviewing court is deprived of ... helpful guidance. United States v. Marine Bancorporation, Inc., 418 U.S. 602, 616 n. 13, 94 S.Ct. 2856, 41 L.Ed.2d 978 (1974). The de novo standard 22 does not mean that it is our function to decide [legal issues] in the first instance. We are dependent on the district court to identify and sort out the issues on ... motions [for dismissals as a matter of law], to examine and analyze them, and to apply the law to the facts accepted by the court for purposes of the motion. We are entitled to the benefit of the district court's judgment, which is always helpful and usually persuasive. 23 Beckford v. Portuondo, 234 F.3d 128, 130 (2d Cir.2000) (per curiam). In Beckford v. Portuondo, for example, the district court's decision granting summary judgment dismissing the plaintiff's Eighth Amendment and due process claims consisted of two sentences, as follows: 24 Upon review of the record and applicable law, the Court concludes that no genuine issue of material fact exists that precludes summary judgment, and that Plaintiff's claims are legally deficient. The Court notes that it does not reach the issue of Eleventh Amendment immunity or the applicability of Kilcullen at this stage, and relies on the alternate grounds articulated in Defendants' memorandum. 25 234 F.3d at 129 (quoting district court's decision). We concluded that the district court's explanation of its decision was too spare to serve as a basis for our review. Id. at 130. We remanded to the district court for further consideration and a complete and comprehensive decision, pointing out that 26 [a] recitation of the applicable factors or legal standard, standing alone, is normally not sufficient to permit appropriate appellate review.... If the court fails to make findings and to give an explanation, and the reason for the court's ruling is not clear to us, we will remand for findings and an explanation. 27 Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). 28 Other Circuits have similarly sought clarification in the context of appeals from orders granting or denying petitions for habeas corpus. See, e.g., Finley v. Drew, 453 F.2d 1240, 1241 & n. 1 (3d Cir.1971) (per curiam) (remanding for findings of fact and conclusions of law where order granting habeas was too `cryptic[]' to apprise[ the court of appeals] of the reasons for the District Court's disposition); Tatem v. United States, 275 F.2d 894, 896 (D.C.Cir.1960) (It is ... imperative that denial either of leave to file the petition, or... of the writ itself, be accompanied by an expression of the reasons for the denial either by informal memorandum, by recitals in an order, or by findings.); Shinall v. Breazeale, 404 F.2d 785, 787 (5th Cir. 1968) (remanding where failure to state findings or reasons for denial of habeas prevented appellate court from determining whether an evidentiary hearing should have been held); Whitley v. Miller, 749 F.2d 634, 635 (11th Cir.1984) (per curiam) (remanding for further proceedings, findings of fact and conclusions of law where the findings of the district court [we]re insufficient to enable [the court of appeals] to reach the merits); Tucker v. Howard, 177 F.2d 494, 496 (7th Cir.1949) (the judge in a habeas corpus proceeding[] should make and file findings of fact and conclusions of law). See also Sumner v. Mata, 449 U.S. 539, 552, 101 S.Ct. 764, 66 L.Ed.2d 722 (1981) (No court reviewing the grant of an application for habeas corpus should be left to guess as to the habeas court's reasons for granting relief.). 29 Moreover, specification by the district court of its findings of fact and conclusions of law informs the losing litigant of the reason for that court's ruling and of the principal questions that he must address if he appeals. See generally Mayo v. Lakeland Highlands Canning Co., 309 U.S. 310, 317, 60 S.Ct. 517, 84 L.Ed. 774 (1940) ([I]f appellants conceived themselves aggrieved by the action of the court upon motion for preliminary injunction, they were entitled to have explicit findings of fact upon which the conclusion of the court was based. Such findings are obviously necessary to the intelligent and orderly presentation and proper disposition of an appeal.). 30 We do not suggest that the district court must write an opinion or lengthy order in every case. When we are ruling on an application for a certificate of appealability, we must determine whether the habeas petitioner has made a substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional right, see 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c); in some cases, a lack of substance is plain from the face of the application, and the necessary determination can be made even if the district court has denied the petition with the tersest of orders. 31 Nor do we suggest that the court cannot properly adopt a party's argument on a given issue instead of issuing an order setting out a free-standing elaboration of the court's views. For example, in Clanton v. United States, 284 F.3d 420, 426 (2d Cir.2002), we found the district court's order denying a § 2255 claim sufficiently informative in part because it adopted specified pages of the government's response to the motion. We concluded that that specificity disclosed a disposition that could meaningfully be reviewed. 32 That said, we nonetheless heed the cautionary note repeatedly sounded by the Supreme Court as to the imprudence of wholesale adoption of a party's position even in making findings of fact after the court's decision has been announced: 33 [District judges should] avoid as far as [they] possibly can simply signing what some lawyer puts under [their] nose[s]. These lawyers, and properly so, in their zeal and advocacy and their enthusiasm are going to state the case for their side in these findings as strongly as they possibly can. When these findings get to the courts of appeals they won't be worth the paper they are written on as far as assisting the court of appeals in determining why the judge decided the case. 34 United States v. El Paso Natural Gas Co., 376 U.S. 651, 657 n. 4, 84 S.Ct. 1044, 12 L.Ed.2d 12 (1964) (citation omitted). We view the potential for overreaching and exaggeration on the part of attorneys, frequently exhibited when they are preparing findings of fact after learning that the judge has decided in their favor, Anderson v. Bessemer City, 470 U.S. 564, 572, 105 S.Ct. 1504, 84 L.Ed.2d 518 (1985), as even greater where the case is in its initial stages and the court has simply ordered the respondent to show cause why a habeas petition should not be granted. The issues have not been circumscribed by the court's announcement of any ruling, and the attorneys are generally inclined to include every argument that has occurred to them as a possible reason for the court to rule in their client's favor, no matter how frail. In the present case, for example, the State's Memorandum, which was adopted in toto by the district court, stated that Miranda both did, and did not, object to the unfair line of cross-examination. And it offered as a ground for rejecting his self-representation claim the conjecture that, if granted that right, Miranda would thereafter have constructively waived it by misbehaving. The very nature of advocacy creates a need for the court to be wary of wholesale adoption of a party's proffers.