Court Opinion

ID: 9439130
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 06:23:01.341902+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:26:10.975953
License: Public Domain

SILBERMAN, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
We have strained hard — perhaps too hard — to decide as much of this case as we could. As our background section indicates, the district court’s interminable delays are inexcusable and have caused a great hardship to the parties, particularly the class. I am terribly concerned that our remand to this district judge is equivalent to dropping the case into a well, and, therefore, we should be prepared to grant extraordinary relief if there is further unjustified delay.
It seems to me that all the district judges — the whole district court — should assume responsibility for unwarranted delays in the processing of cases. The court of appeals has a rule, the September Rule, which has been vigorously enforced, that prevents any judge from sitting on cases in the fall if he or she has more than three assigned majority opinions outstanding over six months. I see no reason why the district court could not adopt an analogous rule, more tailored to its circumstances, that would force district judges to process cases in a timely fashion or else be disqualified. The court of appeals can only act episodically as cases are brought to us; it is not our responsibility to supervise district judges.