Court Opinion

ID: 9481491
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:20:44.238497+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:21.252944
License: Public Domain

HATCHETT, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
The majority states that the purpose of the law of the case doctrine “is to establish efficiency, finality, and obedience within the judicial system.” Majority opinion at page 621. With the filing of the majority opinion in this case, “efficiency, finality, and obedience within [the Eleventh Circuit]” become meaningless utterances. According to the majority, one judge of the en banc court may (1) dissent from the court’s refusal to grant en banc rehearing on is*623sues decided by the district court and a panel of this court, (2) write on a new self-created theory, not pleaded, not ruled on, not discussed, and (3) thereby nullify the actions of the parties, the district court, the panel, and the en banc court.
In the simplest terms, the majority holds that a judge on the en banc court, may not only review the district court’s rulings and the panel’s holdings, but, acting alone, may from the reviewed case give birth to a new case, based on grounds never thought of by the parties.
For the additional reasons stated in my dissent in Harris v. Luckey, 918 F.2d 888 (11th Cir.1990) (Luckey III), I continue to dissent.