Court Opinion

ID: 9476555
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:58:39.204532+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:45:22.766612
License: Public Domain

NATHANIEL R. JONES, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I concur fully in Judge Keith’s dissent on the merits of this case. This court is obviously and painfully split over the integrity of section 1983 and the import of the constitutional rights that the Civil Rights Act seeks to protect. Prom my dissenter’s perch, it is small solace that even Mr. Justice Sutherland recognized the folly of constitutional bartering:
It would be a palpable incongruity to strike down an act of state legislation which, by words of express divestment, seeks to strip the citizen of rights guaranteed by the federal Constitution, but to uphold an act by which the same result is accomplished under the guise of a surrender of a right in exchange for a valuable privilege which the state threatens otherwise to withhold. It is not necessary to challenge the proposition that, as a general rule, the state, having power to deny a privilege altogether, may grant it upon such condition as it sees fit to impose. But the power of the state in that respect is not unlimited; and one of the limitations is that it may not impose conditions which require the relinquishment of constitutional rights. If the state may compel the surrender of one constitutional right as a condition of its favor, it may, in like manner, compel a surrender of all. It is inconceivable that guaranties embedded in the Constitution of the United States may thus be manipulated out of existence.
Frost Trucking Co. v. Railroad Comm’n, 271 U.S. 583, 593-94, 46 S.Ct. 605, 607, 70 L.Ed. 1101 (1926).
I would also like to explain my position on the matter of the “mid-stream” recusal and its effect on the instant en banc proceedings.1 In my view, the issue is not so much the enforcement of 28 U.S.C. § 455(a) (1982), but the proper interpretation and application of this court’s en banc rule, 6th Cir.R. 14(a).2 Today’s culmination of these en banc proceedings, in light of recent events, amounts to a tacit refusal to acknowledge the practical effect of our local en banc rule and to apply that rule in a just and evenhanded manner.
Only a few uncontested facts are material to my concerns. The first is that a panel decision of this court reversed a judgment of the district court in this case. The losing party then petitioned for en banc reconsideration under local rule 14. After a polling of active judges, a bare majority (8 of 15) voted in favor of en banc review. Pursuant to our rule, that vote had the immediate effect of vacating the panel’s decision. After reargument of the case, a member of our court who cast the deciding *970vote to rehear in polling reeused himself from a vote on the merits, due to an appearance of partiality. To my knowledge, that judge’s self-recusal was not motivated by any circumstances different from those existing at the time of the en banc polling.
It is absolutely crucial, as an initial matter, to understand the effect of that vote in favor of en banc reconsideration, and to distinguish it, for instance, from a vote of the United States Supreme Court on a petition for writ of certiorari to review a panel decision. The grant of a writ of certiorari is a completely neutral consent to review the most recent lower court decision. A vote to review en banc, by contrast, operates to stay the issuance of this court’s mandate, vacates the panel decision, and schedules a full reconsideration of the district court judgment. In situations where the panel had voted to reverse the district court, a vote to rehear en banc effectively changes the posture of the parties to reflect the status quo ante.
But for the vote of the fifteenth judge, the panel decision would not have been vacated and today’s opinions would never have been issued. Undeniably, that vote was outcome-determinative. Equally undeniable is the fact that it was cast by one who later admitted that his impartiality was subject to question. By allowing that vote to stand, we wink at the reality of the conflict. There is no basis in common sense for not giving the instant recusal retroactive effect under our en banc rule. To the extent that we as a court find ourselves in an unprecedented and embarrassing position, the only just way to extricate ourselves is to rescind the order vacating the panel decision and issue the mandate on that decision.

. It is most regrettable that a fine judge of this court has become the unfortunate object of this dispute. Nonetheless, he has forthrightly admitted that his impartiality in this case might reasonably be questioned.
The discussion in the majority opinion at footnote 1 and accompanying text essentially misses the point. It is historically interesting, but irrelevant to my concern nonetheless, that years ago under different statutory standards Supreme Court Justices did not consider recusal mandatory in similar situations. In the instant case, a judge of our court has recused himself after casting an outcome-determinative vote. We as a court are left to deal with — not duck — that fact.

. I am unable to agree with the Chief Judge’s analysis of the interplay of the court’s en banc procedure and the recusal statute, set forth at Part I of his separate opinion. We cannot absolve ourselves of our responsibility to deal with the effect of a recusal by suggesting that this circuit’s en banc procedure is "controlled" by 28 U.S.C. § 46(c) and Fed.R.App.P. 35, in addition to our local rule. The unique history of this case separates it from the material provisions of the codified standards and leaves a procedural question of first impression at our doorstep.
I am, however, in full accord with the Chief Judge’s partial dissent, set forth at Part II of his separate opinion, discussing the unconstitutionality of the waiver provision of the Ohio Court of Claims Act.