Court Opinion

ID: 9428803
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:24:49.979805+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:15.374237
License: Public Domain

Justice Rehnquist,
with whom Justice Marshall joins, dissenting.
Title 28 U. S. C. §2106 provides that “[t]he Supreme Court. . . may affirm, modify, vacate, set aside or reverse any judgment, decree, or order of a court lawfully brought before it for review . . . .” Our practice over many years indicates that implicit in this grant of authority is a requirement that we specify our reasons for acting as we do. Here the Court departs from that implicit requirement. The ultimate disposition of the case is the vacation of the judgment of the Court of Appeals and a remand so that this case may be consolidated with another proceeding in the District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. A reading of the Court’s per curiam suggests that the Court is vaguely dissatisfied with the opinion of the Court of Appeals which it purportedly reviews, but no substantive judgment is made as to whether that opinion was correct or incorrect in whole or in part. Nothing in the record before us suggests to me any reason why we should assume a function more properly exercised by the Court of Appeals or by the District Court, and order consolidation of this case with another pending action in the District Court. But even if I were disposed to agree as to the propriety of the disposition now made by the Court, I would hope that something in the nature of an opinion explaining the reasons for the action would accompany the disposition. Since the Court’s per curiam makes, no effort at such an explanation, I dissent.