Court Opinion

ID: 9694399
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 17:40:12.548769+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:09:20.873774
License: Public Domain

Dooley, J.,
concurring. This Court is a deliberative body, and decisions often emerge from group interaction and decisionmaking. Thus, I am unwilling to endorse a blanket rule that if enough nondisqualified justices voted for a particular result, it will always stand despite the involvement of one or more disqualified justices in the deliberative process. Nor am I willing to endorse the rule advocated by defendant — that involvement of a disqualified justice in deliberation automatically taints the deliberation so the case must be submitted to a whole new panel of specially-assigned justices. In this case, I believe, based on my involvement in the case from its initial argument, that the participation of the Chief Justice did not affect the result. Defendant has made no showing to the contrary. Accordingly, I join in the decision to deny the motion to vacate.

Motion to vacate denied.