Court Opinion

ID: 9426401
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:17:46.700454+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:00.715085
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Rehnquist,
dissenting.
In the course of what purports to be an opinion explaining its decision merely to grant a motion for leave to file a petition for writ of mandamus, the Court proceeds to lay out in minute detail what the District Court should do during the next 30 days while the Court “continues consideration” of the petition. Coincidentally, the actions which the Court “assumes” the District Court will take are precisely those sought in the petition for the extraordinary remedy of mandamus. By pretending that it has not passed upon the merits of the petition when it has actually afforded movants their relief, today’s decision seems to me more legerdemain than law. If the Court is going to exercise its power to coerce the lower federal courts, I think it obligated to clearly announce that intention, to address directly the question of its authority to do so, see 28 U. S. C. § 1651 (a), and to analyze with care the propriety of such action in the case before it. I have no little doubt as to the Court’s authority to afford the relief it pretends to pretermit, and the Court’s opinion does nothing to dispel the doubt. But even assuming such authority exists, I believe movants have failed to demonstrate their entitlement to the iron fist which shows so clearly through the Court’s velvet glove today. It is true that this case has not been a model for the speedy resolution of litigation. But our previous opinions established no rigid timetable to which the District Court was required to adhere, and I am not persuaded that it is deliberately avoiding its duty to apply the law. Accordingly, I pres*681ently believe I would deny the writ. But even if further consideration and argument on the merits might convince me otherwise, I cannot join today’s opinion, which, without any analysis of the difficult legal issues involved, necessarily proceeds upon the unstated premise that mandamus will ultimately issue in this case.