Court Opinion

ID: 9476681
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 06:02:09.731719+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:45:26.863900
License: Public Domain

LIVELY, Chief Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the judgment and in much of what Judge Ryan has written in the majority opinion. However, I disagree with the majority’s treatment of Bryant v. Zimmerman, 278 U.S. 63, 49 S.Ct. 61, 73 L.Ed. 184 (1928).
The protective orders in this case can be upheld and the petition for a writ of mandamus denied on the authority of Seattle Times Co. v. Rkinehart, 467 U.S. 20, 104 S.Ct. 2199, 81 L.Ed.2d 17 (1984), which speaks clearly on the central issue in this case. Bryant v. Zimmerman is easily distinguishable, since it involved an appeal from a holding that a state statute was unconstitutional. Appellate courts have infinitely broader discretion in reviewing such a holding than they do in considering an original action seeking the extraordinary remedy of mandamus. The Supreme Court has passed up several opportunities to overrule Bryant v. Zimmerman, and we should not attempt to eliminate it from the body of the law.
Although the holding of Bryant v. Zimmerman does not serve to upset the balance in favor of protective orders in civil pretrial discovery proceedings, I am not prepared to agree that there are no circumstances in which that holding would provide the proper rationale for an appellate decision.