Court Opinion

ID: 9470907
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:20:16.026764+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:10.677716
License: Public Domain

CUDAHY, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I reluctantly concur because I believe the majority does correctly invoke the principles underlying Briscoe v. LaHue,-U.S. -, 103 S.Ct. 1108, 75 L.Ed.2d 96 (1983). I do, however, seriously question the wisdom of deciding important matters of first impression (in this and the other federal circuits) in a published opinion, on the basis of a 9-page pro se brief of a prisoner-petitioner (written long before the decision in Briscoe), and without the benefit of oral argument. As the majority notes, in Briscoe v. LaHue, the Supreme Court took the trouble to specifically reserve the question which is before us — suggesting that the issue is not frivolous.1 The majority’s reliance on old English cases also suggests that this is not a matter where the court can expect to receive the necessary level of insight and analysis from a pro se prisoner brief. Certainly, where a published opinion on a case of first impression is to be the outcome, we should not disdain the full resources of the adversary system.

. In Briscoe v. LaHue, respondent LaHue had testified, allegedly falsely, against petitioner Briscoe in two probable cause hearings as well as at trial. Justice Stevens, writing for the majority, specifically declined to address the absolute immunity question as it applied to ' these pretrial proceedings.
In dissent, Justice Marshall noted that: “Both English and American courts routinely permitted plaintiffs to bring actions alleging that the defendant had made a false and malicious accusation of a felony to a magistrate or other judicial officer.” 103 S.Ct. at 1124 (footnote omitted)..