Court Opinion

ID: 9488317
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:41:50.651849+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:52:49.088674
License: Public Domain

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge,
with whom ILANA DIAMOND ROVNER, Circuit Judge, joins, dissenting from the denial of rehearing en banc.
Today the court, despite its bobtailed condition,1 takes this occasion to change, through our mail-vote Circuit Rule 40(f) procedure, a major issue in criminal procedure— the standard of review governing the volun-tariness of a confession. It takes that action in a case in which the United States explicitly conceded that the standard of review is not outcome-determinative.
In taking this summary action, the court alters the established law of the circuit,2 departs from the great weight of authority among the circuits,3 and fails to come to *368grips with existing Supreme Court precedent.4 It takes this action despite the presence on our docket of an appeal by the United States, presumably with the permission of the Solicitor General, in which the government has taken a position contrary to the one we adopt today.5
It is indeed sad that many of the judges of the court believe that, on so important an issue, neither the argument of counsel at oral argument nor the collegial discussion of the conference room is appropriate to the decision-making process. Too many cases and too few judges produce hydraulic pressures that subtly transform an institution from a case-deciding institution to a case-processing institution. Today’s action is concrete proof that we already have undergone a great deal of that transformation.

. See North Ga. Finishing, Inc. v. Di-Chem, Inc., 419 U.S. 601, 615, 95 S.Ct. 719, 727, 42 L.Ed.2d 751 (1975) (Blackmun, J., dissenting).

. See, e.g., United States v. Cichon, 48 F.3d 269, 275 (7th Cir.1995), petition for cert. filed (May 18, 1995) (No. 94 — 9315); United States v. Sablotny, 21 F.3d 747, 752 (7th Cir.1994); United States v. Montgomery, 14 F.3d 1189, 1194 (7th Cir.1994); United States v. White, 979 F.2d 539, 543 (7th Cir.1992); United States v. McGuire, 957 F.2d 310, 315 (7th Cir.1992); United States v. Cahill, 920 F.2d 421, 427 (7th Cir.1990), cert. denied, 500 U.S. 934, 111 S.Ct. 2058, 114 L.Ed.2d 463 (1991); United States v. Fazio, 914 F.2d 950, 956 n. 9 (7th Cir.1990); United States v. Harris, 914 F.2d 927, 933 (7th Cir.1990); United States v. Hocking, 860 F.2d 769, 773 (7th Cir.1988); United States v. Hawkins, 823 F.2d 1020, 1022-23 (7th Cir.1987). This circuit's habeas corpus decisions incorporating the de novo standard of review for voluntariness of a confession include Lord v. Duckworth, 29 F.3d 1216, 1222 (7th Cir.1994); Baskin v. Clark, 956 F.2d 142, 145 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, - U.S. -, 113 S.Ct. 109, 121 L.Ed.2d 67 (1992); Pharr v. Gudmanson, 951 F.2d 117, 119-20 (7th Cir.1991); Bae v. Peters, 950 F.2d 469, 474 (7th Cir.1991); Mikel v. Thieret, 887 F.2d 733, 739 (7th Cir.1989); Sotelo v. Indiana State Prison, 850 F.2d 1244, 1247 (7th Cir.1988); Bryan v. Warden, 820 F.2d 217, 219 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 867, 108 S.Ct. 190, 98 L.Ed.2d 142 (1987). But see, e.g., United States v. Taylor, 31 F.3d 459, 463 (7th Cir.1994) (stating standard as one of fact to be decided by trial judge); id. at 468 (Ripple, J., concurring and dissenting, stating that this circuit’s precedent uses a de novo review of the question of voluntariness); Johnson v. Trigg, 28 F.3d 639, 645 (7th Cir.1994) (questioning applicability of de novo standard for voluntariness issues); United States v. Haddon, 927 F.2d 942, 946-47 (7th Cir.1991) (using a totality of the circumstances balancing test); United States v. Rutledge, 900 F.2d 1127, 1128-29 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 875, 111 S.Ct. 203, 112 L.Ed.2d 164 (1990) (expressing doubt about soundness of de novo standard); Wilson v. O’Leary, 895 F.2d 378, 383 (7th Cir.1990) (questioning voluntariness as issue of law rather than fact); United States v. Rodriguez, 888 F.2d 519, 522 n. 1 (7th Cir.1989) (listing cases disputing de novo review).

.See, e.g., United States v. Yunis, 859 F.2d 953, 958 (D.C.Cir.1988); United States v. Burns, 15 F.3d 211, 216 (1st Cir.1994); Green v. Scully, 850 F.2d 894, 900 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 945, 109 S.Ct. 374, 102 L.Ed.2d 363 (1988); United States v. Velasquez, 885 F.2d 1076, 1086 (3d Cir.1989), cert. denied, 494 U.S. 1017, 110 S.Ct. 1321, 108 L.Ed.2d 497 (1990); United States v. Pelton, 835 F.2d 1067, 1072 (4th Cir.1987), cert. denied, 486 U.S. 1010, 108 S.Ct. 1741, 100 L.Ed.2d 204 (1988); United States v. Scurlock, 52 F.3d 531, 536 (5th Cir.1995); United States v. Rigsby, 943 F.2d 631, 635 (6th Cir.1991), cert. denied, 503 U.S. 908, 112 S.Ct. 1269, 117 L.Ed.2d 496 (1992); United States v. Robinson, 20 F.3d 320, 322 (8th Cir.1994); United *368States v. Benitez, 34 F.3d 1489, 1495 (9th Cir.1994), cert. denied, - U.S. -, 115 S.Ct. 1268, 131 L.Ed.2d 146 (1995); United States v. Muniz, 1 F.3d 1018, 1021 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 114 S.Ct. 575, 126 L.Ed.2d 474 (1993); Stano v. Butterworth, 51 F.3d 942, 944 (11th Cir.1995); Coleman v. Singletary, 30 F.3d 1420, 1426 (11th Cir.1994), cert. denied, - U.S. -, 115 S.Ct. 1801, 131 L.Ed.2d 727 (1995). But see United States v. Mendoza-Cecelia, 963 F.2d 1467, 1475 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, - U.S. -, 113 S.Ct. 436, 121 L.Ed.2d 356 (1992) (reviewing under clear error standard).

. See Beckwith v. United States, 425 U.S. 341, 348, 96 S.Ct. 1612, 1617, 48 L.Ed.2d 1 (1976); Davis v. North Carolina, 384 U.S. 737, 741-42, 86 S.Ct. 1761, 1764-65, 16 L.Ed.2d 895 (1966). See also Miller v. Fenton, 474 U.S. 104, 110, 106 S.Ct. 445, 449, 88 L.Ed.2d 405 (1985).

. See United States v. D.F., No. 94-2900, Government Br. at 17 (relying on Miller v. Fenton, 474 U.S. 104, 110, 106 S.Ct. 445, 449, 88 L.Ed.2d 405 (1985) and United States v. Montgomery, 14 F.3d 1189, 1194 (7th Cir.1994), for its position that the voluntariness of a statement is subject to de novo review).