Court Opinion

ID: 9478878
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 07:01:24.545749+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:46:40.623850
License: Public Domain

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge,
with whom COFFEY, Circuit Judge, joins,
dissenting.
I join the dissenting opinions of Judge Coffey and Judge Manion. I write separately only to emphasize that the most enduring — and dangerous — impact of the majority’s opinion will not be its effect on the conduct of the pretrial conference, but on the relationship between the Judiciary and the Congress in establishing practice and procedure for the federal courts. Recognizing that the line between substance and procedure is at best an indistinct and vague one, the two branches of government have established a long tradition of shared responsibility for this aspect of governance. That tradition is embodied principally — although not exclusively — in the Rules Enabling Act. 28 U.S.C. § 2072. That Act was designed to foster a uniform system of procedure throughout the federal system, supplemented but not altered, by local rules to take care of local problems. Experimentation at the local level in areas where policy choices have not been made at the national level is permitted. Moreover, there is no question that the judicial officer retains a substantial degree of inherent authority to deal with individual situations —as long as that authority is exercised in conformity with the policies embodied in the national rules. However, the Rules Enabling Act hardly contemplates the broad, amorphous, definition of the “inherent power of a district judge,” at 652, articulated by the majority.
It is significant that, just months ago, in the Judicial Improvements and Access to Justice Act, Pub.L. No. 100-702, 102 Stat. 4642 (1988), Congress made clear its con*666cern with district courts’ frustrating the careful process of evaluation and consensus set up by the Rules Enabling Act through the proliferation of local rules. §§ 401-407, 102 Stat. 4648-52. Today’s decision is indeed hard to reconcile with the underlying Congressional concern for uniformity of practice in the federal courts. Indeed, the majority encourages the individual district court to march to its own drummer. Before long, we shall no doubt see the rhetoric of its opinion used to justify far more questionable “innovations” than the strong-arm settlement methodology of the magistrate at issue in this opinion.