Court Opinion

ID: 9469056
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:30:53.902482+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:11.556024
License: Public Domain

SUR PETITION FOR REHEARING
ADAMS, Circuit Judge.
The petition for rehearing filed by Delaware Valley Citizens’ Council for Clean Air in the above entitled case having been submitted to the judges who participated in the decision of this court and to all the other available circuit judges of the circuit in regular active service, and no judge who concurred in the decision having asked for rehearing, and a majority of the circuit judges of the circuit in regular active service not having voted for rehearing by the court in banc, the petition for rehearing is denied.
*988STATEMENT OF JUDGE ADAMS SUR DENIAL OF PETITION FOR RECONSIDERATION
On March 19, 1982, over Judge Garth’s dissent, a panel of this Court granted the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s motion for a stay until this matter might be considered by the merits panel, and listed the case for expedited disposition on the merits on May 13, 1982. Appellees now have petitioned this Court to reconsider its decision to grant a stay.
In our order of March 19, we expressed “grave concern regarding the failure of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania to enact legislation to implement the Consent Decree .. . entered into a number of years ago and which in turn was utilized to obtain substantial funds from the Federal Government.” That failure on the part of the General Assembly may well mean that the Commonwealth will not succeed before the merits panel. Nonetheless, in view of the overriding public interest in maintaining the flow of sorely needed federal highway funds to the Commonwealth, and in view of the fact that we had been advised that a significant number of highway construction jobs would be lost as a result of the failure to grant a stay, we believed it appropriate to permit these important projects — affecting thousands of citizens — to proceed for a very short period pending consideration of the matter by the merits panel, which, of course, would have the advantage of full briefing. Only in this way could we avoid subjecting “innocent” third parties — citizens of Pennsylvania — to unnecessary and perhaps irreparable hardship. See Constructors Association of Western Pennsylvania v. Kreps, 573 F.2d 811, 815 (3d Cir. 1978). Moreover, we did not believe that the grant of a stay under these circumstances would derogate the authority of the district judge any more than stays ordinarily do.
In his statement, Judge Garth concludes that the Commonwealth cannot “sustain its position on irreparable injury because . . . the legislature has within its power the ability to discharge the imposed sanction.” At 989. While that is concededly true, it is not, in my view, relevant to the issue of irreparable harm. In fact, the question whether the legislature can persist in pursuing its chosen course — without subjecting Pennsylvania to the sanction imposed by the district judge — is one of the very issues to be resolved by the merits panel several weeks from today.
Accordingly, I vote to deny the petition for rehearing en banc.
Circuit Judge JAMES HUNTER, III, joins in this statement.