Court Opinion

ID: 9499045
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:36:19.934532+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:59:15.129526
License: Public Domain

ROVNER, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in all but the final two paragraphs of the majority’s opinion. I would not address the merits of the district court’s discretionary ruling on the motion in limine because that issue was not raised by the parties and was not briefed. “Under ordinary principles of the adversary system, we do not reach out to decide questions not before us.” Bethea v. Robert J. Adams & Assoc., 352 F.3d 1125, 1130-31 (7th Cir.2003) (Cudahy, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part) (citing Adam A. Milani & Michael R. Smith, “Playing God: A Critical Look at Sua Sponte Decisions by Appellate Courts,” 69 Tenn. L.Rev. 245, 273 (2002) (“Party identification of the issues is at the core of th[e adversary] system and ‘[t]he adversary process is no more starkly challenged than when a court decides an issue not raised, for it actually decides something other than what the parties asked it to decide.’ ”)). Therefore, although I might have ruled differently under the limited facts as we know them in this interlocutory appeal, I am uncomfortable directing the district court to reconsider the ruling that prevented the prosecution from revealing Martin’s imprisonment. I see no reason to address an issue that was neither briefed, argued, nor appealed.