Court Opinion

ID: 9585125
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:56:39.994264+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:28:58.989753
License: Public Domain

ROGERS, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in all but Part II.A. of the majority opinion. Part II.A. answers a question that does not need to be answered to decide this appeal. We should not answer such a question no matter how clear the answer appears to be. See Pierre N. Leval, Judging Under the Constitution: Dicta About Dicta, 81 N.Y.U. L.Rev. 1249, 1255-56, 1261-63 (2006).
This case involves none of the situations in which it might make a difference whether or not the requirements of LMRA § 301(a) are jurisdictional. This is not a case where the requirements of § 301 have been forfeited, waived, or belatedly raised. Nor is this a case involving pendent state-law claims.
The res judicata effect of our decision is also not affected by the analysis in Part II.A. And, finally, this is not a case where we are formally required to ascertain our jurisdiction before ruling on a merits issue. Part II.A. instead resolves how we characterize a threshold issue, where the characterization has no effect either on how we decide the appeal or on the res judicata effect of our judgment. The characterization only makes a difference in fact situations not before us.