Court Opinion

ID: 9492019
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:30:17.851525+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:04.143596
License: Public Domain

*167JACOBS, Circuit Judge
(with whom WINTER, Chief Judge, and KEARSE, walker, McLaughlin, cabranes, and PARKER, Circuit Judges, join), concurring:
I write separately to respond to Judge Leval’s concurring opinion, which (i) addresses the passage in the Court’s in banc opinion that explains why consent decrees are not contracts subject to state-court enforcement (Majority Opinion at 156-57), and (ii) characterizes that passage as unjustified dictum. For the following reason, I think that the passage is needed and useful.
In testing the constitutionality of the PLRA’s “termination of prospective relief’ provision (18 U.S.C. § 3626(b)), the Panel opinion intimated that the provision might fail if it were read to require the termination of the consent decrees. See Benjamin II, 124 F.3d 162, 176-77 (2d Cir.1997). The Panel opinion avoided that risk by reading the provision solely as a limit on the power of federal courts to enforce the consent decrees, and by holding therefore that the consent decrees are not terminated (or vacated) and may be enforceable as contracts in the state courts. Id. The Panel opinion justified its course on the perfectly sound principle that courts should avoid making unnecessary constitutional pronouncements if a reasonable interpretation of the statute would obviate the constitutional difficulties. See Lo Duca v. United States, 93 F.3d 1100, 1110 (2d Cir.1996) (“[W]e are instructed to construe federal statutes to avoid constitutional infirmity. ...”). Only by invoking this doctrine did the Panel opinion avoid reaching certain of plaintiffs’ separation of powers, due process, and equal protection arguments. Benjamin II, 124 F.3d at 176-77, 177 n. 18.
The Court’s in bane opinion reaches and decides the questions that the Panel avoided. See Majority Opinion at 157 (“We do not see any basis for inferring that Congress meant federal consent decrees that are not based on need-narrowness-intrusiveness findings to remain in effect and amenable to enforcement in state courts.”). Therefore, it becomes a natural and integral part of the in banc Court’s analysis to say why we are reaching tough constitutional issues that we should avoid if we can, that is, why the detour taken by the Panel opinion is foreclosed. To do that, the Court’s in banc opinion demonstrates that the consent decrees are not in the nature of contracts that remain subject to enforcement and administration in the state courts.
Judge Leval’s concurring opinion argues that because the Court’s in banc opinion vacates the Panel opinion, there is no need to address the reason given by the Panel for avoiding the tough constitutional question. I disagree. The Panel opinion is vacated, not annihilated. Because we vacate it, we should say why, and explain our course, including why we reach questions that might be avoided if the consent decrees were contractual in character. The resulting passage in the Court’s in banc opinion is not a core holding, but neither is it dictum, let alone dictum that is “advisory” and “gratuitous.” See Leval Concurring Opinion at 168,170.