Court Opinion

ID: 9634449
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 13:13:02.545414+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:09:03.078992
License: Public Domain

POOLER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent. It is not enough to repeat the language of solicitude for the rights of pro se litigants without giving meaning to those rights. Since we need not reach the issue of whether this plaintiff waived his discovery rights, in order to affirm the grant of summary judgment to the defendants in this discrimination action, we should not do so. This is especially so, since, as the majority opinion points *606out, the Northern District of New York does not separately inform litigants in its pro se manual of the risk of appellate waiver for failing to object within the required period. Plaintiff benefitted from some discovery while he was represented by counsel and he does not, on appeal, explain what additional information he sought. The key question of whether Onondaga County Department of Emergency Communications had ever employed anyone who had a discrepancy between their criminal background check and their responses to related questions on the application form had already been answered. Therefore, we need not decide whether Magistrate Peebles correctly denied plaintiffs motion to compel discovery because it would not alter the outcome of the motion for summary judgment. Apart from advising the Northern District of New York that it “might consider” supplementing its pro se manual, I, respectfully, see no merit to this ungenerous little opinion.