06 January 2012

Tachyonic Judges Found On Second Circuit Court of Appeals

At How Appealing, we have a report of tachyonic appellate judges:

We all get some dates wrong when the year changes, and sometimes they lead to amusing results. Today's decision from the Second Circuit, for example, was argued December 13, 2012, and decided on January 6, 2012. Must be a new record! . . . Not surprisingly, this extreme example of judicial efficiency is attributed to Judge "Per Curiam."

("Per Curiam" is Latin for "by the Court" and is the default author of an opinion of a multi-judge panel when no one judge claims authorship of the opinion. This authorship is common used in brief, unanimous opinions that summarily dispose of a case that are written by law clerks, opinions that are so bare bones that nothing that distinguishes from judge's ideas or writing style from another's, or when there are substantial contributions from multiple judges in a more collaborative than usual process and it is desirable for the legitimacy of the courts to show a united front.)

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