In re Slagle

Background

A federal Court of Appeals sent a question up asking who should decide a request that a judge on a three-judge panel be disqualified after he denied a motion asking him to step aside. The Supreme Court dismissed that certificate of question. Justice White, joined by Justices Blackmun and Stevens, wrote about the dismissal and discussed where such petitions ordinarily belong.

Reasoning

Justice White explained that the Court has long taken a narrow view of its own appellate role in cases involving three-judge courts, pointing to the statute that governs such appeals and to prior decisions. He noted earlier examples where the Court declined to review actions or orders issued by a single judge sitting on a three-judge court, including Gonzalez, Hicks, Idlewild Bon Voyage Liquor, and Schackman. White said the Court expressly takes no definitive position on the formal question presented, but he believes it is evident that the Court of Appeals has initial jurisdiction to consider a petition asking a single member of a three-judge court to disqualify himself.

Real world impact

The practical effect is procedural: disputes about whether a single judge of a three-judge panel must step aside will generally be addressed first in the Court of Appeals rather than in the Supreme Court. This decision follows prior practice of limiting the Supreme Court’s immediate review of single-judge actions in three-judge cases and leaves the broader merits of any disqualification request to the lower courts to decide first.