SCOTT JOHNSON ON the Ninth Circuit’s sua sponte en banc motion. “In other words, no party moved for the rehearing; one of the court’s many judges did so on his own (i.e., sua sponte). I’m guessing it might be Judge Kozinski or Judge Bybee. I would love to hear from a knowledgeable court watcher on this point. . . .The Ninth Circuit is so unwieldy it doesn’t actually rehear cases en banc; it rehears them in enlarged panels drawn from the whole roster of regular active judges on the court and calls the enlarged panels en banc.”
Related: Jeffrey Toobin: The Vulnerabilities in the Ninth Circuit’s Executive-Order Decision.
Plus, thoughts from Michael McConnell: ‘A flawed restraining of a flawed order.’