From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv
In federal court, any case mau be appealed to the intermediate court,
but there are still numerous obstacles preventing the case from being considered on its merits. The biggest problem is precedent, typically
set by the circuit itself. An appeal is heard by a three judge panel but
the panel is bound by the law established by its own circuit. In plenty
of situations, there is no Supreme Court precedent.
A party may appeal to the full circuit, which if accepts the case, will
sit "en banc" to hear it. This is quite rare aw circuits are loathe to
overturn their own precedent. The threshold is incredibly high if the
law hasn't actually changed, statutory, or ruling from the Suprene Court
or possibly another circuit on analogous facts to influence an opinion.
We've talked about this Institute for Justice case before but I couldn't
spot the thread. FBI SWAT raided a home, failing to do basic observation
like reading the address to verify that it was the target.
The family was terrorized, hurt, and property was destroyed. The
government clearly committed a tort but there can be no day in court
thanks to bad precedent from the 11th Circuit (Atlanta).
Here's something that almost never happens. The 3-judge panel still
ruled against the family but recommended to the full circuit that they
sit en banc to hear the case and decide whether to overturn precedent.
And, the panel ruled in the family's favor that the FBI supervisor who
failed to perform his duty of care does not have qualified immunity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj7Fp6sjddM
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