Sixth Circuit Schism Exposed on Explaining En Banc Hearing Votes

Sixth Circuit judges made public their disagreements on if they should explain their votes on whether the full court should rehear certain cases following a ruling from a three-judge panel.

Judge Karen Nelson Moore, in concurring Tuesday with the decision to deny a full-court rehearing of a civil-rights case involving contaminated water in a Michigan city, bemoaned a “rising trend” of publishing concurrences or dissents when the full court declines to rehear a case.

Moore, a Clinton appointee to the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, expressed “serious concerns about this practice” and said that, in this case, ...