Passionate Opinions, Not Personal Attacks, Judges Tell Students

Wearing a judicial robe means often deciding contentious cases with some of the same people year after year, and for Judge David R. Stras, of the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, doing that successfully means putting into practice the maxim “we can disagree without being disagreeable.”

Judges Stephanos Bibas of the Third Circuit, Robin S. Rosenbaum of the Eleventh Circuit, and Toby J. Heytens of the Fourth Circuit, agreed with Stras. The four judges spoke about the challenges of adjudicating cases during a panel on collegiality that was part of the annual William & Mary Law ...