Trump Appellate Judge Says Bad ‘Outlier’ Rulings Shouldn’t Bind

Fifth Circuit Judge Andrew Oldham said appellate panels shouldn’t be bound by each others’ rulings, and should instead be allowed to make their own determinations on the law in each case.

Speaking at the Heritage Foundation in Washington on Wednesday, Oldham—a Donald Trump appointee to the New Orleans-based federal appeals court—suggested that judges view each individual court decision as a data point and then try to find the law as the trend line that best fits those points while ignoring the extreme outliers.

Oldham, seen as a potential future justice, is the latest conservative judge to suggest that bad precedent ...