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The Eleventh Circuit’S First Decade Contribution To The Law Of The Nation, 1981-1991, Thomas E. Baker

Faculty Publications

Likewise, the task of commentary is difficult. The period covered here-the first decade of the Eleventh Circuit-represents, quite literally and figuratively, the formative era of the court. Indeed, the volume of decisions and their variety are qualities that ought to humble, if not intimidate, most commentators. Justice Holmes once observed that a common law court could be expected to replicate the entire corpus juris in the space of a single generation. The Eleventh Circuit did this consciously between 1981 and 1991. In Bonner v. City of Prichard, the inaugural en banc court held that the new court-just cleaved from the …