Law Commons^™

En Banc Revealed: Procedure, Politics, And Privacy, Abigail Stecker

Abigail Stecker

The en banc process is complex and perhaps mysterious. Through this process, a majority of judges on a federal court of appeals can vote to rehear a case that its own three-judge panel already decided; thus, rehearing a case en banc allows the court to issue a superseding decision with highly precedential effect. In theory, en banc rehearing allows all of the court’s judges to determine circuit law, rather than just three judges. In the Ninth Circuit, specifically, multiple events must occur before the court will rehear a case en banc. Many of these events are complicated and private, despite …