Supreme Court vacates appeals court gender-neutral pay ruling written by a deceased judge
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court vacated a federal appeals court decision Monday for a simple reason: The judge who wrote it is dead.
"Federal judges are appointed for life, not for eternity," the justices wrote in an unsigned, five-page opinion.
A California county had asked the Supreme Court to reconsider the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruling in part because it was written by Judge Stephen Reinhardt, who died March 29, 2018. The ruling was filed 11 days later, on April 9.
"Deceased judges cannot decide cases," Shay Dvoretsky, the lawyer for the school district, argued in court papers.
The Supreme Court agreed, noting that Reinhardt's reasoning in the case was endorsed by just six of the 11 judges on the panel, which meant his vote was critical. Although the decision wasn't altered after his death, the high court said judges could have changed their votes, making it an active case until the decision was issued.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/supreme-court-vacates-appeals-court-gender-neutral-pay-ruling-written-by-a-deceased-judge/ar-BBU3xEM?li=BBnbfcL
