Three judges of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, their law clerks and several attorneys spent a good many hours arguing a free speech case, debating its outcome and producing a 48-page opinion. One panelist, Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs, clearly thinks this great effort was a waste of time.
In an unusual and humorous dissent released Friday, the judge ridiculed a lawsuit involving the student newspaper at the College of Staten Island and scoffed at the prospect of a jury trial, ordered by the majority, in the 10-year-old case, which the judge said was “about nothing” and “should not occupy the mind of a person who has anything consequential to do.”
