Related: Bashman Archive
Every federal appellate court — from the 9th Circuit with a whopping 28 authorized active judges, to the 1st Circuit with just six authorized active judges — takes advantage of the statutory authorization to decide the vast majority of its cases using three-judge panels. And, to promote certainty in the law, every federal appellate court follows the principle that a three-judge panel’s ruling will govern future three-judge panels of the same federal appellate court unless overturned by a higher court or by an en banc ruling of the federal appellate court that issued the decision.
