That's the title of today's detailed DJ profile of Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain.
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| "I apply the law. I have to." |
- Even in semi-retirement, Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain, known for decades as one of the most effective conservative dissenters on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, has found a way for his voice to be heard.
- “I
can’t vote, but I can still write a statement in respect of a particular case,”
he said during an interview discussing the court’s en banc procedures. “And I’ve
done that now a couple of times.”
- A Ronald Reagan appointee who has sat on the 9th Circuit since
1986, O’Scannlain is, to some degree, responsible for bringing these dissents
from denial of en banc rehearing — or “dissentals” as some have stylized the
mechanism — in vogue on the court.
- “Judge O’Scannlain is a conservative,” observed the jurist’s
colleague, Judge Milan D. Smith Jr., a George W. Bush appointee. “In that setting,
with respect to those very few cases that are influenced by philosophy, he
weaponized the dissent from decisions not to take cases en banc. It became a
petition for certiorari on steroids.”
- Describing his interpretative approach, O’Scannlain paints
himself as an originalist when constitutional issues arise. A rigid analysis of
legislative text drives other cases unconcerned with founding documents.
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