A Federal District Judge's Clash with a Repeat Litigant: An Unusual Case with Larger Ramifications For How We Define Justice and Fairness
By EDWARD LAZARUS
FindLaw columnist, attorney, and author Edward Lazarus discusses a recent case that divided the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The case arose because a federal district judge deemed a litigant vexatious and barred him from filing further lawsuits unless he met certain requirements. A three-judge Ninth Circuit panel upheld the district judge's order, but other Ninth Circuit judges strongly disagreed with that result -- pointing out that the litigant was correct that Americans with Disabilities Act violations had occurred, and that his claims to have suffered injury as a result, while dubious, had never been put to the test of an evidentiary hearing. In addition to discussing the Ninth Circuit clash, Lazarus also parallels that conflict to a similar clash over vexatious litigants that divided the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1980s. View more Commentary »