I've seen them go over a year, but never three.  It may have occurred in at
least one death penalty case in the Ninth Circuit, though.

-----Original Message-----
From: Brenda Wright (NVRI) [mailto:bw@nvri.org] 
Sent: Tuesday, June 08, 2004 9:44 AM
To: election-law@majordomo.lls.edu
Subject: appeal pending


In August 2002, the Second Circuit issued a 2-1 decision in Landell v.
Sorrell, upholding Vermont's mandatory limits on campaign spending (and most
other features of Vermont's comprehensive 1997 campaign reform legislation).
Then, in October 2002, the panel issued a one-sentence order stating that
the decision was being withdrawn "pending further proceedings before and
amendment by the panel."  Although the plaintiffs had filed a petition for
rehearing en banc, the panel's order did not constitute a grant of the
petition; instead, the case remains pending before the panel (and the Court
has not requested a response to the rehearing petition).  We originally
argued the case before the Second Circuit in May 2001, more than three years
ago.  Out of curiosity, does anyone know of other cases in which more than
three years have elapsed between oral argument and a final panel decision?

I suppose this can happen when there's a stay on abstention grounds to await
a state court ruling, but let's leave that aside since there is no stay
involved here.

Brenda Wright
National Voting Rights Institute
27 School Street, 5th Floor
Boston, MA  02108
   Phone  617-624-3900
   Fax     617-624-3911
www.nvri.org
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