Ninth Circuit Clarifies When Stare Decisis Gives Way To Intervening Opinions

The Ninth Circuit has issued an en banc decision clarifying the circumstances under which an appellate panel may reexamine normally controlling circuit precedent in the face of an intervening U.S. Supreme Court decision, or a decision on controlling state law by a state court of last resort. In Miller v. Gammie, 335 F.3d 889 (9th Cir. July 9, 2003), the court held that where the reasoning or theory of prior circuit authority is clearly irreconcilable with the reasoning or theory of intervening higher authority, a three-judge panel should consider itself bound by the later and controlling authority, and should reject the prior circuit opinion as having been effectively overruled.