Edwin Rivera v. Philip Coombe, Jr., Superintendent

Recently the Supreme Court in a per curiam opinion chastised another circuit for “having ignored, consciously or unconsciously, the hierarchy of the federal court system created by the Constitution and the Congress,” reminding us that “a precedent of [the Supreme] Court must be followed by the lower federal courts no matter how misguided the judges of those courts may think it to be.” Hutto v. Davis, - U.S. -, 102 S.Ct. 703, 70 L.Ed.2d 556 (1982). Today my brethren go even further than Nelson v. Scully, 672 F.2d 266 (2d Cir. 1982), cert. denied, - U.S. -, 102 S.Ct. 2301, 73 L.Ed.2d 1304…