Roberto Maldonado v. Eric Holder, Jr.

*1165GOULD, Circuit Judge,

with whom CLIFTON, IKUTA, and N.R. SMITH, Circuit Judges, join, dissenting:

Maldonado for years has not been in touch with the lawyer who advocated before us. In such circumstances I believe that our proceeding to render a decision on the merits is essentially to give an advisory opinion. With the party not before us, we are engaging in what might be called “ghost ship” ruling, with the case careening along unmanned by the party seeking relief. We thus have the “ghost” of the prior controversy but not a real and actual controversy. The Supreme Court since the early days of…