Michele E. Shepherd and Larue Graves v. American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.

TATEL, Circuit Judge:

We review a district court’s use of its inherent power to punish litigation misconduct with the ultimate sanction of default. As old as the judiciary itself, the inherent power enables courts to protect their institutional integrity and to guard against abuses of the judicial process with contempt citations, fines, awards of attorneys’ fees, and such other orders and sanctions as they find necessary, including even dismissals and default judgments. In order to promote the disposition of cases on their merits, to protect parties and attorneys from the possible misuse of…