Fraternal Order of Police v. United States

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge STEPHEN F. WILLIAMS.

STEPHEN F. WILLIAMS, Circuit Judge:

In Moldea v. New York Times Co., 22 F.3d 310, 311 (D.C.Cir.1994), at the outset of an opinion in which a panel on petition for rehearing abandoned its initial view, we quoted Justice Frankfurter’s remark, “Wisdom too often never comes, and so one ought not to reject it merely because it comes late.” Henslee v. Union Planters Nat. Bank & Trust Co., 335 U.S. 595, 600, 69 S.Ct. 290, 93 L.Ed. 259 (1949) (Frankfurter, J., dissenting). It still seems good advice.

I. Background

In Fraternal Order of…