Vernon Jones v. Association of Flight Attendan

WOOD, Chief Judge.

More than seven months after settling a federal lawsuit against his former labor union, Vernon Jones filed in the district court a document that he called a “motion to establish court’s jurisdiction.” The motion’s caption reflected the name and docket number of his suit against the union, and so the clerk’s office sent it to the judge who had presided over that action (a magistrate judge, who had acted with the parties’ consent). The judge entered a minute order ostensibly dismissing Jones’s submission for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. Jones appealed, urging us to…