Aikens v. Ingram

I am pleased to join in full Judge Niemeyer’s well-reasoned majority opinion. I write separately to address a few of the contentions raised by my dissenting colleagues.

At a global level, I am concerned by the dissenters’ application of the abuse-of-discretion standard, which all agree is the prism through which we must measure the district court’s action in this case. The principal dissent authored by Judge King posits that the en banc majority would readily consent that the district court “certainly had the discretion” to grant Aikens’s Rule 60(b)(6) motion without fear of reversal. Post at…