The Department of Justice's "Longstanding" General Practice of Intracircuit Nonacquiescence

John Sutter : The U.S. government has asserted a policy known as "intracircuit nonacquiescence" Under this doctrine, the Executive Branch directs agencies to disregard certain unfavorable circuit precedent, even if their decisions will ultimately be appealed in that circuit.

Sutter says the courts have rejected this practice for flouting circuit law.

In Halbig v. Burwell , the government argued that people who were not parties to the suit had a due-process right to be heard before their subsidies were extinguished.

In August , the D.C. Circuit sent the case back to the lower court with instructions to "vacate the IRS Rule ".

Justice Kagan used to be one of the sharpest questioners on the bench, but she is slipping a bit and getting sloppy.

Her own Justice Department reaffirmed intracircuit non-acquiescence has long been part of the Department of Justice's policy.

Justice Barrett seems unaware of the DOJ 's longstanding policy.