Document Type

Working Paper

Publication Date

7-28-2006

SSRN Discipline

Economics Research Network; Legal Scholarship Network; Litigation, Procedure & Dispute Resolution eJournals; Law & Society eJournals; LSN Subject Matter eJournals; Constitutional Law, Jurisprudence & Legal Philosophy eJournals; LSN Partners in Publishing Journals; Management Research Network

Abstract

In recent months federal appellate judges have grappled with an interpretive puzzle that opens a new frontier in the longrunning judicial and scholarly debate about statutory interpretation The landmark but controversial Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 CAFA authorizes immediate appeals from certain jurisdictional decisions by district courts provided that litigants appeal not less than 7 days after entry of the order Although the goal of this provision was to set a sevenday deadline for CAFA appeals the statutory text does precisely the opposite it imposes a sevenday waiting period and sets no outer deadline Federal appellate judges have disagreed sharply about whether courts may rewrite CAFA to require an appeal not more than seven days after entry of the order or whether they must instead heed the statutes text and impose no outer deadline for CAFA appeals This puzzle upsets many of the assumptions and priorities associated with competing theories of statutory interpretation Textualists for example might question whether CAFA warrants their usual skepticism toward unenacted legislative intent because there is overwhelming evidence from CAFAs structure its legislative history and common sense that Congress meant to impose a sevenday deadline rather than a sevenday waiting period But intentionalists who usually tolerate deviations from a statutes ordinary meaning in order to effectuate Congresss purpose might balk at taking the unparalleled step of reading a statute to mean the exact opposite of what it says This article proposes a solution to CAFAs dilemma that has eluded courts and commentators to date Even if one accepts CAFAs plain language the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure require litigants to seek an appeal within 30 days This solution provides a meaningful deadline for CAFA appeals without doing unprecedented violence to the statutes text

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