Dietz v. Bouldin

Decided June 9, 2016. Sonia Sotomayor delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 15-458 · 579 U.S. 40 (2016) · Cited 794 times

Holding

A federal district court has a limited inherent power to rescind a jury discharge order and recall a jury in a civil case for further deliberations after identifying an error in the jury's verdict.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 6–2.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Link v. Wabash Railroad · 370 U.S. 626 (1962)
• Chambers v. Nasco, Inc. · 501 U.S. 32 (1991)
• Remmer v. United States · 347 U.S. 227 (1954)
• Carlisle v. United States · 517 U.S. 416 (1996)
• Degen v. United States · 517 U.S. 820 (1996)
• Kotteakos v. United States · 328 U.S. 750 (1946)
• Landis v. North American Co. · 299 U.S. 248 (1936)
• Gulf Oil Corp. v. Gilbert · 330 U.S. 501 (1947)
• Brown v. Allen · 344 U.S. 443 (1953)
• Luce v. United States · 469 U.S. 38 (1984)
• Nebraska Press Assn. v. Stuart · 427 U.S. 539 (1976)
• Clyde Mattox v. United States · 146 U.S. 140 (1892)
• Bank of Nova Scotia v. United States · 487 U.S. 250 (1988)
• Tanner v. United States · 483 U.S. 107 (1987)
• Parker v. Gladden · 385 U.S. 363 (1966)
• United States v. Morgan · 307 U.S. 183 (1939)
• Smith v. Massachusetts · 543 U.S. 462 (2005)
• The United States v. Hudson and Goodwin · 11 U.S. 32 (1812)
• Marconi Wireless Co. v. United States · 320 U.S. 1 (1943)
• Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America v. United States · 320 U.S. 1 (1943)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• California Public Employees' Retirement System v. ANZ Securities, Inc. · 582 U.S. 497 (2017)
• County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund · 590 U.S. 165 (2020)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (2016). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).