En Banc in the United States

A decision or proceeding made or heard by the entire membership of a court. En banc distinguishes cases having full participation from the typical use of only a fraction of a court’s membership to hear a particular case. The term en banc is used most often when referring to state and federal intermediate appellate courts, which usually assign only three members of the court to hear the appeals. On these courts, the full membership of the court seldom hears a case. The en banc procedure is requested by either the judges of the court or the litigants. Use of the procedure is subject to rules established by that court itself.

See Also

Intermediate Appellate Court (Apellate Judicial Process) Panel (Apellate Judicial Process).

Analysis and Relevance

The U.S. Supreme Court and each state’s court of last resort always sit en banc. An en banc court in U.S. Court of Appeals cases is usually reserved for highly controversial or public interest cases or for cases where one or more of the court’s panels have disagreed on a major point of law. Except for courts that always sit en banc, the practice is infrequently used. Rather, resolution of appeals cases by three-judge panels is standard. En banc proceedings occur in less than one percent of U.S. court of appeals cases, for example.

Notes and References

1. Definition of En Banc from the American Law Dictionary, 1991, California

En Banc in the United States

En Banc

United States Constitution

According to the Encyclopedia of the American Constitution, about its article titled 227 EN BANC(French: “As a bench The term often applies to appellate courts, and in particular to the united states courts of appeals. Commonly only a three-member panel of a federal court of appeals hears a case. When the full membership is sitting whether by its own choice or at a litigant’s
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en banc in relation to Invention and Patent Law

Normally an appellate court such as the CAFC randomly assigns a panel of three of the court’s full complement of 12 (or more) judges to consider each case. When the whole court considers a case it is called an en banc decision and is generally done to address fundamental and controversial issues that have been before the court and so has very strong value as precedent.

En Banc Meaning in Law Enforcement

Literally means “on a bench.” Typically means an appellate court will re-hear a panel (generally three judges) decision with all members of the court’s participation.

Meaning of En Banc

In plain or simple terms, En Banc means: A proceeding in which the entire membership of the court will participate in the decision.