Justice-Denied · Editorial cartoons
Cartoon 2 of 26
The Waiting Room
Satire. Dialogue is imagined; the underlying rulings and records are linked below.
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Panel 1: December 6, 2022
A personified motion labeled REOPEN DISCOVERY sits in a courthouse waiting room. A judge points to a sign reading AFTER SUMMARY JUDGMENT.
Judge: We'll decide discovery after summary judgment.
Panel 2: June 16, 2023
A large gavel stamps CASE DISMISSED on the case file while the discovery motion remains seated.
Discovery motion: But my discovery question is still waiting.
Panel 3: April 8, 2024 · Court of Appeals
At an appeals counter, a clerk stamps the waiting motion MOOT.
Clerk: The judgment makes your discovery issue moot.
Panel 4: Panel 4
The motion holds its unused numbered waiting ticket. The room is empty and the clock has no hands.
Motion: Excellent. My waiting is now permanent.
Artwork caption: Imagined dialogue. Doc. 366, p. 49; A23-1209, p. 12.
Behind the cartoon
Craig and Marie Stevenson sought more time to question relatives about deleted text messages in their civil suit. Discovery is pretrial evidence-gathering; summary judgment is a decision without trial. In his December 6, 2022 order, Judge Kevin M. Miller declined to delay summary judgment and reserved whether to reopen discovery until afterward, reasoning that summary judgment might make the remaining discovery issues moot, meaning no longer requiring a decision. The case was dismissed on June 16, 2023. The Court of Appeals affirmed on April 8, 2024 and held that its summary-judgment conclusion rendered the discovery-related motions moot.
Underlying records
- December 6, 2022 order — Doc. 366pp. 49–50, particularly the first paragraph under IV. Plaintiffs' Motion to Extend Discovery; also p. 56 conclusion
- Stevenson v. Stevenson — April 8, 2024, A23-1209p. 3 records June 2023 dismissal; p. 12 states summary-judgment conclusion renders discovery-related motions moot
