We blogged this one the other day but the court has now issued a “modified” opinion. Why? Well, as usual, there’s no explanation. But the new opinion omits one sentence from a footnote. Why? Presumably because the sentence misattributed a First Circuit Case to the Ninth Circuit and used that to support its conclusion about a certain point.

It would have been quicker and clearer to issue a brief order modifying the opinion to exclude the sentence (a bit like the “errata pages” inserted in old books). But courts won’t do things that way since it would emphasize mistakes rather than hide them. And since some of those orders would have to do a lot more than omit one insignificant error.

(link to opinion)