Background
Jennifer Butler, proceeding pro se, filed an action in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama seeking relief under Title Seven of the Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty-four for alleged employment discrimination by the United States Department of the Treasury. The defendant filed an answer and a motion to compel discovery. The district court granted the motion to compel and denied Butler’s motion to strike portions of the answer in an order entered on March fourth, two thousand and twenty-six. Butler appealed this order.
The court’s reasoning
The court explained that it lacks jurisdiction to review the March fourth order because it is not final. A final decision is one that ends the litigation on the merits and leaves nothing for the court to do but execute the judgment. The order did not resolve any claims on the merits and is not immediately appealable under the collateral order doctrine because discovery orders can be effectively reviewed after the district court enters a final judgment.
What it means going forward
This ruling reinforces that intermediate discovery orders are not immediately appealable, requiring parties to wait for a final judgment before seeking appellate review of such procedural rulings.