C.C.A.

This was not the first time that court, sometimes called the C.C.A., had seemed to defy the Supreme Court, said Jordan M. Steiker, a law professor at the University of Texas.

“The C.C.A. has a remarkable history of treating Supreme Court opinions as optional guideposts rather than the commands of a higher tribunal,” he said.

One of the panel’s three judges dissented, writing that the complaint plausibly suggested that Sallie Mae “knew what C.C.A. was up to.”

While Moore was waiting for the C.C.A. to review that sentence, the Supreme Court issued its ruling in Atkins, and Moore’s lawyer petitioned the state trial court for another hearing.

In that hearing, in 2014, the judge found that Moore was intellectually disabled, and recommended that the C.C.A. grant his claim.