In Life Science Logistics, LLC v. United States,[1] the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“Federal Circuit”) affirmed that a disappointed bidder challenging an agency’s override of a Competition in Contracting Act (“CICA”) stay must only show the override was arbitrary and capricious. The court rejected the government’s argument that the plaintiff must also satisfy the traditional four-factor test for preliminary injunctions—likelihood of success on the merits, irreparable harm, balance of equities, and benefit to the public. … Read the rest
It’s often said that the ineffective assistance of counsel test is so tough to satisfy that even evidence that a defendant’s attorney slept during trial is insufficient to satisfy the standard. The latest example is Alvarez v. Guerrero, 2025 WL 3719047 (5th Cir. 2025).
In Alvarez, “Juan Carlos Alvarez was sentenced to death for the murders of Michael Aguirre and Jose Varela.” He later appealed, claiming that one of his two trial counsel slept during trial.
A majority … Read the rest
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The Relist Watch column examines cert petitions that the Supreme Court has “relisted” for its upcoming conference. A short explanation of relists is available here.
A lot has happened since our last installment. The Supreme Court granted review of one-time relists Garland v. Cargill, involving whether bump stocks are “machineguns” and thus generally prohibited, and Coinbase, Inc. v. Suski, involving whether a court or an arbitrator should decide whether an arbitration agreement that generally delegates the … Read the rest