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Supreme Court

With Justice Breyer’s retirement, the court loses a pragmatist (and some laughs)

Justice Stephen Breyer retired on June 30 after 28 years on the court. This article is the final entry in a symposium on his jurisprudence.

Anastasia Boden is a senior attorney and Elizabeth Slattery is a senior legal fellow at Pacific Legal Foundation, a nonprofit legal organization that defends Americans’ liberties when threatened by government overreach and abuse. They also host Dissed, a podcast about the Supreme Court.

Perhaps one of the worst accusations that can be thrown at … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Think tank hosts debate on court reform ideas

Though you would be forgiven for forgetting the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court’s 294-page report published last December, it’s becoming harder to miss a wider conversation on the court’s ethics and transparency practices. On Tuesday, the R Street Institute, the free-market focused Washington think tank, held a lunch-time debate on court-reform proposals. Matt Germer, a resident elections fellow at R Street, was joined by Adam White of the American Enterprise Institute, journalist Sarah Isgur of The Dispatch, and … Read the rest

Supreme Court

End-of-term reviews for the 2021-22 Supreme Court term

We’ve compiled a list of events offering expert analysis on the Supreme Court’s 2021-22 term. All are free and available to the public.

University of California, Irvine School of Law’s 12th Annual Supreme Court Term in Review moderated by Michele Goodwin, with panelists Erwin Chemerinsky, Mary Franks, Regina Maphone, Mark Stern, and Mary Ziegler (July 6, 1 p.m. EDT)
American Judicature Society’s Supreme Court 2021-22 Term in Review presented by Tom Goldstein (July 6, 6 p.m. EDT)
Anti-Defamation League’s

… Read the rest

Civil Law

District Court Orders USCIS to Process New I-526 Petitions Throughout Previously Authorized Regional Centers

On March 11, 2022, Congress passed the “EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act” as part of the Omnibus spending bill. See blog post here. On April 11, 2022, USCIS posted an interpretation of the legislation that would nullify all 600-plus designated regional centers and require all entities to be re-designated in order to be authorized to file petitions under the new law pursuant to provisions effective May 14, 2022. This interpretation was challenged in the U.S. District Court for the Northern … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Justices curtail ability to get discovery in U.S. court for use in international arbitrations

In a decision that was much anticipated in the international business community, the Supreme Court on Monday clarified the scope of 28 U.S.C. § 1782, which allows an interested party to obtain discovery in the United States “for use in a proceeding in a foreign or international tribunal.” The court unanimously held in ZF Automotive US, Inc. v. Luxshare, Ltd. and AlixPartners, LLP v. Fund for Protection of Investors’ Rights in Foreign States that only a governmental or intergovernmental … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Pennsylvania’s congressional map returns to the court

The Petitions of the Week column highlights a selection of cert petitions recently filed in the Supreme Court. A list of all petitions we’re watching is available here.

Much attention has been devoted recently to the increased calls for emergency relief from the Supreme Court in fast-paced ligation on the shadow docket. When the justices deny an emergency application, however, that is not necessarily the end of the road. The party that sought relief can still file a … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Court opts for plain meaning in dispute over procedural rules for relief from erroneous judgments

The Supreme Court on Monday clarified the meaning of “mistake” in the federal procedural rule that allows litigants to seek relief from erroneous final judgments. In an 8-1 opinion in Kemp v. United States, the court ruled that “all mistakes of law made by a judge” constitute “mistakes” under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b)(1).

The case involved the various subsections of Rule 60(b), which establishes different deadlines for motions designed to correct various errors that courts … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Tech industry asks court to block Texas law that targets social media companies

Two technology trade groups came to the Supreme Court on Friday night, asking the justices to block a controversial Texas law that bars large social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter from moderating speech based on the viewpoints of their users. Describing the law as an “undisguised effort to level the speech playing field and control ‘Big Tech,’” the groups urged the court to reinstate a decision by a federal district judge in Texas that barred the state from … Read the rest