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Petitions to Watch | Conference of 9.27.10

By Anna Christensen

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Louisiana Safety Association of Timbermen ? Self Insurers Fund v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd?s, London
Docket: 09-945
Issue(s): Whether Chapter 2 of the Federal Arbitration Act is an ?Act of Congress? subject to the anti-preemption provision of the McCarran-Ferguson Act.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Hogan v. Kaltag Tribal Council
Docket: 09-960
Issue(s): Whether Indian tribes in the State of Alaska have authority to initiate and adjudicate child custody proceedings involving a nonmember and then to compel the State to give full faith and credit to the decrees entered in those proceedings.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

DISCLOSURE: Akin Gump represents the petitioner in the case below.

Title: Apex Oil Company, Inc. v. United States
Docket: 09-1023
Issue(s): In what circumstances a debtor's obligation to clean up pollution is a ?claim? under the Bankruptcy Code.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Wong v. Smith
Docket: 09-1031
Issue(s): Do 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d) and this Court?s precedent permit federal habeas corpus relief on a claim that a state judge unconstitutionally ?coerces? jurors to return a guilty verdict by identifying specific evidence in the case as important and instructing them to consider it?

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Sammis v. Nance
Docket: 09-1115
Issue(s): (1) Whether a police officer may be held liable on a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for failing to prevent another officer?s use of force when that force was used within a short period such that a reasonable officer in the same circumstance would not have had a realistic opportunity to intervene; (2) whether the commands ?get on the ground, drop the gun? are sufficient to satisfy the warning required prior to the use of deadly force; and (3) whether a party?s self-serving testimony that contradicts his or her prior statement is sufficient to create a fact question and thereby avoid an adverse summary judgment ruling on the defense of qualified immunity.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: FIA Card Services, N.A. v. Gorman
Docket: 09-1142
Issue(s): 1) Whether Section 1681s-2(b) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (?FCRA?) makes unlawful a furnisher's failure to echo back to the consumer reporting agencies (?CRAs?) a consumer dispute of which the CRA advised the furnisher, when the obligation to notify CRAs of disputes is expressly found in Section 1681s-2(a) of FCRA, 15 U.S.C. § 1681s-2(a), and FCRA's private rights of action are available to enforce violations of Section 1681s-2(b) but not Section 1681s-2(a); and 2) whether Section 1681t of FCRA, 15 U.S.C. § 1681t, preempts a California statute that creates a private damages remedy for violations of state law with respect to the obligations of furnishers of information to CRAs.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Wilson v. Johnson
Docket: 09-1143
Issue(s): Whether the denial of the appointment of counsel in a civil case is an immediately appealable order.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Skinner v. Department of Justice
Docket: 09-1188
Issue(s): Whether a prisoner?s federal damages claims challenging disciplinary segregation and the loss of visitation rights and commissary privileges resulting from certain alleged prisoner misconduct ? claims that otherwise could proceed without exhaustion of habeas remedies ? nonetheless must be dismissed in favor of habeas because prison officials also chose to revoke good-time credits based on the same incident, and any challenge to that revocation would lie exclusively in habeas.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Jerez-Sanchez v. Holder
Docket: 09-1211
Issue(s): (1) Whether Section 304(b) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act is inapplicable to pre-enactment convictions of all immigrants whose convictions predate IIRIRA?s enactment, or whether the section?s retroactivity instead (a) turns on an immigrant?s subjective reliance; (b) turns on objectively reasonable reliance; or (c) is categorically inapplicable to convictions obtained at trial; and (2) whether the presumption against retroactivity applies only when individuals can establish either subjective or objective reliance on prior law.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Norfolk Southern Railway Company v. Groves
Docket: 09-1212
Issue(s): 1) Whether ?consignee? can be properly defined in railroad tariffs as the party named as consignee on a bill of lading that physically accepts delivery of all freight consigned to it, or whether the definition of ?consignee? in such tariffs must also require proof that the party so named on the bill of lading explicitly consented to being named as consignee before accepting delivery; 2) whether the Supreme Court should resolve circuit split over the definition of ?consignee?; and 3) whether the courts have subject matter jurisdiction to interpret the terms or expand the requirements of a railroad's rail car demurrage tariff.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Bond v. United States
Docket: 09-1227
Issue(s): Whether a criminal defendant convicted under a federal statute has standing to challenge her conviction on grounds that, as applied to her, the statute is beyond the federal government?s enumerated powers and inconsistent with the Tenth Amendment.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Von Saher v. Norton Simon Museum of Art at Pasadena
Docket: 09-1254
Issue(s): (1) Whether, in enacting a state statute extending the statute of limitations applicable to claims for the recovery of property stolen during the Holocaust against museums and galleries, the State of California was addressing an area of ?traditional state responsibility? without intruding on the federal foreign affairs power; (2) whether a state statute extending the statute of limitations for the recovery of property stolen during the Holocaust, which does not conflict with any federal statute, treaty or policy, is preempted by the federal foreign affairs power to make and resolve war; and (3) whether California Code of Civil Procedure § 354.3 is facially unconstitutional when the application to the case at bar poses no constitutional infirmity.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Limmer, Smith, and Nothnagel v. Missouri Pacific Railroad Co.
Docket: 09-1255
Issue(s): Whether the federally funded addition of a component of a warning device (retroreflective tape) to an existing warning device (a crossbuck warning sign) at a railroad crossing is the installation of a ?warning device? under 23 C.F.R. § 646.214(b)(3) and (4), thereby preempting state-law claims of negligence.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Lonberg v. City of Riverside
Docket: 09-1259
Issue(s): Whether the Americans with Disabilities Act?s transition-plan regulations, 28 C.F.R. § 35.150(d), are enforceable by private right of action.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Presbyterian Church of Sudan v. Talisman Energy, Inc.
Docket: 09-1262
Issue(s): (1) Whether federal common law tort principles or international law provides the standard for civil aiding and abetting or conspiracy liability under the Alien Tort Statute; (2) whether the mental element for civil aiding and abetting liability, under either federal common law or international law, permits liability based on a showing that the defendant knowingly provided substantial assistance to gross human rights violations, or whether a plaintiff must also show that the defendant had the intent to assist; and (3) whether ATS plaintiffs may assert conspiracy or joint criminal enterprise theories of liability based on federal common law or international law and, if so, whether, in the context of such joint action, ATS plaintiffs satisfy their burden of proof by demonstrating that the defendant knew of an illegal purpose of the joint criminal enterprise and was assisting to achieve that illegal purpose.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Kentucky v. King
Docket: 09-1272
Issue(s): (1) Under what circumstances can lawful police action impermissibly ?create? exigent circumstances that preclude warrantless entry; and (2) whether the ?hot pursuit? exception to the warrant requirement applies only if the government can prove that the suspect was aware he was being pursued.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Astra USA, Inc. v. Santa Clara County
Docket: 09-1273
Issue(s): Whether, in the absence of a private right of action to enforce a statute, federal courts have the federal common law authority to confer a private right of action simply because the statutory requirement sought to be enforced is embodied in a contract.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Federal Communications Commission v. AT&T, Inc.
Docket: 09-1279
Issue(s): Whether Exemption 7(C) of the Freedom of Information Act ? which exempts from mandatory disclosure records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes when such disclosure could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of ?personal privacy? ? protects the ?privacy? of corporate entities.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: General Dynamics Corp. v. United States
Docket: 09-1298
Issue(s): 1) Whether the government can maintain its claim against a party when it invokes the state-secrets privilege to completely deny that party a defense to the claim; 2) whether a court can uphold a default termination on factual grounds never relied on by the contracting officer, and can dispense with the requirement that the contracting officer exercise discretion when terminating for default; and 3) whether one panel of a court of appeals can use the law-of-the-case doctrine to overrule another panel's prior decision in the same case as clearly erroneous or manifestly unjust.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: The Boeing Company v. United States
Docket: 09-1302
Issue(s): 1) Whether the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment permits an appellate court to adopt a new legal rule and then apply it retroactively to the record established in the trial court pursuant to the prior ruling, without remanding; 2) whether the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment permits the government to maintain a claim while simultaneously asserting the state-secrets privilege to bar presentation of a prima facie valid defense to that claim; and 3) whether the government may terminate a government contract for default on the ground that a contractor has failed to make adequate progress toward timely completion of that contract when the Government has not set a valid deadline for completing the contract.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Zurich American Insurance Company v. Pioneer Natural Resources USA, Inc.
Docket: 09-1305
Issue(s): Whether, in a case removed under the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Arbitral Awards, 9 U.S.C. § 205, an order denying a motion to compel arbitration and remanding to state court is appealable under the Federal Arbitration Act?s express right of interlocutory appeal from such denials, 9 U.S.C. § 16(a)(1)(C), notwithstanding 28 U.S.C. § 1447(d).

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Saleh v. Titan Corp.
Docket: 09-1313
Issue(s): 1) Whether the court of appeals erred by finding that claims for torture and other war crimes cannot be brought against private actors under the Alien Tort Statute; and 2) whether the court of appeals erred by creating a ?battle-field preemption? doctrine that extends derivative sovereign immunity to contractors.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Ryan v. Jones
Docket: 09-1314
Issue(s): (1) Whether a ?non-neutral? mental health expert must be appointed to assist the defense at sentencing; (2) whether defense counsel performs deficiently by relying on the description of childhood abuse provided by the defendant and his mother and stepfather, and not additionally interviewing the defendant?s sibling regarding the same type of abuse; (3) whether a federal court errs by considering only new mitigation evidence, without considering rebuttal evidence and evidence of aggravating circumstances, in determining whether the additional mitigation evidence would have changed the sentencing decision; and (4) whether the Ninth Circuit erred by ruling that a district court, in considering ineffective assistance of counsel claims following an evidentiary hearing, should not evaluate the credibility of expert witnesses who testified at the hearing regarding evidence a petitioner claims should have been presented at sentencing.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Koubriti v. Convertino
Docket: 09-1322
Issue(s): Whether a prosecutor may be subjected to a civil trial and potential damages for a wrongful conviction and incarceration where the prosecutor allegedly (1) violated a criminal defendant?s substantive due process rights by procuring false testimony during the criminal investigation and then (2) introduced that same testimony against the criminal defendant at trial.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Mills v. Midwest Title Loans
Docket: 09-1325
Issue(s): Whether the Commerce Clause permits a state to regulate consumer loans to its residents by a firm that advertises and conducts multiple loan-related activities in the state, but which requires all loan agreements to be signed in another state.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Smith v. Vasquez
Docket: 09-1328
Issue(s): (1) Whether a state court acts ?contrary to? clearly established Federal law? under 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1) when it cites the appropriate standard of review for a specific issue in its opinion but later uses imprecise shorthand terms in referring to that standard; and (2) whether the Sixth Circuit erred in granting habeas relief on the respondent?s ineffective assistance of counsel claim notwithstanding the state courts? contrary determination.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Canto v. Holder
Docket: 09-1333
Issue(s): Whether aliens convicted of a deportable offense before 1996 are entitled to seek waiver of deportation under Section 212(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act despite its repeal in 1996.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Nestle Purina Petcare Company v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue
Docket: 09-1339
Issue(s): (1) Whether a deduction for dividends paid to withdrawing participants of an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, as authorized by § 404(k) of the Internal Revenue Code, is precluded by § 162(k)(1), which disallows an otherwise allowable deduction ?for any amount paid or incurred in connection with the redemption of [a corporation?s] stock?; (2) whether deference is owed by one circuit to the federal tax decisions of other circuits; and (3) whether the Eighth Circuit erred in holding that petitioner?s deductions for ?applicable dividends? paid under § 404(k) were barred by § 162(k)(1), where § 162(k)(2)(A)(iii) expressly provides that the bar set forth in §162(k)(1) shall not apply to ?deductions for dividends paid (within the meaning of Section 561).?

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Sherry v. Johnson
Docket: 09-1342
Issue(s): Whether the Michigan courts unreasonably applied Supreme Court precedent under 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d) in rejecting a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel because it did not affect the outcome of the case.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Iron Thunderhorse v. Pierce
Docket: 09-1353
Issue(s): Whether the court of appeals misinterpreted the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000cc et seq., to require only a minimal showing that a prison grooming rule which concededly imposes a substantial burden on religious exercise is the ?least restrictive means of furthering [a] compelling governmental interest.?

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Totes-Isotoner Corp. v. United States
Docket: 09-1360
Issue(s): 1) Whether Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) provisions that impose a 14% ad valorem rate on ?men's? seamed leather gloves, but only a 12.6% ad valorem rate on seamed leather gloves for ?other persons? -- i.e., females and male children -- discriminate facially on the basis of gender or age; 2) whether, if the HTSUS does not facially discriminate, a ?different rule? of pleading applies to equal protection claims in the areas of tariff and tax law such that governmental intent to discriminate can never be inferred from disparate impact on similarly situated parties; and 3) whether a corporate taxpayer has first-party standing to assert an equal protection violation based on the gender or age of those who use its imported merchandise.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: City of Reno v. Conn
Docket: 09-1361
Issue(s): (1) Whether a city must train its law enforcement officers to diagnose and report detainees? symptoms of suicidal tendencies to avoid municipal liability under the Fourteenth Amendment?s Due Process Clause and 42 U.S.C. § 1983; and (2) whether law enforcement officers must diagnose and report detainees? symptoms of suicidal tendencies, to avoid individual liability under the Fourteenth Amendment?s Due Process Clause and 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Bell v. Thompson
Docket: 09-1373
Issue(s): (1) Whether respondent Gregory Thompson is competent to be executed, given that Ford v. Wainwright (1986) neither defined competency in the Eighth Amendment context nor set forth precise procedural requirements for determining competency for execution; (2) whether the Tennessee Supreme Court?s clarification of existing Tennessee appellate procedure was sufficient to warrant relief under Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b) from the district court?s judgment denying respondent Thompson?s petition for writ of habeas corpus; and (3) whether the Sixth Circuit?s decision exceeds the scope of the certificate of appealability (COA) ? and thus the Court?s jurisdiction ? under 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c).

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Sternberg v. Johnston
Docket: 09-1374
Issue(s): Whether 11 U.S.C. § 362(k)(1) ? specifying that an individual ?injured? by a willful violation of the Bankruptcy Code automatic stay ?shall recover actual damages? ? encompasses compensation for emotional distress.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Harber Corporation v. United States
Docket: 09-1389
Issue(s): (1) Whether the government, when it is ordered to make restitution of illegally seized funds to an innocent owner, may also be ordered to disgorge interest earned or realized on the funds; and (2) whether a petition by property owners to challenge in personam forfeiture proceedings by the government under 28 U.S.C. § 2465(b)(1) ? which provides that the United States ?shall be liable? for attorneys? fees and costs incurred by claimants who substantially prevail ?in any civil proceeding to forfeit property under any provision of Federal law? ? is part of ?a proceeding to forfeit property? and whose petitioners, therefore, are entitled to fees and costs.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Beer v. United States
Docket: 09-1395
Issue(s): Whether the Compensation Clause of Article III prevents Congress from withholding the future judicial salary adjustments established by the Ethics Reform Act of 1989.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Laborers District Council Construction Industry Pension Fund v. Omnicare
Docket: 09-1400
Issue(s): Whether claims under Securities Act § 11, 15 U.S.C. § 77k(a), for which proof of fraud or mistake is no element of prima facie liability, are subject to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b)?s heightened pleading requirement, requiring that a party alleging claims of fraud or mistake ?state with particularity the circumstances constituting fraud or mistake?; (2) whether investors seeking relief under Securities Act § 11, for which neither negligence nor fraud is an element of liability, may be required to plead facts showing either fraud or negligence; and (3) whether the courts reverse the burden that Congress placed on certain defendants, of demonstrating due diligence as an affirmative defense, by requiring plaintiffs to plead facts rebutting it.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: United Rentals v. Angell
Docket: 09-1417
Issue(s): (1) Whether, to satisfy the elements of 11 U.S.C. § 547(b), a bankruptcy trustee must prove that allegedly preferential transfers diminished a bankruptcy debtor?s estate available for distribution to general unsecured creditors; (2) whether the contemporaneous release of contingent setoff rights or a contingent security interest in the property of the estate by a third party as a direct result of an alleged preferential transfer is a valid contemporaneous exchange for new value under 11 U.S.C. § 547(c)(1).

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Talisman Energy, Inc. v. Presbyterian Church of Sudan
Docket: 09-1418
Issue(s): (1) Whether, under the Alien Tort Statute, federal courts lack subject matter jurisdiction to impose liability on corporations for torts committed in violation of customary international law; (2) whether federal courts lack subject matter jurisdiction to apply ATS extraterritorially to claims for such torts arising entirely outside the United States; and (3) whether causes of action for violations of customary international law exist when (i) the claims are based on events arising solely outside the United States and had no effect on the United States, (ii) the claims are asserted against a foreign defendant not in the custody of the United States, and (iii) a country providing an adequate alternative forum has a close tie to the dispute.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: New York v. Williams
Docket: 09-1425
Issue(s): Whether the Double Jeopardy Clause prohibits a court from correcting a sentence that, as originally pronounced, lacked a required component or was otherwise illegally lenient.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: City of New York v. Green
Docket: 09-1426
Issue(s): (1) Whether Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, 42 U.S.C. § 12131 et seq., applies ? or applies with the same level of disability accommodation as would normally be applied ? to emergency medical responders who, under exigent circumstances, make a medically reasonable decision to transport a disabled person to the hospital without evaluating the person?s refusal of medical assistance; and (2) whether an ?exigent circumstances? exception to the ADA, applicable in nonhospital emergency medical settings, would expose disabled patients to a significant risk of unwanted and paternalistic medical intervention.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Kelly v. Winston
Docket: 09-1431
Issue(s): (1) Whether the Fourth Circuit denied the state court the deference mandated by 28 U.S.C. § 2254 by holding that the state court?s judgment was not an adjudication on the merits and thus not entitled to deference because the state court dismissed the claim without an evidentiary hearing, by confusing the application of §§ 2254(d) and (e)(1), by approving a hearing in federal court contrary to AEDPA, and by accepting, without finding cause and prejudice for the default, new evidence to support a claim of mental retardation which the state prisoner affirmatively had told the state court had been destroyed; and (2) whether the Fourth Circuit impermissibly enlarged the Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel by permitting consideration of evidence which did not exist at the time of counsel?s representation.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Ryan v. Doody
Docket: 09-1443
Issue(s): Whether the Ninth Circuit disregarded the AEDPA and this Court?s recent decision in Florida v. Powell when it held that the Miranda warnings given to Doody were inadequate; whether the Ninth Circuit disregarded the AEDPA in holding that Doody?s statements were involuntary.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Camreta v. Greene
Docket: 09-1454
Issue(s): (1) Whether the traditional warrant/warrant exception requirements that apply to seizures of suspected criminals should apply to an interview of the child in light of reports of child abuse, or whether instead a balancing standard should apply; and (2) whether the Ninth Circuit?s constitutional ruling is reviewable, notwithstanding that it ruled in the petitioner?s favor on qualified immunity grounds.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Rigas v. United States
Docket: 09-1456
Issue(s): 1) Whether the government suppresses evidence within the meaning of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963), when it refuses to produce (a) notes from an interview with a witness who has exculpatory information, when the defendant knows only the role and identity of the witness but not to what facts the witness would testify; or (b) materials in the sole possession of another agency conducting a parallel investigation; and 2) whether, consistent with the civil ?loss causation? principles announced in Dura Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Broudo, 544 U.S. 336 (2005), a court enhancing a criminal sentence based on the amount of resulting loss must disentangle contributing factors to determine the specific losses actually caused by the defendant's offense conduct.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: State of South Carolina v. Navy
Docket: 09-1459
Issue(s): Whether, if a suspect is read his Miranda rights mid-interrogation, the statements he makes after being read his rights are admissible.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Alford v. Greene
Docket: 09-1478
Issue(s): Whether the Fourth Amendment requires a warrant, a court order, parental consent, or exigent circumstances before law enforcement and child welfare officials may conduct a temporary seizure and interview at a public school of a child whom they reasonably suspect was being sexually abused.

Certiorari-Stage Documents

Title: Missouri v. Brooks
Docket: boomark / email).