DAVID-BAPTISTE CHIROT: Public Citizen Litigation Group: October 9th Supreme Court Conference Preview

Public Citizen Litigation Group Supreme Court Assistance Project

View our
complete watch list for the October 9th Conference.

Our list includes many important cases on a wide range of topics. Read the entire list or use the clickable links in the Index to go right to cases on topics that interest you.
On Tuesday, September 29th, the Court met for its first conference of the 2009 Term, the so-called "long conference." There, the justices considered hundreds of cert. petitions that has piled up over the summer recess. The Court granted eleven of those petitions, denied most of the rest, and re-listed several cases for consideration at its October 9th conference.
Granted cases of particular note include:

08-974 Lewis v. City of Chicago, on whether a plaintiff bringing suit for employment discrimination under Title VII must file a charge of discrimination with the EEOC within 300 days of the announcement of the discriminatory practice or within 300 days of the use of that practice?

08-1301 Carr v. United States, on whether the retroactive application of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act's registration requirements is unconstitutional.

08-1322 Astrue v. Ratliff, on whether an individual awarded attorney fees after prevailing in a lawsuit against the federal government can have the fee award reduced or taken entirely by the government to satisfy a separate debt owed to the government by the individual (Scott Nelson of Public Citizen is co-counsel for the respondent).

08-1497/08-1521 NRA v. Chicago/McDonald v. Chicago, on whether the Second Amendment is incorporated into the Fourteenth Amendment through the Due Process Clause and, therefore, applies to the States.
08-1498/09-98 Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project/Humanitarian Law Project v. Holder, on whether a law prohibiting assistance to terrorist organizations is unconstitutionally vague.

08-1529/08-1547 Migliaccio v. Castaneda/Henneford v. Castaneda, on whether the Federal Tort Claims Act is the exclusive remedy for claims arising from medical care and related functions provided by Public Health Service personnel, thus barring Bivens actions.

In addition, since our last Watch List, the Court has called for a response or called for the views of the Solicitor General in several notable cases, including:

08-1423 Costco v. Omega, on whether the Copyright Act's first-sale doctrine applies to imported goods manufactured abroad (CVSG) (Public Citizen submitted an amicus brief in support of the petition).

08-1515 Golden Gate Restaurant Assoc. v. San Francisco, on whether ERISA preempts local laws relating to the mandatory provision of health benefits to employees (CVSG).

09-306 Allen v. Virginia, on whether a law prohibiting the electronic pasting of the faces of minors onto sexually explicit pictures of adults violates the First Amendment (CFR).

The Court's next conference is on Monday, October 19th. Petitions of note to be considered at that conference include:

08-1234 Kiyemba v. Obama, addressing the continued detention of alleged enemy combatant Uyghur prisoners in the face of a habeas challenge.

08-1371 Christian Leg. Soc'y Chapter of Univ. of Cal., Hastings College of the Law v. Martinez, on whether a state law school may deny recognition to an organization that explicitly discriminates on religious grounds.

08-1394 Skilling v. U.S., on whether the federal "honest services" fraud statute requires the government to prove that a defendant's conduct was intended to achieve "private gain" and whether the government must rebut a presumption of jury prejudice arising because of pretrial publicity and community impact of the conduct at issue.

09-35 Noriega v. Pastrana, addressing Manuel Noriega's claims under the Military Commissions Act and the Geneva Convention.

09-144 Bobby v. Hook, on whether ineffective assistance of counsel claims should be considered under current professional standards or those existing at the time of trial.

09-160 Dep't of Defense v. ACLU, on whether photographs of detainee abuse can be withheld from a FOIA requester under exemption 7(F).

09-166 U.S. v. Seale, in which the Court will consider the following question that the Fifth Circuit took the rare step of certifying to the Court: What statute of limitations applies to a prosecution under 18 U.S.C. § 1201 for a kidnapping offense that occurred in 1964 but was not indicted until 2007?

For a list of all cases granted so far for the 2009 Term, visit the Supreme Court's website.

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About This List
Public Citizen has created this listserv to raise awareness of public interest issues presented to the U.S. Supreme Court. Before each Supreme Court conference, we send the list an update on pending Cert. Petitions of Public Interest, including both petitions we're monitoring and some petitions where Public Citizen Litigation Group is providing pro bono legal assistance.

For More Information:
Brian Bilford
2009-10 SCAP Fellow
Alan Morrison Supreme Court Assistance Project
Public Citizen Litigation Group
(202) 588-7727
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