Petitions of the week
on Feb 22, 2019 at 10:03 am
This week we highlight petitions pending before the Supreme Court that address, among other things, the proper test for an equal-terms claim under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, the constitutionality of a state’s prohibiting political action committees from transferring money to other political action committees, an ERISA plaintiff’s burden of proof, and whether an order denying a motion for relief from an automatic stay is a final order in bankruptcy court.
The petitions of the week are:
Issue: Whether, under the First Amendment, a state may prohibit political action committees from transferring money to other political action committees.
Issues: (1) Whether an ERISA plaintiff bears the burden of proving that “losses to the plan result[ed] from” a fiduciary breach, as the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 2nd, 6th, 7th, 9th, 10th and 11th Circuits have held, or whether ERISA defendants bear the burden of disproving loss causation, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit concluded, joining the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 4th, 5th and 8th Circuits; and (2) whether, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit concluded, showing that particular investment options did not perform as well as a set of index funds, selected by the plaintiffs with the benefit of hindsight, suffices as a matter of law to establish “losses to the plan.”
Issue: Whether an order denying a motion for relief from the automatic stay is a final order under 28 U.S.C. § 158(a)(1).
Issues: (1) Whether the court below applied the proper test for a Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act’s equal-terms claim; and (2) whether Tree of Life established a facial or as-applied equal-terms violation here.
