Justices release December calendar

The Supreme Court on Wednesday released the calendar for the December argument session, which will include the clash between the Department of Justice and the House Judiciary Committee over the committee’s efforts to obtain secret materials from the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Over six days between Nov. 30 and Dec. 9, the court will hear 10 hours of oral argument in 12 cases. The justices will hear Department of Justice v. House Committee on the Judiciary on Dec. 2; one week later, they will hear oral argument in a high-stakes dispute arising out of the government’s rescue of mortgage-finance firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac after the 2008 financial crisis.

The cases scheduled for argument during the December session are below the jump:

Van Buren v. United States (Nov. 30): Whether it is a federal crime for someone with permission to access information on a computer to access that information for an improper purpose.

Edwards v. Vannoy (Nov. 30): Whether the Supreme Court’s decision in Ramos v. Louisiana, holding that the Sixth Amendment establishes a right to a unanimous jury that applies in both federal and state courts, applies retroactively to cases that have already become final on direct review.

Nestle USA v. Doe & Cargill, Inc. v. Doe (consolidated for one hour of oral argument on Dec. 1): Whether the Alien Tort Statute, which allows foreigners to bring lawsuits in U.S. courts for serious violations of international human rights laws, can be used to sue U.S. corporations.

CIC Services v. IRS (Dec. 1): Whether the Anti-Injunction Act, which prohibits lawsuits to stop the assessment or collection of taxes, also bans challenge to reporting and information-gathering mandates imposed by the Internal Revenue Service, when the violation of those mandates carries tax penalties.

Department of Justice v. House Committee on the Judiciary (Dec. 2): In dispute over access to secret grand jury materials from the Mueller investigation, whether an impeachment trial is a “judicial proceeding” for purposes of an exception to the general rule of grand jury secrecy.

Hungary v. Simon (Dec. 7): Whether a federal district court can decline to hear a lawsuit brought by former Hungarian nationals against the Republic of Hungary under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act to recover the value of property lost during World War II when the plaintiffs have not first sought relief in Hungary.

Germany v. Philipp (Dec. 7): Whether the “expropriation exception” to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which applies in cases in which “rights in property taken in violation of international law are in issue,” applies to a lawsuit claiming that a foreign country has seized the property of its own citizens.

Facebook v. Duguid (Dec. 8): Whether the federal definition of an autodialer includes devices that can store and automatically dial telephone numbers, even if it doesn’t use a random number generator.

Henry Schein, Inc. v. Archer & White Sales (Dec. 8): Whether, if an arbitration agreement carves out some claims from arbitration, that carve-out negates the delegation of questions of arbitrability to an arbitrator.

Collins v. Mnuchin & Mnuchin v. Collins (consolidated for one hour of oral argument on Dec. 9): Whether the leadership structure of the Federal Housing Finance Agency is constitutional, and whether shareholders in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can challenge an agreement between the FHFA and the Treasury Department relating to the federal government’s rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

[Disclosure: Goldstein & Russell, P.C., whose attorneys contribute to this blog in various capacities, is among the counsel to the respondent in Hungary v. Simon. The author of this post is not associated with the firm.]

This post was originally published at Howe on the Court.