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Petitions We’re Watching

You can see all paid petitions we’re following below, organized by petitions relisted for the next conference, those scheduled for initial consideration at the next conference, other featured petitions, and finally, petitions in which the court has called for the views of the solicitor general.

View this list sorted by case name.

Petitions Relisted for the Next Conference

Docket Case Page Issue(s)
23-167 Hamm v. Smith (1) Whether Hall v. Florida and Moore v. Texas mandate that courts deem the standard of “significantly subaverage intellectual functioning” for determining intellectual disability in Atkins v. Virginia satisfied when an offender’s lowest IQ score, decreased by one standard error of measurement, is 70 or below; and (2) whether the court should overrule Hall and Moore, or at least clarify that they permit courts to consider multiple IQ scores and the probability that an offender’s IQ does not fall at the bottom of the lowest IQ score’s error range.
23-373 Mckesson v. Doe Whether the First Amendment and this court’s decision in NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co. foreclose a state law negligence action making a leader of a protest demonstration personally liable in damages for injuries inflicted by an unidentified person’s violent act, when it is undisputed that the leader neither authorized, directed, nor ratified the perpetrator’s act, nor engaged in or intended violence of any kind.
23-5618 Sandoval v. Texas (1) How courts should determine when jury empanelment begins for a particular defendant’s case, triggering the due process right to be present, given that jury selection is one of the most critical phases of a criminal trial; and (2) whether the state court erred when it held, without analysis of the underlying facts, that the trial court did not violate Gustavo Sandoval’s due process rights when it excluded him and his counsel from proceedings in which members of the jury panel who were called for his trial — and who knew the case that they were summoned for — sought discretionary excusals from the court.
23-5682 Compton v. Texas (1) Whether a court’s comparison of generalizations about all the female prospective jurors who were struck by the prosecution with generalizations about the male jurors not struck by the prosecution, rather than a side-by-side analysis of individual jurors, disregards the basic equal protection principle that one discriminatory strike is too many; and (2) whether Texas exercised its peremptory strikes in a prohibited discriminatory fashion.

Petitions We’re Watching for the Next Conference

Docket Case Page Issue(s)
23-506 Occidental Exploration and Production Co. v. Andes Petroleum Ecuador Ltd. Whether an arbitrator’s failure to disclose a relationship evinces evident partiality if it shows the arbitrator “might reasonably be thought biased,” as Commonwealth Coatings Corp. v. Continental Casualty Co. held, or instead only if a reasonable person “would have to conclude” that the arbitrator was actually biased.
23-492 Jane Doe 1 v. Kentucky ex rel. Coleman, Attorney General (1) Whether, under the 14th Amendment’s due process clause, Kentucky Revised Statutes Section 311.372(2), which bans medical treatments “for the purpose of attempting to alter the appearance of, or to validate a minor’s perception of, the minor’s sex, if that appearance or perception is inconsistent with the minor’s sex,” should be subjected to heightened scrutiny because it burdens parents’ right to direct the medical treatment of their children; (2) whether, under the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause, § 311.372(2) should be subjected to heightened scrutiny because it classifies on the basis of sex and transgender status; and (3) whether petitioners are likely to show that § 311.372(2) does not satisfy heightened scrutiny.
23-477 U.S. v. Skrmetti Whether Tennessee Senate Bill 1, which prohibits all medical treatments intended to allow “a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex” or to treat “purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the minor’s sex and asserted identity,” violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
23-466 L. W. v. Skrmetti (1) Whether Tennessee’s Senate Bill 1, which categorically bans gender-affirming healthcare for transgender adolescents, triggers heightened scrutiny and likely violates the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause; and (2) whether Senate Bill 1 likely violates the fundamental right of parents to make decisions concerning the medical care of their children guaranteed by the 14th Amendment’s due process clause.
23-323 Gamboa v. Lumpkin Whether a Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b) motion claiming that habeas counsel’s abandonment prevented the consideration of a petitioner’s claims should always be recharacterized as a second or successive habeas petition under Gonzalez v. Crosby.

Featured Petitions

Docket Case Page Issue(s)
23-687 MRP Properties Company, LLC v. U.S. Whether, when analyzing whether an entity is a facility “operator” under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, courts should consider pollution-producing activities that the entity managed, directed, or conducted, or should instead limit this analysis to waste-disposal and regulatory-compliance activities.
23-686 Cela v. Garland Whether noncitizens who were “granted asylum,” but whose asylum was later terminated, are eligible for adjustment to lawful-permanent-resident status under 8 U.S.C. § 1159(b).
23-683 Vincent v. Garland Whether the Second Amendment allows the federal government to permanently disarm Melynda Vincent, who has one 15-year-old nonviolent felony conviction for trying to pass a bad check.
23-677 Royal Canin U.S.A. v. Wullschleger (1) Whether a post-removal amendment of a complaint to omit federal questions defeats federal-question subject matter jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1331; and (2) whether such a post-removal amendment of a complaint precludes a district court from exercising supplemental jurisdiction over the plaintiff’s remaining state-law claims pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1367.
23-668 King v. Emmons (1) Whether the Georgia Supreme Court’s decision was based on “an unreasonable determination” of the facts under 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(2); and (2) whether the Georgia Supreme Court “unreasonably applied” this court’s decision in Batson v. Kentucky under Section 2254(d)(1).
23-665 Goede v. AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, LP Whether, where an unemployment applicant’s religious beliefs are independently sufficient to cause her refusal to follow an employer policy, a state can deny her unemployment benefits by holding that philosophical and personal beliefs outweigh her religious beliefs.
23-664 Benning v. Oliver (1) Whether, where the Supreme Court has required that a prisoner is entitled to procedural safeguards if their “correspondence” is intercepted, respondents are entitled to qualified immunity simply because the correspondence in the Supreme Court case was postal mail, rather than email; and (2) whether the doctrine of qualified immunity should be abolished, pared back, or clarified.
23-652 Dotson v. Justus Whether a habeas petitioner can show that a mental illness constitutes an “extraordinary circumstance” that warrants reopening a final judgment under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b)(6), and equitably tolling the statute of limitations, without evidence that the mental illness rendered the petitioner incapable of filing during the limitations period.
23-649 Price v. Montgomery County, Kentucky (1) Whether absolute immunity is unavailable under 42 U.S.C § 1983 where a prosecutor knowingly destroys exculpatory evidence; and (2) whether absolute immunity is unavailable under Section 1983 where a prosecutor defies a court order that compels specific action, leaving no room for the exercise of discretion.
23-648 Brinker Int'l v. Steinmetz Whether, under the Rules Enabling Act, Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23, and this court’s precedents, a class can be certified by ignoring individualized issues of damages and injury and instead proposing to award every class member the same “average” amount for alleged injuries even if they did not suffer those injuries at all.
23-638 Ravenell v. U.S. Whether, to comply with 18 U.S.C. § 3282(a) in a prosecution for a non-overt-act conspiracy, the government bears the burden of proving to a jury that the conspiracy existed within the limitations period, or instead bears no burden beyond proving the elements of the non-overt-act conspiracy.
23-625 Boam v. U.S. Whether a defendant produces or possesses a depiction involving the use of a minor engaging in “lascivious exhibition,” and thus “sexually explicit conduct,” under 18 U.S.C. § 2251(a), 18 U.S.C. § 2252A, and 18 U.S.C. § 2256(2)(A), by secretly recording a nude minor showering or engaging in ordinary grooming activities, when the video depicts absolutely no sexual or sexually suggestive conduct of any kind.
23-621 Holcomb v. Stinnie (1) Whether a party must obtain a ruling that conclusively decides the merits in its favor, as opposed to merely predicting a likelihood of later success, to prevail on the merits under 42 U.S.C. § 1988; and (2) whether a party must obtain an enduring change in the parties’ legal relationship from a judicial act, as opposed to a non-judicial event that moots the case, to prevail under Section 1988.
23-618 Medina v. Colorado Whether it is consistent with due process for a court to convict a criminal defendant without finding that the defendant is guilty.
23-583 Bouarfa v. Mayorkas Whether a visa petitioner may obtain judicial review when an approved petition is revoked on the basis of nondiscretionary criteria.
23-578 Kinzy v. U.S. Whether a district court can insulate from vacatur a sentence based on an erroneously enhanced Sentencing Guidelines range simply by stating, without explanation, that it would have imposed the same sentence absent the error, or whether, to avoid resentencing, the district court must comply with this court’s clear command in Gall v. United States and Rita v. United States to sufficiently explain why the sentence imposed is warranted even if the Sentencing Guidelines range was wrong.
23-568 Bartlett v. Baasiri Whether a defendant’s status as an instrumentality of a foreign state under 28 U.S.C. § 1603(b)(2) “is determined at the time of the filing of the complaint,” as this court held in Dole Food Co. v. Patrickson, or at any time “after a suit is filed,” as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit held.
23-541 Donnellon v. Jordan (1) Whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit’s use of the First Amendment analysis of City of Houston, Texas v. Hill negated the objective Fourth Amendment standard of Maryland v. Pringle; and (2) whether it was clearly established for qualified immunity purposes that initiating a takedown maneuver to effectuate an arrest on a person who did not comply with an order to place his hands behind his back and pulled away was an excessive use of force in violation of the Fourth Amendment.
23-525 Murphy Co. v. Biden Whether the Antiquities Act of 1906 authorizes the president to declare federal lands part of a national monument where a separate federal statute reserves those specific federal lands for a specific purpose that is incompatible with national-monument status.
23-524 American Forest Resource Council v. U.S. (1) Whether the president can use an Antiquities Act Proclamation to override Congress’ plain text in the Oregon and California Railroad and Coos Bay Wagon Road Grant Lands Act of 1937 to repurpose vast swaths of O&C Act timberlands as a national monument where sustained-yield timber production is prohibited; and (2) whether the secretary of the interior can override the O&C Act by designating 80% of the O&C timberlands as conservation “reserves” where sustained-yield timber harvest is prohibited.
23-500 Gimenez v. Franklin County, Washington Whether the Washington Voting Rights Act is subject to strict scrutiny.
23-488 Sands v. Bradley Whether federal courts have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 over a petition for habeas corpus alleging that a prisoner’s unconstitutional conditions of incarceration require release, either because habeas jurisdiction generally extends to conditions-of-confinement claims, or because it at least extends to such claims when the prisoner seeks his release from custody.
23-402 Oklahoma v. U.S. (1) Whether the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act of 2020 violates the private non-delegation doctrine; and (2) whether the act violates the anti-commandeering doctrine by coercing states into funding a federal regulatory program.
23-377 Dutra v. Jackson (1) Whether this court’s precedents the only source of clearly established law for purposes of qualified immunity; and (2) whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit construed clearly established law too abstractly when it denied qualified immunity by citing only its own precedents involving the use of tasers, police dogs, and neck restraints on already handcuffed or subdued suspects when—as the body-cam footage shows—none of those facts were present here.
23-365 Medical Marijuana v. Horn Whether economic harms resulting from personal injuries are injuries to “business or property by reason of” the defendant’s acts for purposes of a civil treble-damages action under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
23-248 Broadnax v. Texas Whether the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals’ decision that James Broadnax failed to establish a prima facie equal protection claim conflicts with this court’s decision in Batson v. Kentucky.
23-120 U.S. Soccer Federation v. Relevent Sports, LLC Whether allegations that members of an association agreed to adhere to the association’s rules, without more, are sufficient to plead the element of conspiracy in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act. CVSG: 3/14/2024

Calls for the Views of the Solicitor General

Docket Case Page Issue(s)
23-217 E.M.D. Sales v. Carrera Whether the burden of proof that employers must satisfy to demonstrate the applicability of a Fair Labor Standards Act exemption is a mere preponderance of the evidence or clear and convincing evidence.
23-9 AstraZeneca UK, Ltd. v. Atchley (1) Whether the court should grant, vacate, and remand this case for further proceedings in light of its decision in Twitter, Inc. v. Taamneh; (2) whether plaintiffs plead proximate causation as required for direct liability under the Anti-Terrorism Act by alleging that defendants transacted with a foreign-government agency that was in turn infiltrated by the group that injured plaintiffs; and (3) whether a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization “plan[s]” or “authorize[s]” a specific attack—as required for ATA aiding-and-abetting liability—by providing general support or inspiration to a different group that carries out the attack.
22-957 Dermody v. Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services Whether an annuity that satisfies the condition in 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(c)(2)(B)(i) determining the Medicaid eligibility of a married institutionalized person must name the state as the first remainder beneficiary in order to avoid Section 1396p(c)(1)’s transfer penalty.
22-886 Blenheim Capital Holdings Ltd. v. Lockheed Martin Corp. Whether a foreign government’s procurement of goods for a military purpose, through a contract with a U.S. company, is commercial activity within the meaning of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.