Roberts ponders delay in Exxon Indonesia case
on Jan 2, 2008 at 12:27 pm
UPDATE Friday p.m. The Chief Justice is now weighing the application for a stay discussed in this post. Attorneys for the Indonesian villagers who have sued Exxon Mobil and its affiliates on Friday afternoon urged the Chief Justice to deny the stay request. The response can be found here. It is unclear whether Roberts will act alone, or refer the matter to the full Court.
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 Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., on Wednesday asked for a response by 2 p.m. this Friday — Jan. 4 — on a stay application by Exxon Mobil Corp. and three affiliated companies. The application seeks an order to delay pending District Court proceedings in a case involving alleged brutality by guards at a natural gas plant in Indonesia. An earlier post on this blog discussing the application can be found here. That post indicated that the application itself was not yet available. Thanks to counsel, the text of the application (07A546) can now be downloaded here.
Correction: The earlier post surmised that the D.C. Circuit Court may have denied a stay request at this time, as had the District Court judge. That was incorrect. As the application points out, “in the present posture, there is no basis for seeking relief in the court of appeals. The district court’s denial of a stay is not an appealable order, and the court of appeals has no jurisdiction to issue a stay absent such an appeal because the court of appeals’ mandate has issued and the prerequisites for a recall of that court’s mandated are not satisfied.” Thus, the stay request was filed with the Chief Justice as Circuit Justice.
