State of the Practice
on Mar 27, 2008 at 1:36 pm
As we turn to the Term’s final month of arguments, I thought I would write a short update on the cases in which we’re involved.
Akin (either alone or with the Stanford Supreme Court Litigation Clinic) is currently counsel to a party in twelve merits cases.
The Akin-only cases are Lopez-Torres (NY elections; successfully argued by N.Y. partner Andy Rossman); Clintwood Elkhorn (Export Clause; Pattie Millett argued – pending); Heller (gun rights; co-counsel to the District of Columbia, and Walter Dellinger argued – pending); and APCC Services (standing; we are lead counsel, and Carter Phillips will argue in April). We filed the cert. petition in three of those cases; in the fourth, cert was granted over our opposition.
Among the cases we are litigating with the Stanford Clinic for this Term, I am principally responsible for Moore (4th Amendment; I argued – pending). Other instructors have the lead role in Riley (voting rights; Pam Karlan argued – pending); Burgess (drug sentencing; Jeff Fisher argued – pending); Crawford (voting rights; co-counsel to the petitioners – pending); and Greenlaw (appellate procedure; Amy Howe will argue in April).
The Stanford Clinic separately represents a party in two other merits cases this Term in which Akin is not participating: Meacham (ADEA; Kevin Russell will argue in April); and Kennedy (death penalty; Jeff Fisher will argue in April).
We have three additional merits cases for next Term that we are litigating with the Clinic: Jimenez (AEDPA procedure; I will argue); Herring (4th Amendment); and Melendez-Diaz (Confrontation).
(The case names above link to their respective pages on SCOTUSwiki, which include all filings.)
We have a variety of cert. petitions pending. In commercial cases, Akin represents the petitioners in Progress Energy (07-539) (filings here) (FMLA; pending before the Solicitor General); Centerior (07-961) (petition here) (federal jurisdiction; awaiting brief in opposition); Tyson Foods (07-1014) (petitioner here) (FLSA; awaiting brief in opposition); and Radian Guaranty (07-834) (Fair Credit Reporting Act; pending).
In non-commercial cases, with the Stanford Clinic, we represent the petitioners in Cone (07-1114) (petition here) (death penalty; awaiting brief in opposition) and Baker (07-1082) (petition here) (civil rights pleading; awaiting brief in opposition). Two additional petitions are in the late stages of drafting.
Without Akin’s involvement, the Stanford Clinic separately represents the respondent in Hulteen (filings here) (pregnancy discrimination; pending before the Solicitor General).
We also represent a putative intervenor (the Catawba River Water Supply Project) in an original action, South Carolina v. North Carolina.
The Stanford Clinic has been very fortunate in assembling a merits docket. The Clinic currently has ten active merits cases. All but one of those will be argued by one of the instructors, all five of whom will argue. The cases came to the Clinic in diverse ways: in five, we filed the cert petition; in two, review was granted over our opposition; and in three, we were brought in by the petitioner after cert was granted. The final category includes two cases (Burgess and Jimenez) in which the petitioners impressively got cert granted pro se.
