Tuesday round-up

Yesterday the court released a unanimous opinion in Lomax v. Ortiz-Marquez, holding that dismissal without prejudice for failure to state a claim counts as a “strike” under the Prison Litigation Reform Act, which limits prisoners’ ability to file lawsuits without paying the filing fees. Margo Schlanger analyzes the opinion for this blog. At Bloomberg Law, Kimberly Robinson reports that the ruling “made it more difficult for prisoners to file suits without having to pay a $400 filing fee, a decision that could keep workloads from exploding at federal courts.” Tim Ryan reports for Courthouse News Service (via How Appealing) that the court relied on “the text of the Prison Litigation Reform Act” to conclude that “the three-strike system applies to any case dismissed for failure to state a claim.”

The court also released orders yesterday from last week’s conference. The justices added one case to their merits docket for next term: Niz-Chavez v. Barr, in which the court will decide how much information must appear on a notice to a noncitizen to appear for a removal proceeding in order to trigger the “stop-time rule,” which stops the clock on accumulation of a period of continuous residence long enough to qualify the noncitizen for cancellation of removal. Amy Howe covers the order list for this blog, in a post that first appeared at Howe on the Court. At Courthouse News Service (via How Appealing), Megan Mineiro reports that “Justice Sonia Sotomayor called out the 11th Circuit on Monday for breaking step with other appeals courts when it comes to successive habeas petitions from inmates,” “in a statement respecting the denial of a case involving Michael St. Hubert, who is serving an enhanced sentence of 32 years for brandishing a firearm during a robbery because the crime was considered violent.” At CPR Speaks, Seorae Ko writes that the court also “declined a certiorari petition [from] a California Supreme Court decision to render a wage arbitration agreement unenforceable as procedurally and substantively unconscionable.”

At Howe on the Court, Amy Howe highlights the 19 cases still awaiting decision this term; she includes “(when available) information about who may be writing the decisions.” At Education Week’s School Law Blog, Mark Walsh looks at four of the remaining cases that “involve[e] K-12 schools or of great interest to educators and students.”

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