Ashcroft v. Abbasi

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Ashcroft v. Abbasi

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Docket No.	Op. Below	Argument	Opinion	Vote	Author	Term
15-1359	2d Cir.	Jan 18, 2017 Tr.Aud.	Jun 19, 2017	4-2	Kennedy	OT 2016

Holding: (1) The limited reach of the Bivens action informs the decision whether an implied damages remedy should be recognized in this case; (2) considering the relevant special factors in this case, a Bivens-type remedy should not be extended to the "detention policy claims" -- the allegations that the executive officials and wardens violated the detainees' due process and equal protection rights by holding them in restrictive conditions of confinement, and the allegation that the wardens violated the Fourth and Fifth Amendments by subjecting the detainees to frequent strip searches -- challenging the confinement conditions imposed on the detainees pursuant to the formal policy adopted by the executive officials in the wake of the September 11 attacks; (3) the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit erred in allowing the prisoner-abuse claim against Warden Dennis Hasty to go forward without conducting the required special-factors analysis; and (4) the executive officials and wardens are entitled to qualified immunity with respect to respondents' claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1985(3).

Judgment: Reversed in part and vacated and remanded in part, 4-2, in an opinion by Justice Kennedy on June 19, 2017. Justice Kennedy delivered the opinion of the Supreme Court with respects to Parts I, II, III, IV-A, and V, in which Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Thomas and Alito joined; Justice Kennedy also delivered an opinion with respect to Part IV-B, in which Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito joined. Justice Thomas filed an opinion concurring in part and concurring in the judgment. Justice Breyer filed a dissenting opinion, in which Justice Ginsburg joined. Justices Sotomayor, Kagan and Gorsuch took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.

Opinion analysis: Justices throw out most claims against federal officials in post-September 11 case (Amy Howe)
Argument analysis: Six-justice court sympathetic to government in detainee case (Amy Howe)
Argument preview: Short-handed court to hear arguments in September 11 detainee case (Amy Howe)
Court adds three hours of oral argument to its merits docket (Amy Howe)
Petitions of the day (Kate Howard)

Date	Proceedings and Orders (key to color coding)
Feb 29 2016	Application (15A898) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from March 10, 2016 to April 11, 2016, submitted to Justice Ginsburg.
Feb 29 2016	Application (15A898) granted by Justice Ginsburg extending the time to file until April 11, 2016.
Apr 1 2016	Application (15A898) to extend further the time from April 11, 2016 to May 9, 2016, submitted to Justice Ginsburg.
Apr 1 2016	Application (15A898) granted by Justice Ginsburg extending the time to file until May 9, 2016.
May 9 2016	Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due June 8, 2016)
May 9 2016	Appendix of John D. Ashcroft, former Attorney General, et al. filed.
May 26 2016	Order extending time to file response to petition to and including August 8, 2016.
Jun 8 2016	Brief amici curiae of Former U.S. Attorneys General William P. Barr, et al. filed. VIDED.
Jun 14 2016	Waiver of right of respondent James W. Ziglar to respond filed.
Aug 8 2016	Brief of respondents Ahmer Iqbal Abbasi, et al. in opposition filed. VIDED.
Aug 24 2016	Reply of petitioners John D. Ashcroft, former Attorney General, et al. filed.
Sep 21 2016	DISTRIBUTED for Conference of October 7, 2016.
Oct 11 2016	Petition GRANTED The petitions for writs of certiorari in Nos. 15-1358 and 15-1363 are granted. The cases are consolidated and a total of one hour is allotted for oral argument. Justice Sotomayor and Justice Kagan took no part in the consideration or decision of this petition.
Nov 10 2016	Letter from the Solicitor General regarding case caption. VIDED
Nov 18 2016	Joint appendix filed. VIDED.
Nov 18 2016	Brief of petitioners John D. Ashcroft, former Attorney General, et al. filed.
Nov 25 2016	Brief amici curiae of Former U.S. Attorneys General William P. Barr, et al. filed. VIDED.
Dec 2 2016	Application (16A546) of respondents to file a consolidated brief on the merits in excess of the word limit, submitted to Justice Ginsburg. VIDED.
Dec 2 2016	Application (16A546) granted by Justice Ginsburg to file a consolidated brief of respondents on the merits is excess of the word limit. VIDED.
Dec 5 2016	SET FOR ARGUMENT on Wednesday, January 18, 2017. VIDED
Dec 7 2016	Record requested from the U.S.C.A. 2nd Circuit.
Dec 12 2016	CIRCULATED.
Dec 12 2016	Motion of petitioners to enlarge the time for oral argument and for divided argument filed. VIDED.
Dec 19 2016	Brief of respondents Ahmer Iqbal Abbasi, et al. filed. VIDED. (Distributed)
Dec 20 2016	Brief amici curiae of Professors of Civil Procedure filed. VIDED. (Distributed)
Dec 22 2016	Brief amicus curiae of Commonwealth Lawyers Association filed. VIDED. (Distributed)
Dec 22 2016	Brief amici curiae of Medical and Other Scientific and Health-Related Professionals filed. VIDED. (Distributed)
Dec 23 2016	Brief amici curiae of Immigration Detention Advocacy Organizations filed. VIDED. (Distributed)
Dec 23 2016	Brief amicus curiae of The American Association for Justice filed. VIDED. (Distributed)
Dec 27 2016	Brief amici curiae of Former Correctional Officials filed. VIDED. (Distributed)
Dec 27 2016	Brief amici curiae of The American Civil Liberties Union, et al. filed. VIDED. (Distributed)
Dec 27 2016	Brief amici curiae of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, et al. filed. VIDED. (Distributed)
Dec 27 2016	Brief amici curiae of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, et al. filed. VIDED. (Distributed)
Dec 27 2016	Brief amici curiae of Karen Korematsu, et al. filed. VIDED. (Distributed)
Jan 6 2017	The motion of petitioners for enlargement of time for oral argument and for divided argument is granted in part and denied in part, and the time is divided as follows: 20 minutes for the Acting Solicitor General on behalf of petitioners in Nos. 15-1358 and 15-1359, 10 minutes for petitioners in No. 15-1363, and 30 minutes for respondents. Justice Sotomayor and Justice Kagan took no part in the consideration or decision of this motion. VIDED.
Jan 11 2017	Reply of petitioners John D. Ashcroft, former Attorney General, et al. filed. (Distributed)
Jan 18 2017	Argued. For petitioners in 15-1358 and 15-1359: Ian H. Gershengorn, Acting Solicitor General, Department of Justice, Washington, D. C. For petitioners in 15-1363: Jeffrey A. Lamken, Washington, D. C. For respondents: Rachel Meeropol, New York, N. Y. VIDED.
Jun 19 2017	Adjudged to be REVERSED IN PART and VACATED and REMANDED IN PART. Kennedy, J., delivered the opinion of the Court with respect to Parts I, II, III, IV-A, and V, in which Roberts, C. J., and Thomas and Alito, JJ., joined, and an opinion with respect to Part IV-B, in which Roberts, C. J., and Alito, J., joined. Thomas, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and concurring in the judgment. Breyer, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Ginsburg, J., joined. Sotomayor, Kagan, and Gorsuch, JJ., took no part in the consideration or decision of these cases. VIDED.
Jul 21 2017	JUDGMENT ISSUED.

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The Supreme Court released orders from the June 13 conference on Monday; the justices granted, vacated and remanded Klein v. Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries.
Also on Monday, the justices released their opinions in four argued cases: Manhattan Community Access Corp. v. Halleck, Virginia Uranium Inc. v. Warren, Gamble v. United States and Virginia House of Delegates v. Bethune-Hill.
On Thursday, the justices released their opinions in four argued cases: Gundy v. United States, McDonough v. Smith, The American Legion v. American Humanist Association and PDR Network, LLC v. Carlton & Harris Chiropractic Inc.
Also on Thursday, the justices met for their June 20 conference; that afternoon, the justices granted Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico v. Aurelius Investment, LLC, with four consolidated cases.
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- Department of Commerce v. New York
  (1) Whether the district court erred in enjoining the secretary of the Department of Commerce from reinstating a question about citizenship to the 2020 decennial census on the ground that the secretary’s decision violated the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. 701 et seq; (2) whether, in an action seeking to set aside agency action under the APA, a district court may order discovery outside the administrative record to probe the mental processes of the agency decisionmaker -- including by compelling the testimony of high-ranking executive branch officials -- without a strong showing that the decisionmaker disbelieved the objective reasons in the administrative record, irreversibly prejudged the issue, or acted on a legally forbidden basis; and (3) whether the secretary’s decision to add a citizenship question to the decennial census violated the enumeration clause of the U.S. Constitution.
- Lamone v. Benisek
  In case in which the plaintiffs allege that a Maryland congressional district was gerrymandered to retaliate against them for their political views: (1) whether the various legal claims articulated by the three-judge district court are unmanageable; (2) whether the three-judge district court erred when, in granting plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment, it resolved disputes of material fact as to multiple elements of plaintiffs’ claims, failed to view the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, and treated as “undisputed” evidence that is the subject of still-unresolved hearsay and other evidentiary objections; and (3) whether the three-judge district court abused its discretion in entering an injunction despite the plaintiffs’ years-long delay in seeking injunctive relief, rendering the remedy applicable to at most one election before the next decennial census necessitates another redistricting.
- Kisor v. Wilkie
  Whether the Supreme Court should overrule Auer v. Robbins and Bowles v. Seminole Rock & Sand Co., which direct courts to defer to an agency’s reasonable interpretation of its own ambiguous regulation.
- Rucho v. Common Cause
  (1) Whether plaintiffs have standing to press their partisan gerrymandering claims; (2) whether plaintiffs’ partisan gerrymandering claims are justiciable; and (3) whether North Carolina’s 2016 congressional map is, in fact, an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander.
- The American Legion v. American Humanist Association
  The Bladensburg Cross does not violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
- Gamble v. United States
  The dual-sovereignty doctrine – under which two offenses are not the “same offence” for double jeopardy purposes if prosecuted by separate sovereigns – is upheld.
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Recent Decisions
- Gundy v. United States TThe judgment of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit that 34 U. S. C. §20913(d) – which requires the U.S. attorney general to apply the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act’s registration requirements as soon as feasible to offenders convicted before the statute’s enactment – is not an unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority is affirmed.
- McDonough v. Smith The statute of limitations for Edward McDonough’s 42 U. S. C. §1983 fabricated-evidence claim against his prosecutor began to run when the criminal proceedings against him terminated in his favor – that is, when he was acquitted at the end of his second trial.
- PDR Network, LLC v. Carlton & Harris Chiropractic Inc. The extent to which a 2006 Federal Communications Commission order interpreting the term “unsolicited advertisement” binds lower courts may depend on the resolution of two preliminary questions that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit should address in the first instance: (1) whether the order is the equivalent of a legislative rule, which has the force and effect of law, or an interpretative rule, which does not; and (2) whether PDR Network, LLC had a “prior” and “adequate” opportunity to seek judicial review of the order.
- The American Legion v. American Humanist Association The Bladensburg Cross does not violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
- Gamble v. United States The dual-sovereignty doctrine – under which two offenses are not the “same offence” for double jeopardy purposes if prosecuted by separate sovereigns – is upheld.
- Manhattan Community Access Corp. v. Halleck Manhattan Community Access Corp., a private nonprofit corporation designated by New York City to operate the public access channels on the Manhattan cable system owned by Time Warner (now Charter), is not a state actor subject to the First Amendment.
- Virginia House of Delegates v. Bethune-Hill The House of Delegates lacks standing to appeal the invalidation of Virginia’s redistricting plan.
- Virginia Uranium, Inc. v. Warren The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit’s judgment that the Atomic Energy Act does not preempt Virginia’s prohibition on uranium mining in the commonwealth is affirmed.
see all this term’s cases »
Current Relists
- Atlanta Gas Light Co. v. Bennett Regulator Guards Inc. (1) Whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit erred in concluding that it had jurisdiction to review the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s decision to institute inter partes review of respondent’s patent over respondent’s objection that it was time-barred; and (2) whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit erred when it rejected the longstanding principle that a dismissal without prejudice leaves the parties as if a suit had never been brought, splitting the circuits.
- Banister v. Davis (1) Whether Gonzalez v. Crosby extends to post-judgment motions filed under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59(e); (2) whether, if Gonzalez does apply, a timely filed Rule 59(e) motion should toll the time to file a notice of appeal under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a)(4)(A)(iv); and (3) whether a pro se petitioner must be warned and given an opportunity to withdraw a post-judgment motion which has be recharacterized as a successive habeas petition if that recharacterization will effect his ability to file a timely notice of appeal.
- Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California (1) Whether the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to wind down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy is judicially reviewable; and (2) whether DHS’s decision to wind down the DACA policy is lawful.
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Cases argued	69
Cases decided	53
Summary reversals	5
Merits cases granted to date	74

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6
Conference

10
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13
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17
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20
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