Hillman v. Maretta

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Hillman v. Maretta

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Conference of March 15, 2019

Docket No.	Op. Below	Argument	Opinion	Vote	Author	Term
11-1221	Va. S. Ct.	Apr 22, 2013 Tr.Aud.	Jun 3, 2013	9-0	Sotomayor	OT 2012

Holding: The Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance Act (FEGLIA), which establishes a life insurance program for federal employees, allows an employee to designate a beneficiary to receive the proceeds of the policy when the employee dies. That law preempts a Virginia law that allows the family of a deceased employee to sue the designated beneficiary for the proceeds if the beneficiary happens to be the employee’s former spouse.

Judgment: Affirmed, 9-0, in an opinion by Justice Sotomayor on June 3, 2013. Justice Scalia joins the opinion except as to footnote 4. Justice Thomas and Justice Alito filed opinions concurring in the judgment.

Opinion analysis: States can’t override federal employees’ life insurance designations (Tejinder Singh)
Argument recap: Looking for the less wrong answer (Tejinder Singh)
Argument preview: Divorce, death, and preemption (Tejinder Singh)
Petition of the day (Matthew Bush)

Date	Proceedings and Orders (key to color coding)
Apr 11 2012	Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due May 14, 2012)
Apr 18 2012	Order extending time to file response to petition to and including May 31, 2012.
May 18 2012	Brief of respondent Judy A. Maretta in opposition filed.
May 29 2012	DISTRIBUTED for Conference of June 14, 2012.
May 29 2012	Reply of petitioner Jacqueline Hillman filed. (Distributed)
Jun 18 2012	The Solicitor General is invited to file a brief in this case expressing the views of the United States.
Dec 14 2012	Brief amicus curiae of United States filed.
Dec 14 2012	Letter proposing a lodging of the government's group life insurance contract with Metropolitan Life Insurance Company received from the Solicitor General.
Dec 26 2012	DISTRIBUTED for Conference of January 11, 2013.
Jan 11 2013	Petition GRANTED.
Feb 11 2013	SET FOR ARGUMENT ON MONDAY, April 22, 2013
Feb 22 2013	Joint appendix filed. (Statement of costs filed)
Feb 22 2013	Brief of petitioner Jacqueline Hillman filed. (Distributed)
Mar 1 2013	CIRCULATED.
Mar 7 2013	Record received from Supreme Court of Virginia. (1 Box)
Mar 25 2013	Brief of respondent Judy A. Maretta filed (Reprinted). (Distributed)
Apr 1 2013	Brief amicus curiae of Association of Federal Health Organizations filed. (Distributed)
Apr 1 2013	Motion of the Solicitor General for leave to participate in oral argument as amicus curiae and for divided argument filed.
Apr 1 2013	Brief amicus curiae of United States filed. (Distributed)
Apr 12 2013	Motion of the Solicitor General for leave to participate in oral argument as amicus curiae and for divided argument GRANTED.
Apr 15 2013	Reply of petitioner Jacqueline Hillman filed. (Distributed)
Apr 22 2013	Argued. For petitioner: Daniel H. Ruttenberg, Vienna, Va. For respondent: Steffen N. Johnson, Washington, D. C.; and Elaine J. Goldenberg, Assistant to the Solicitor General, Department of Justice, Washington, D. C. (for United States, as amicus curiae.)
Jun 3 2013	Adjudged to be AFFIRMED. Sotomayor, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Roberts, C. J., and Kennedy, Ginsburg, Breyer, and Kagan, JJ., joined, and in which Scalia, J., joined as to all but footnote 4. Thomas, J., and Alito, J., filed opinions concurring in the judgment.
Jul 5 2013	MANDATE ISSUED.
Jul 5 2013	Record returned to Supreme Court of Virginia.

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This Week at the Court
The Supreme Court will release orders from the March 15 conference on Monday at 9:30 a.m.; John Elwood's Relist Watch compiles the petitions that likely were relisted for this conference.
There is a possibility of opinions on Tuesday and Wednesday.
On Monday, the justices hear oral argument in Virginia House of Delegates v. Bethune-Hill and Smith v. Berryhill.
On Tuesday, the justices hear oral argument in Cochise Consultancy Inc. v. United States, ex rel. Hunt.
On Wednesday, the justices hear oral argument in Flowers v. Mississippi.
On Friday, the justices meet for their March 22 conference.
Major Cases
- 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.
- New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. City of New York, New York
  Whether New York City’s ban on transporting a licensed, locked and unloaded handgun to a home or shooting range outside city limits is consistent with the Second Amendment, the commerce clause and the constitutional right to travel.
- The American Legion v. American Humanist Association
  (1) Whether a 93-year-old memorial to the fallen of World War I is unconstitutional merely because it is shaped like a cross; (2) whether the constitutionality of a passive display incorporating religious symbolism should be assessed under the tests articulated in Lemon v. Kurtzman, Van Orden v. Perry, Town of Greece v. Galloway or some other test; and (3) whether, if the test from Lemon v. Kurtzman applies, the expenditure of funds for the routine upkeep and maintenance of a cross-shaped war memorial, without more, amounts to an excessive entanglement with religion in violation of the First Amendment.
- Gamble v. United States
  Whether the Supreme Court should overrule the “separate sovereigns” exception to the double jeopardy clause.
see all this term’s cases »
Recent Decisions
- BNSF Railway Company v. Loos A railroad’s payment to an employee for working time lost due to an on-the-job injury is taxable “compensation” under the Railroad Retirement Tax Act.
- Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com Registration occurs, and a copyright claimant may commence an infringement suit, when the Copyright Office registers a copyright.
- Rimini Street Inc. v. Oracle USA Inc. A federal district court’s discretion to award “full costs” to a party in copyright litigation pursuant to 17 U. S. C. §505 is limited to the six categories specified in the general costs statute codified at 28 U. S. C. §§1821 and 1920.
- Garza v. Idaho The presumption of prejudice for Sixth Amendment purposes recognized in Roe v. Flores-Ortega applies regardless of whether a defendant has signed an appeal waiver.
- Jam v. International Finance Corp. The International Organizations Immunities Act of 1945 affords international organizations the same immunity from suit that foreign governments enjoy today under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976.
- Madison v. Alabama The Eighth Amendment may permit executing a prisoner even if he cannot remember committing his crime, but it may prohibit executing a prisoner who suffers from dementia or another disorder rather than psychotic delusions.
- Nutraceutical Corp. v. Lambert Rule of Civil Procedure 23(f), which establishes a 14-day deadline to seek permission to appeal an order granting or denying class certification, is not subject to equitable tolling.
- Yovino v. Rizo The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit erred when it counted as a member of the majority a judge who died before the court’s opinion in this case was filed.
see all this term’s cases »
Current Relists
- Altitude Express Inc. v. Zarda Whether the prohibition in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(1), against employment discrimination “because of . . . sex” encompasses discrimination based on an individual’s sexual orientation.
- Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia Whether discrimination against an employee because of sexual orientation constitutes prohibited employment discrimination “because of . . . sex” within the meaning of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2.
- Box v. Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky Inc. (1) Whether a state may require health-care facilities to dispose of fetal remains in the same manner as other human remains, i.e., by burial or cremation; and (2) whether a state may prohibit abortions motivated solely by the race, sex or disability of the fetus and require abortion doctors to inform patients of the prohibition.
More Petitions »
Recent Special Features
Statistical Snapshot

Cases argued 48

Cases decided 21

Summary reversals 4

Merits cases granted to date 75

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Justice Sotomayor and Eva Longoria Bastón

On March 1, Justice Sonia Sotomayor spoke with actress Eva Longoria Bastón about Sotomayor’s life, her new children’s book and more.

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Cases argued	48
Cases decided	21
Summary reversals	4
Merits cases granted to date	75

1
Conference

4
Orders
Opinions

15
Conference

18
Orders
VIRGINIA HOUSE OF DELEGATES V. BETHUNE-HILL (18-281)
SMITH V. BERRYHILL (17-1606)

19
COCHISE CONSULTANCY INC. V. U.S., EX REL. HUNT (18-315)
Opinions

20
FLOWERS V. MISSISSIPPI (17-9572)
Opinions

22
Conference

25
Orders
PDR NETWORK, LLC V. CARLTON & HARRIS CHIROPRACTIC INC. (17-1705)
THE DUTRA GROUP V. BATTERTON (18-266)

26
RUCHO V. COMMON CAUSE (18-422)
LAMONE V. BENISEK (18-726)

27
KISOR V. WILKIE (18-15)

29
Conference