McDonough v. Smith

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McDonough v. Smith

Opinion analysis: Court gives broad meaning to “confidential” in FOIA exemption for commercial and financial information – Mark Fenster

Opinion analysis: Punitive damages not available under general maritime law in personal-injury unseaworthiness action – Joel Goldstein

Opinion analysis: Long-time prohibition on registration of scandalous and immoral trademarks is struck down – Megan Carpenter

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Docket No.	Op. Below	Argument	Opinion	Vote	Author	Term
18-485	2d Cir.	Apr 17, 2019 Tr.Aud.	Jun 20, 2019	6-3	Sotomayor	OT 2018

Holding: 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.

Judgment: Reversed and remanded, 6-3, in an opinion by Justice Sotomayor on June 20, 2019. Justice Thomas filed a dissenting opinion, in which Justices Kagan and Gorsuch joined.

A "view" from the courtroom: "Quite prolific in our writing" (Mark Walsh)
Opinion analysis: Fabricated-evidence claims accrue only on favorable termination of prosecution (Howard M. Wasserman)
Argument analysis: Spinning heads and swimming constitutional rights in debates over an accrual rule (Howard M. Wasserman)
Argument preview: Searching for an accrual rule when the government fabricates evidence in a criminal proceeding (Howard M. Wasserman)
Eight new grants, Ginsburg recovery from surgery “on track” (Amy Howe)

Date	Proceedings and Orders (key to color coding)
Oct 12 2018	Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due November 15, 2018)
Nov 02 2018	Motion to extend the time to file a response from November 15, 2018 to December 7, 2018, submitted to The Clerk.
Nov 06 2018	Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including December 7, 2018.
Nov 15 2018	Brief amici curiae of Criminal Defense Organizations, et al. filed.
Nov 15 2018	Brief amicus curiae of Cause of Action Institute filed.
Nov 15 2018	Brief amicus curiae of Criminal Justice Institute of Harvard Law School filed.
Dec 07 2018	Brief of respondent Youel Smith in opposition filed.
Dec 17 2018	Letter waiving the 14-day waiting period under Rule 15.5 filed.
Dec 18 2018	Reply of petitioner Edward G. McDonough filed.
Dec 19 2018	DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/4/2019.
Jan 07 2019	DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/11/2019.
Jan 11 2019	Petition GRANTED.
Feb 11 2019	SET FOR ARGUMENT on Wednesday, April 17, 2019
Feb 25 2019	Brief of petitioner Edward G. McDonough filed.
Feb 25 2019	Joint appendix filed.
Feb 26 2019	Blanket Consent filed by Petitioner, Edward G. McDonough.
Mar 04 2019	Brief amicus curiae of Criminal Justice Institute of Harvard Law School filed.
Mar 04 2019	Brief amicus curiae of Cause of Action Institute filed.
Mar 04 2019	Brief amici curiae of Criminal Defense Organizations, et al. filed.
Mar 04 2019	Brief amicus curiae of Constitutional Accountability Center filed.
Mar 04 2019	Brief amicus curiae of United States filed.
Mar 04 2019	Brief amici curiae of Center on the Administration of Criminal Law at NYU School of Law, et al. filed.
Mar 04 2019	Brief amici curiae of Federal Court Scholars, et al. filed.
Mar 04 2019	Brief amicus curiae of St. Thomas More Lawyers Guild of Rochester, New York filed.
Mar 04 2019	Brief amicus curiae of The Innocence Network filed.
Mar 20 2019	CIRCULATED
Mar 21 2019	Record requested from the U.S.C.A. 2nd Circuit.
Mar 27 2019	Brief of respondent Youel Smith filed. (Distributed)
Apr 02 2019	Motion of the Solicitor General for leave to participate in oral argument as amicus curiae and for divided argument filed.
Apr 03 2019	Record received from the U.S.D.C. Northern District of New York is electronic.
Apr 03 2019	Brief amici curiae of International Municipal Lawyers Association, et al. filed. (Distributed)
Apr 03 2019	Brief amici curiae of Indiana, et al. filed. (Distributed)
Apr 03 2019	Motion of International Municipal Lawyers Association, et al. for leave to participate in oral argument as amici curiae and for divided argument filed.
Apr 03 2019	Motion of St. Thomas More Lawyers Guild of Rochester, New York for leave to participate in oral argument as amicus curiae and for divided argument filed.
Apr 03 2019	Motion of Indiana, et al. for leave to participate in oral argument as amici curiae and for divided argument filed.
Apr 10 2019	Reply of petitioner Edward G. McDonough filed. (Distributed)
Apr 12 2019	Motion of the Solicitor General for leave to participate in oral argument as amicus curiae and for divided argument GRANTED.
Apr 12 2019	Motion of Indiana, et al. for leave to participate in oral argument as amici curiae and for divided argument DENIED.
Apr 12 2019	Motion of International Municipal Lawyers Association, et al. for leave to participate in oral argument as amici curiae and for divided argument DENIED.
Apr 12 2019	Motion of St. Thomas More Lawyers Guild of Rochester, New York for leave to participate in oral argument as amicus curiae and for divided argument DENIED.
Apr 17 2019	Argued. For petitioner: Neal K. Katyal, Washington, D. C.; and Jeffrey B. Wall, Principal Deputy Solicitor General, Department of Justice, Washington, D. C. (for United States, as amicus curiae.) For respondent: Thomas J. O'Connor, Albany, N. Y.
Jun 20 2019	Judgment REVERSED and case REMANDED. Sotomayor, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Roberts, C. J., and Ginsburg, Breyer, Alito, and Kavanaugh, JJ., joined. Thomas, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Kagan and Gorsuch, JJ., joined.

Featured Posts

Opinion analysis: Court gives broad meaning to “confidential” in FOIA exemption for commercial and financial information – Mark Fenster

Opinion analysis: Punitive damages not available under general maritime law in personal-injury unseaworthiness action – Joel Goldstein

Opinion analysis: Long-time prohibition on registration of scandalous and immoral trademarks is struck down – Megan Carpenter
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Also on Monday, the justices released their opinions in four argued cases: United States v. Davis, Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader Media, Iancu v. Brunetti and The Dutra Group v. Batterton.
The Supreme Court will release opinions in one or more argued cases on Wednesday at 10 a.m.
Major Cases
- 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
- Gamble v. United States
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Recent Decisions
- Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader Media Where commercial or financial information is both customarily and actually treated as private by its owner and provided to the government under an assurance of privacy, the information is “confidential” within the meaning of 5 U. S. C. §552(b)(4), the Freedom of Information Act’s Exemption 4.
- Iancu v. Brunetti The Lanham Act prohibition on the registration of “immoral” or “scandalous” trademarks infringes the First Amendment.
- The Dutra Group v. Batterton A plaintiff may not recover punitive damages on a maritime claim of unseaworthiness.
- United States v. Davis Title 18 U. S. C. §924(c)(3)(B), which provides enhanced penalties for using a firearm during a “crime of violence,” is unconstitutionally vague.
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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.
- 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.
- Kelly v. United States Whether a public official “defraud[s]” the government of its property by advancing a “public policy reason” for an official decision that is not her subjective “real reason” for making the decision.
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Cases argued	69
Cases decided	61
Summary reversals	5
Merits cases granted to date	74

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