Return Mail Inc. v. United States Postal Service

Return Mail Inc. v. United States Postal Service

Argument preview: Justices to consider constitutionality of cross-shaped war memorial on public land – Amy Howe

Argument preview: Justices address circuit split on whether a period of pretrial imprisonment can toll a term of federal supervised release – Fiona Doherty

Relist Watch – John Elwood

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RETURN MAIL INC. V. U.S. POSTAL SERVICE (17-1594)

MISSION PRODUCT HOLDINGS INC. V. TEMPNOLOGY INC. (17-1657)

Opinions

Conference

Orders

MANHATTAN COMMUNITY ACCESS CORP. V. HALLECK (17-1702)

UNITED STATES V. HAYMOND (17-1672)

MONT V. UNITED STATES (17-8995)

THE AMERICAN LEGION V. AMERICAN HUMANIST ASSOCIATION (17-1717)

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Docket No.	Op. Below	Argument	Opinion	Vote	Author	Term
17-1594	Fed. Cir.	Feb 19, 2019 Tr.	TBD	TBD	TBD	OT 2018

Issue: Whether the government is a “person” who may petition to institute review proceedings under the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act.

Argument analysis: Justices seem divided about government right to challenge patents in administrative process (Ronald Mann)
A "view" from the courtroom: Back to the bench for Justice Ginsburg (Mark Walsh)
OT2018 #19: "Fake Mootness" (First Mondays)
Argument preview: Justices to consider ability of government to challenge patents in administrative process (Ronald Mann)
OT2018 #5: "Arbitration Nation" (First Mondays)
Justices add three new cases to this term’s docket (Amy Howe)
Petition of the day (Aurora Barnes)

Date	Proceedings and Orders (key to color coding)
Feb 16 2018	Application (17A879) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from March 15, 2018 to May 14, 2018, submitted to The Chief Justice.
Feb 28 2018	Application (17A879) granted by The Chief Justice extending the time to file until May 14, 2018.
May 14 2018	Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due June 25, 2018)
Jun 12 2018	Blanket Consent filed by Petitioner, Return Mail, Inc..
Jun 22 2018	Motion to extend the time to file a response from June 25, 2018 to July 25, 2018, submitted to The Clerk.
Jun 22 2018	Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including July 25, 2018.
Jun 25 2018	Brief amicus curiae of Kenneth O. Simon filed.
Jun 25 2018	Brief amici curiae of 15 Law Professors filed.
Jul 17 2018	Motion to extend the time to file a response from July 25, 2018 to August 24, 2018, submitted to The Clerk.
Jul 18 2018	Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is further extended to and including August 24, 2018.
Aug 13 2018	Motion to extend the time to file a response from August 24, 2018 to September 7, 2018, submitted to The Clerk.
Aug 13 2018	Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is further extended to and including September 7, 2018.
Sep 07 2018	Brief of respondents United States Postal Service, et al. in opposition filed.
Sep 21 2018	Reply of petitioner Return Mail, Inc. filed.
Sep 26 2018	DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 10/12/2018.
Oct 22 2018	DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 10/26/2018.
Oct 26 2018	Petition GRANTED limited to Question 1 presented by the petition.
Nov 26 2018	Motion to dispense with printing the joint appendix filed by petitioner Return Mail, Inc.
Dec 10 2018	Motion to dispense with printing the joint appendix filed by petitioner GRANTED.
Dec 10 2018	Brief of petitioner Return Mail, Inc. filed.
Dec 17 2018	Brief amicus curiae of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America filed.
Dec 17 2018	Brief amici curiae of The Cato Institute and Professor Gregory Dolin filed.
Dec 17 2018	Brief amicus curiae of Intellectual Property Owners Association in support of neither party filed.
Dec 17 2018	Brief amicus curiae of New York Intellectual Property Law Association in support of neither party filed.
Dec 17 2018	Brief amicus curiae of American Intellectual Property Law Association in support of neither party filed.
Dec 17 2018	Brief amici curiae of Seven Law Professors filed.
Dec 17 2018	Brief amicus curiae of Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America filed.
Dec 21 2018	SET FOR ARGUMENT on Wednesday, February 20, 2019.
Jan 09 2019	Brief of respondents United States Postal Service, et al. filed.
Jan 11 2019	Record requested from the U.S.C.A. Federal Circuit.
Jan 15 2019	CIRCULATED
Jan 15 2019	Brief amicus curiae of R Street Institute filed. (Distributed)
Jan 15 2019	Record from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is located on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office web site. Instructions to access the record is electronic. The record is complete.
Jan 16 2019	Brief amicus curiae of Professor Tejas N. Narechania filed. (Distributed)
Jan 16 2019	Motion for leave to file amicus brief filed by Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Jan 23 2019	RESCHEDULED FOR ARGUMENT ON Tuesday, February 19, 2019.
Jan 23 2019	Record from the U.S.C.A. Federal Circuit is electronic and located on PACER. The record is complete.
Feb 08 2019	Reply of petitioner Return Mail, Inc. filed. (Distributed)
Feb 19 2019	Motion for leave to file amicus brief filed by Electronic Frontier Foundation GRANTED.
Feb 19 2019	Argued. For petitioner: Beth S. Brinkmann, Washington, D. C. For respondents: Malcolm L. Stewart, Deputy Solicitor General, Department of Justice, Washington, D. C.

Featured Posts

Argument preview: Justices to consider constitutionality of cross-shaped war memorial on public land – Amy Howe

Argument preview: Justices address circuit split on whether a period of pretrial imprisonment can toll a term of federal supervised release – Fiona Doherty

Relist Watch – John Elwood
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This Week at the Court
The Supreme Court released orders from the February 15 conference on Tuesday; the justices added County of Maui, Hawaii v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund to next term's merits docket and summarily reversed in Moore v. Texas.
On Wednesday the justices released their opinions in Dawson v. Steager and Timbs v. Indiana.
On Tuesday, the justices heard oral argument in Return Mail Inc. v. United States Postal Service.
On Wednesday, the justices heard oral argument in Mission Product Holdings Inc. v. Tempnology, LLC.
On Friday, the justices will meet for their February 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
- Dawson v. Steager By taxing the federal pension benefits of U.S. Marshals Service retiree James Dawson, while exempting from taxation the pension benefits of certain state and local law enforcement officers, West Virginia unlawfully discriminates against Dawson as 4 U.S.C. §111 forbids.
- Timbs v. Indiana The Eighth Amendment’s excessive fines clause is an incorporated protection applicable to the states under the 14th Amendment’s due process clause.
- Moore v. Texas The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals’ redetermination that Bobby James Moore does not have an intellectual disability and is thus eligible for the death penalty is inconsistent with the Supreme Court's 2017 decision in Moore v. Texas.
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.
- Baxter v. United States (1) Whether a conviction for robbery under Florida law qualifies as a “violent felony” within the Armed Career Criminal Act’s elements clause simply because it requires overcoming victim resistance, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit has held, or whether such a conviction fails to qualify as an ACCA “violent felony” because Florida caselaw confirms that overcoming victim resistance does not invariably requires the use of “violent force” as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has held; and (2) whether a conviction for any state robbery offense that includes “as an element” the common law requirement of overcoming “victim resistance” is categorically a “violent felony” within the ACCA’s elements clause if the offense has been specifically interpreted by state appellate courts to require only slight force to overcome resistance.
- 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.
More Petitions »
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Cases argued 45

Cases decided 13

Summary reversals 3

Merits cases granted to date 74

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Justice Sotomayor at the Library of Congress

On February 14, Justice Sonia Sotomayor appeared at the Library of Congress with Chief Judge Robert Katzmann of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit and Professor Eloise Pasachoff of the Georgetown University Law Center for the Supreme Court Fellows Annual Lecture.

Peabody Award
Awarded the Peabody Award for excellence in electronic media.
Sigma Delta Chi
Awarded the Sigma Delta Chi deadline reporting award for online coverage of the Affordable Care Act decision.
National Press Club Award
Awarded the National Press Club's Breaking News Award for coverage of the Affordable Care Act decision.
Silver Gavel Award
Awarded the Silver Gavel Award by the American Bar Association for fostering the American public’s understanding of the law and the legal system.
American Gavel Award
Awarded the American Gavel Award for Distinguished Reporting About the Judiciary to recognize the highest standards of reporting about courts and the justice system.
Webby Award
Awarded the Webby Award for excellence on the internet.

15
Conference

19
Orders
RETURN MAIL INC. V. U.S. POSTAL SERVICE (17-1594)

20
MISSION PRODUCT HOLDINGS INC. V. TEMPNOLOGY INC. (17-1657)
Opinions

22
Conference

25
Orders
MANHATTAN COMMUNITY ACCESS CORP. V. HALLECK (17-1702)

26
UNITED STATES V. HAYMOND (17-1672)
MONT V. UNITED STATES (17-8995)

27
THE AMERICAN LEGION V. AMERICAN HUMANIST ASSOCIATION (17-1717)

Cases argued	45
Cases decided	13
Summary reversals	3
Merits cases granted to date	74