SCOTUSblog's list of petitions with a "reasonable" chance of being granted

Conferences of 10/6/06 and 10/13/06

Name	Counsel of Record	Certiorari To	DN	Summary	Status
W.R. Grace and Co. et al. v. US	Christopher Landau Kirkland & Ellis	CA9	05-1363	What is the scope of the obligation of a responsible party to pay for a response action under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA).	Denied
FreeEats.com v. North Dakota	John F. Cooney Venable LLP	S. Ct. of N.D.	06-127	Whether a North Dakota statute which restricts the making of prerecorded telephone calls to residents is preempted by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the implementing rule by the FCC as applied to prerecorded interstate telephone calls that seek to survey the recipient's political views.	Denied
At Home v. Cox et al.	Joseph Allerhand Weil, Gotshal & Manges	CA2	06-147	Whether statutory insiders may escape liability under sec. 16(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 because of a judicial interpretation that establishes the date of creation of a hybrid derivative instrument as the only "sale" date.	Denied
Woodford v. Remeidio	Thomas Patterson Calif. AG's office	CA9	06-167	Whether an inmate can proceed on a civil rights claim that prison officials retaliated against him for First Amdnement expression if the action taken against the inmate objectively served a legitimate penological purpose.	Denied
Sommers v. Wells Fargo	Stacy Obenhaus Gardere Wynne Sewell	CA5	06-172	Whether, banckrupcty law remedies affecting a third party are barred if a bankruptcy court modifies the automatic stay in effect from 11 USC sec. 362 and allows a creditor to pursue state law claims against the third party.	Denied
Conf. of 10/13				Conf. of 10/13
Signator Insurance v. Patten	Edwin Schallert Debevoise & Plimpton	CA4	06-49	Whether an arbitral award may be vacated on nonstatutory, merits-based grounds - such as that the arbitrator manifestly disregarded the law or that the award did not draw its essence from the agreement - despite the explicit requirement of 9 U.S.C. sec. 9 that a court "must" confirm an arbitral award unless the award is vacated or corrected as provided in 9 U.S.C. secs. 10 and 11.	Denied
Drebick et al. v. City of Olympia	Meriem L. Hubbard Pacific Legal Foundation	S. Ct. of Wash.	06-223	Whether a local government may avoid the "nexus" and "rough proportionality" tests of Nollan v. California Coastal Commission and Dolan v. City of Tigard by imposing development exactions either in the form of "impact" fees or by legislative enactment.	Denied
Hatch v. Cellco Partnership*	Margaret Chutich Minn. AG's office	CA8	05-1159 (SG)	Whether Minnesota's law requiring wireless service providers to provide notice and obtain customer consent before they change the terms of an existing contract is preempted by 47 U.S.C. sec. 332(c)(3)(A).	Denied

* Hatch v. Cellco has been previously considered, and the SG was asked to file an amicus brief.  The government's brief has now been filed, and the petition will be reconsidered on 10/13.