In Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, to be argued on Wednesday, March 4, the court will consider whether a federal law initially designed to deal with state trucking regulations supersedes state common-law claims holding freight brokers liable for negligently selecting dangerous motor carriers or drivers. That may not sound particularly fascinating, but the issue before the court, which involves the scope of the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994, could have broad liability implications for transportation logistics and the freight broker industry.

The opinion yesterday in The GEO Group v. Menocal rejects the efforts of a contractor for ICE to get an immediate appeal from a district court judgment. The case involves claims by ICE detainees challenging the conditions of their confinement by a contractor operating an ICE detention facility – specifically, the detainees contended that the contractor’s operation of the facility involved forced, unpaid labor, violating various federal and state laws.

The contractor, GEO Group, asked the trial court to dismiss the suit out of hand, arguing that it was simply following ICE’s instructions. When the district court refused, the contractor appealed. It lost again in the appellate court, as that court concluded that this is not the kind of question that justifies an immediate appeal – the contractor, so the court of appeals held, had to wait until after a trial in the district court to bring the case to the appellate court.

The Relist Watch column examines cert petitions that the Supreme Court has “relisted” for its upcoming conference. A short explanation of relists is available here.

With the rest of the current term’s argument calendar filled, the grants may slow after the frenzy of December and January. On Monday, the Supreme Court added just one case to the merits docket from the relist rolls. Specifically, the court granted review in four-time relist Suncor Energy (U.S.A.) Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County, in which energy companies contend that federal law preempts state-law lawsuits claiming that oil and gas companies have knowingly exacerbated climate change. This case will be very closely watched: it represents just one of numerous such suits by state and local governments, now proceeding overwhelmingly in state courts under state law.

There are just three new relists this week.

The Trump administration on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to freeze a ruling by a federal judge in New York that indefinitely postpones the termination of a program that allows Syrians to live in the United States temporarily. Pointing to earlier rulings on the court’s interim docket in which the justices granted requests from the Trump administration to pause similar lower-court rulings involving Venezuelans, U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer urged the court to “again stay a materially similar order with materially similar flaws.”

The court directed the challengers in the case to file a response by Thursday, March 5, at 4 p.m. EST.

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Monday in United States v. Hemani, the second gun-rights case of the 2025-26 term. In January, the Trump administration supported Hawaii gun owners in their challenge to that state’s law requiring them to obtain express permission from the owners of private property before bringing their guns onto that property. But on Monday, the Trump administration will be asking the justices to allow it to prosecute a Texas man on charges that he violated a federal law that prohibits users of illegal drugs from having a gun.