I was pleased to assist Dan Fisk, Chairman & President of the Atlantic Legal Foundation, with preparation of a request to the Supreme Court of California for “depublication” of a state Court of Appeal opinion holding, in litigation brought by the American Chemistry Council, that the State’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (“OEHHA”) did not abuse its discretion […]
The following Op-Ed, published in Law360 on October 9, 2020, was written by Atlantic Legal Foundation Senior Vice President & General Counsel and Capital Appellate Advocacy founder Larry Ebner. Amicus curiae, or friend of the court, briefs have become a routine part of federal appellate practice. Hundreds of them are filed every year in the
Op-Ed: Appellate Courts Should Welcome Well-Crafted Amicus Briefs Read More »
If a federal contractor can establish that it is entitled to “derivative sovereign immunity” when hit with personal injury litigation for carrying out the government’s work, is it immune from suit or merely protected from liability? And if a federal district court denies a motion to dismiss that is based on derivative sovereign immunity, is
For more than a year, Supreme Court Justices have been fiercely debating the proper role of stare decisis—adherence to precedent. They have engaged in this debate in cases that involved whether to overturn Supreme Court precedents on a variety of subjects. See Supreme Court Justices Continue To Debate When To Overturn “Bad” Precedent & Starry,
Will Stare Decisis Save a Woman’s Right To Abortion? Read More »
In an unequivocal ruling, the D.C. Circuit court of appeals on June 24 “order[ed] the district court to grant the government’s Rule 48(a) motion to dismiss the charges against [General Michael] Flynn.” Quoting D.C. Circuit precedent, the court’s 2 to 1 majority opinion explains that “decisions to dismiss pending criminal charges—no less than decisions to
D.C. Circuit’s Flynn Ruling Restores Sanity To the Role of Amicus Curiae Read More »
It’s no surprise that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is anti-pesticide activists’ favorite appellate court. On June 3, for example, a three-judge Ninth Circuit panel issued an opinion that second-guesses—and vacates—U.S. EPA’s 2018 renewal of the conditional registrations for dicamba, a herbicide that farmers use to produce tens of millions of
9th Circuit Herbicide Decision Is Stuck In the Weeds Read More »
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) appears to be acting responsibly in connection with pesticidal products that falsely claim to kill or prevent the spread of coronavirus on inanimate surfaces such as countertops, bathroom fixtures, and door handles. EPA—which regulates the labeling, sale, and use of surface disinfectants— recently announced that it has been “receiving
EPA Issues COVID-19 Advisory About False & Misleading Disinfectant Claims Read More »
LAW 360 PUBLISHED THE FOLLOWING OP-ED ON MAY 20, 2020 UNDER THE TITLE “FLYNN JUDGE SHOULD NOT CHANGE ROLE OF AMICUS CURIAE,” AND IS POSTED HERE WITH PERMISSION Law360 (May 20, 2020, 5:50 PM EDT) — As I wrote last week [Law360, May 15, 2020], U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan’s May 13 appointment of
Flynn Case “Friend” Cannot Act As 11th-Hour Prosecutorial Intermeddler Read More »
Law 360 published the following Expert Analysis on May 15, 2020 under the title “With Friends Like These: The Amicus Questions In Flynn Case,” and is posted here with permission. Law360 (May 15, 2020, 6:36 PM EDT) — Most Law360 readers are familiar with amicus curiae, or “friend of the court,” briefs, especially at the
The Flynn Case Doesn’t Need “Friends” Like These Read More »
Reprinted from Washington Legal Foundation’s Legal Pulse (April 22, 2020) Last Fall I wrote a Legal Backgrounder for Washington Legal Foundation, The Fuss Over Stare Decisis, that highlighted several October Term 2019 Supreme Court decisions in which the Justices’ debated the criteria for overturning precedent. As the April 20 decision in Ramos v. Louisiana, No. 18-5924, makes clear, the
Supreme Court Justices Continue to Debate When to Overturn “Bad” Precedent Read More »
