On June 30 the Supreme Court held in Biden v. Nebraska that the Biden Administration lacked authority under the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students (‘HEROES”) Act to cancel $ 430 billion in student loan debt held by 43 million borrowers. The 6 to 3 majority ruling, authored by Chief Justice Roberts, was correct as […]
Biden’s Student Debt Forgiveness Plan Was Unforgiveably Unconstitutional Read More »
Here’s a question that a law school student might find on a final exam: When can a State exercise “general personal jurisdiction” over a corporate defendant? Until this week, the answer seemed clear: only in a State where a company is incorporated or its principal place of business is located. But a new 5 to
Personal injury “failure-to-warn” suits long have been a well-accepted component of state tort law. Even failure-to-warn claims for intangible injuries such as emotional distress and reputational harm are allowed under certain circumstances. But what about the new frontier of Internet-based “informational injuries” allegedly sustained as a result of visiting business websites that allegedly fail to
ALF Files Supreme Court Amicus Brief In Internet “Informational Injury” Case Read More »
Petitioner Tyler, a 94 year-old woman, owed $15,000 in local property taxes and related penalties in connection with an abandoned condominium. In accordance with state tax-lien statutes, Hennepin County, Minnesota seized the property, sold it for $40,000, and retained the $25,000 surplus. The Eighth Circuit rejected Tyler’s contention that the County’s refusal to return the
ALF Brief Opposes Governmental “Home Equity Theft” Read More »
Almost all the 3 ½ hours of colloquy at the February 28, 2023 Supreme Court hearing on the student debt relief cases, Biden v. Nebraska, No. 22-506, and U.S. Department of Education v. Brown, No. 22-535, was devoted to two issues: (1) whether the plaintiff states and/or individuals have standing to challenge the debt cancellation
Is Mass Student Debt Cancellation Constitutional? Read More »
The Supreme Court on December 5 announced revisions to its rules—including elimination of the requirement that an amicus curiae obtain either the parties’ consent or the Court’s permission prior to filing its friend-of-the-court brief. “Deleting the consent requirement reflects how commonplace the filing of amicus briefs has become in the Supreme Court. The federal courts of appeals should follow
Supreme Court Ditches Amicus Consent Requirement Read More »
“Writing amicus curiae (‘friend of the court’) briefs is my favorite activity as an appellate lawyer,” Capital Appellate Advocacy founder and Atlantic Legal Foundation Executive Vice President & General Counsel Larry Ebner explains at the beginning of his recent article, How To Draft An Amicus Brief That Actually Gets Read. Published by the Federation of Defense & Corporate Counsel in
How To Draft An Amicus Brief That Actually Gets Read Read More »
The certiorari petition in Glenhaven Healthcare LLC v. Saldana, No. 22-192, presents an important and frequently recurring question that has enormous implications for public health as well as civil justice: Whether COVID-19-related personal-injury and wrongful-death suits, which implicate the immunity-from-suit-and-liability provision and additional legal protections expressly afforded to healthcare facilities and workers by the Public Readiness and
On behalf of the Atlantic Legal Foundation (ALF), I have filed a merits-stage amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to hold in Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Ry. Co., No. 21-1168, that a nonresident corporation cannot be subjected to a State’s general jurisdiction merely because, as required by the State, it registers to do business. This is
Law360 has published my sharply critical Expert Analysis of the amicus brief that the U.S. Solicitor General recently submitted to the Supreme Court in Monsanto Co. v. Hardeman, No. 21-241. My analysis explains that – “From the perspective of product liability defense attorneys, the brief from the solicitor general is a transparently partisan, short-sighted effort to
Justices Should Give Feds’ Roundup Amicus Little Weight Read More »
