On November 1, 2010, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Ortiz v. Jordan on the issue of whether a party may appeal an order denying summary judgment after a full trial on the merits if the party chose not to appeal the order before trial. The Court took the case in order to resolve a circuit split which originated from an earlier decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The Court unanimously ruled in January 2011 that a party in a federal civil case may not appeal a denial of a motion for summary judgment after a full trial has been conducted in district court.

Learn more about the US Supreme Court and the laws governing summary judgments from the JURIST news archive.