The US Supreme Court released orders Friday and Monday after its September “long conference.” The court granted certiorari for 12 cases Friday and two cases Monday for its Winter term, to be argued in January or February.
All cases listed in Friday’s order were granted certiorari. The accepted cases include:
- Moody v. Netchoice;
- Netchoice v. Paxton;
- Smith v. Arizona;
- Devillier v. Texas;
- Corner Post, Inc. v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System;
- Sheetz v. County of El Dorado, California;
- Warner Chappell Music, Inc. v. Nealy;
- Macquarie Infrastructure Corp. v. Moab Partners, L.P.;
- FBI v. Fikre;
- Office of the United States Trustee v. John Q. Hammons Fall 2006, LLC;
- McIntosh v. US; and
- Bissonnette v. LePage Bakeries Park St., LLC.
Of particular note among those granted certiorari is FBI v. Fikre, a case brought by an Oregon man who claims that he was put back on the “No-Fly List” even after government officials agreed to remove him and not put him back on. The FBI argued before a federal appeals court that the case is moot, as the FBI issued a declaration stating that Fikre will not be put back on the list “based on currently available information.” However, the appeals court found that the case was not moot and that Fikre had the right to continue the case under the voluntary cessation doctrine, as the FBI had neither admitted to wrongfully putting Fikre on the list nor made any policy changes.
Another notable case is Corner Post, Inc. v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, which deals with when the legally mandated six-year statute of limitations on challenging a federal agency action begins to run. The case surrounds a truck stop in North Dakota that wants to challenge a 2011 Federal Reserve Rule that caps credit card processing fees. While it has been more than six years since the issuance of the rule, the company that owns the trucks stop argues that the clock should start upon injury to the plaintiff party, as the company did not form until 2018.
Finally, the court has decided to take up the controversial Texas and Florida Netchoice cases: Moody v. Netchoice and Netchoice v. Paxton. The Netchoice cases surround constitutionality of state laws in Florida and Texas that regulate who social media platforms can and cannot ban and what kinds of social media posts can and cannot be banned. Several social media conglomerates under the banners of industry groups Netchoice and the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) challenged the laws, claiming they violated the social media platforms’ right to free speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution.
The Monday order was far lengthier, with only two cases being granted certiorari and over a hundred petitions of certiorari denied. The court also granted dozens of procedural orders in other ongoing cases. The two cases that were granted certiorari were Ovante v. Arizona and Ayala Chapa v. Garland. Ovante is a capital offense case, meaning the petitioner has been convicted of a capital offense and was sentenced to execution, and Ayala Chapa is an appeal of a removal order issued during immigration court proceedings.
The court notably decided not to hear cases surrounding former President Donalds Trump’s alleged ineligibility to run for president under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, undercover recordings by anti-abortion activists and allegedly frivolous claims of election fraud during the 2020 presidential elections.
