Supreme Court decisions for 1/14/20

Technically 2 decisions today, though one of those is more of a reverse punt. :smile: Neither one is high profile.

Held: A bankruptcy court’s order unreservedly denying relief from the
automatic stay constitutes a final, immediately appealable order under §158(a). Pp. 6–12.

Opinion by Justice Ginsburg for a unanimous court.

Issue : Whether Fifth Third Bancorp v. Dudenhoeffer ’s “more harm than good” pleading standard can be satisfied by generalized allegations that the harm of an inevitable disclosure of an alleged fraud generally increases over time.

This is a rather unusual manner of disposition of a case for the Supreme Court. The case was briefed and went for oral arguments on November 6, 2019. However, the question raised was never raised and argued before the Second Circuit. So the Supreme Court did not make a definitive holding in this case.

Instead, via an unsigned per curiam opinion, they vacated the judgement of the Second Circuit and remanded the case to the Second Circuit as to whether is is legally permissible to raise the question at all and if so to decide the question in the first instance. Justice Kagan wrote a separate concurrence joined by Justice Ginsburg. Justice Gorsuch wrote a separate concurrence.

There may be more decisions next week, hopefully something a bit more high profile.

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So wait, two unanimous decisions by the court?

Yep.

Can’t have exciting decisions all the time. :smile:

I am hoping that we will get a higher profile decision next Tuesday.

And even though many decision sound boring (and actually are boring), cases like the bankruptcy case above can have major implications nationwide, so they are worth mentioning.