Belatedly, here are the summaries of last week’s decisions. Yesterday’s unsealed opinion in United States v. Trump will await a future post.  Both decisions from last week come in lawsuits against Attorney General Garland relating to matters that have been in the news. The first, Langeman v. Garland, concerns the FBI’s decision to terminate Michael […]

Last week, the D.C. Circuit issued one holdover opinion in Blassingame v. Trump.  The panel (Srinivasan, Katsas, Rogers) originally heard argument in December 2022. In Blassingame, the panel confronted the question whether former President Trump was “absolutely immune” from a suit for damages for actions leading up to and on January 6.  Chief Judge Srinivasan’s […]

The D.C. Circuit did not publish any opinions for the week of November 20th. There were, however, oral arguments in United States v. Trump, which has been widely covered in the news media, United States v. Kerrick, a criminal sentencing case, and National Security Archive v. CIA, which concerns access to government records and involved […]

We’re still in the quiet period of the term, with just one opinion issued this past week. It’s another holdover from last term (argued over a year ago). I believe there has been only one published opinion released so far for cases actually argued this term – a decision in an NLRB case about bargaining […]

The D. C. Circuit issued no opinions last week, but gathered en banc in the Ceremonial Courtroom of the U. S. Courthouse in D. C. on November 3 for the investiture of its newest member, Judge Bradley N. Garcia. I cannot report objectively on this matter because Judge Garcia clerked for me back-in-the day, which, as […]

The D.C. Circuit didn’t release any opinions during the week of October 23–27. Since there weren’t any opinions to recap, I thought I would highlight one of my favorite passages from the Federalist No. 1, which was published 236 years ago on October 27, 1787. In that paper, Alexander Hamilton recognized that the Constitution would […]

The D.C. Circuit issued one opinion last week in United States v. Robertson.  The case was argued on May 11, so the decision is apparently a rare holdover from last term, but it is no surprise that the 45-page majority (Pan, joined by Pillard) and 34-page dissent (Henderson) spilled over into the 2023 term. Robertson […]

It was a pretty quiet week at the D.C. Circuit this past week. No opinions (which is fairly typical for early fall), and not many arguments. Two days of sittings, three cases each, and only two of them were squarely in the admin law lane (three if you include a FOIA case). Which got me […]

For weeks during which the D. C. Circuit issues no opinions, some of the contributors to this forum have used the occasion to describe some aspect of the history, work, or culture of the D. C. Circuit. This is such a week because the D. C. Circuit issued no opinion, but it did meet for […]

Last week was a quiet one at the D.C. Circuit. No new opinions at all, but the Court corrected an opinion it issued in July. Hyland Hunt provides a thorough summary of the decision, Advanced Energy United v. FERC, here. Among other things, the Court held that petitioners’ rehearing petition was untimely. In doing so, […]

Last week, the D.C. Circuit issued two administrative-law opinions and unsealed an opinion regarding the FBI’s investigation into Representative Scott Perry’s cell phone. You can find the unsealed opinion here and summaries of the administrative-law opinions below. In American Society for Testing and Materials v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc., the D.C. Circuit considered how the Copyright Act […]

When I served on the D. C. Circuit, the hoped-for deadline to issue opinions was three months after oral argument. That is a deadline I’m not certain that I ever met! Frequently late summer releases involve opinions that, for one reason or another, have proven vexing to write. Their releases are met with sighs of […]

The summer gush of opinions that my fellow bloggers have been reviewing appears to have slowed down to a trickle as we head into the last week of August. Only one opinion this week, and it’s antitrust … though I suppose we can call it admin-law-adjacent because the (unsuccessful) antitrust claim was brought by the […]

The D.C. Circuit issued nine (!) opinions last week, including cases involving selective prosecution under § 1983, the sentencing of a January 6 defendant, and . . . another FERC case. Frederick Douglass Foundation, Inc. v. DC (Wilkins [concurring in judgment], Rao, Childs):  Appellant alleges that the District of Columbia violated the First and Fifth Amendment […]

Benjamin Franklin famously observed that “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Equally inevitable in federal litigation: jurisdictional tussles. Last week’s decisions feature a range of jurisdictional disputes: primary jurisdiction, statutory jurisdiction, standing, and sovereign immunity. We also encounter a perennial tax question. In Fairless Energy v. FERC, […]