Commercial Litigation Update

Our colleague Stuart Gerson of Epstein Becker Green has a new post on SCOTUS Today that will be of interest to our readers:  "Two Election-Related Decisions, Decided on Strict Ideological Grounds, Close Out the Term."

The following is an excerpt:

No harmony today. The Court has rendered two 6-3 decisions mirroring strong ideological divisions. In one, Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee, the Court was unmoved by allegations that two provisions of Arizona election law offended Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (“VRA”) and had resulted in disproportionate ...

Our colleague Stuart Gerson of Epstein Becker Green has a new post on SCOTUS Today that will be of interest to our readers: "Today, but a Few More Unusual Alliances."

The following is an excerpt:

Three decisions were released today, each showing a greater division of opinion than we’ve seen over the last several weeks. While one of the three, an immigration case, was decided across strict conservative/liberal reputational lines, the other two, yet again, were the result of unusual alliances of Justices expressing independent views of the law and jurisprudential process.

Our colleague Stuart Gerson of Epstein Becker Green has a new post on SCOTUS Today that will be of interest to our readers: "Two 'GVRs' Show Continued Restraint by the Justices."

The following is an excerpt:

The Court issued two per curiam opinions today, both of them granting cert., vacating the judgments below, and remanding the cases to a lower court for further factual inquiry, a procedure known colloquially as a “GVR.” Both of these unsigned opinions represent restraint, deferring to trial courts for factual findings and deferring reaching legal issues until it ...

Our colleague Stuart Gerson of Epstein Becker Green has a new post on SCOTUS Today that will be of interest to our readers: "More Unlikely Lineups."

The following is an excerpt:

Some critics might claim that the Justices are trying to prove something—that the unlikely alliances that they are forming are confined to narrowly drawn opinions issued to counter criticisms coming from the political arena that extra Justices should be appointed to the Court, or term limits should be imposed. It is, I suggest, clear enough that the Chief Justice is doing a masterful job of promoting ...

Our colleague Stuart Gerson of Epstein Becker Green has a new post on SCOTUS Today that will be of interest to our readers: “Surprising Consensus Under a Strong Chief Justice.”

The following is an excerpt:

A number of commentators, including myself, have been highlighting the apparent fact that under the strong leadership of the Chief Justice, the Supreme Court is exhibiting what, to many, has been surprising consensus in opinions, even in cases that are publicly controversial.

This has led to cases decided on narrow, fact-specific grounds, applying constitutional ...

Our colleague Stuart Gerson of Epstein Becker Green has a new post on SCOTUS Today that will be of interest to our readers: "Three More Cases Demonstrating Jurisprudential Reason, Not Politics."

The following is an excerpt:

Another busy day for the Court, which is no surprise given the short time remaining in the term and the number of opinions that yet have been published. If there is a distinguishing characteristic, it is the continued fracturing of the stereotype that the Justices act for political, not jurisprudential reason, and hence that there are immovable blocs of ...

Our colleague Stuart Gerson of Epstein Becker Green has a new post on SCOTUS Today that will be of interest to our readers: "The Court Upholds Obamacare, Yet Again, Takes a Broad View of Free Exercise and a Narrow View of Alien Tort Claims."

The following is an excerpt:

It is a commonplace that the decisions that are not published until the end of a Supreme Court term tend to be the ones presenting major public issues that sharply divide the Court.

At least two of the three cases in which opinions issued today, California v. Texas, involving the latest challenge to the ...

Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs released the Spring 2021 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions, which includes the SEC’s rulemaking agenda.

According to the SEC’s press release, notable proposed and final rulemaking areas include:

• Disclosure relating to climate risk, human capital, including workforce diversity and corporate board diversity, and cybersecurity risk
  Market structure modernization within equity markets, treasury markets, and other fixed income markets
• Transparency ...

Our colleague Stuart Gerson of Epstein Becker Green has a new post on SCOTUS Today that will be of interest to our readers: "Reflecting on Bostock."

The following is an excerpt:

From the number of rainbow flags that I’ve been seeing, it is clear that this is a month of celebration of increasing societal inclusion, notwithstanding the divisions that are challenging the rule of law in America. Indeed, today marks the first anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County in which, surprising to some, Justice Gorsuch wrote for the majority that an ...

Our colleague Stuart Gerson of Epstein Becker Green has a new post on SCOTUS Today that will be of interest to our readers: "Unanimity on Criminal Cases as We Wait for More Divisive Matters."

The following is an excerpt:

Not surprisingly, as the Court's term moves nearer to its end, we still are awaiting decisions in several controversial areas that are likely to produce divided results. Meanwhile, unanimity prevails, though the cases in which it is reflected are unlikely to foreshadow the results in other matters, except to the extent that I think all of them will devolve from ...