Last Month at the Supreme Court | February 2024

The February 2024 edition of Last Month at the Supreme Court examines challenges to the Chevron doctrine requiring judicial deference to agency interpretations of statutes, the Colorado ballot dispute, and private enforcement of SEC “Item 303” fraud. We will also cover the Sixth Amendment Confrontation Clause and two cases involving the Takings Clause.

Supreme Court to Consider Overruling Chevron Deference

In both Relentless, Inc. v. Dept. of Commerce and Loper Bright Enterprises, Inc. v. Raimondo, Sec. of Commerce, the Supreme Court is tasked with deciding whether to overrule Chevron, U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.—a 1984 decision that provides for judicial deference to federal agencies when interpreting ambiguous statutory provisions they are charged with administering. Read the full synopsis here.  

Supreme Court Grants Review of Former President Trump’s Effort to Remain on Colorado Ballot

Many are wondering how a “long shot” lawsuit went from a state courtroom in Denver to the United States Supreme Court in a matter of months. On January 5, the Supreme Court agreed to review a ruling by a Colorado court that declared former President Donald Trump ineligible to be a presidential candidate for the upcoming 2024 election. Based on a Colorado trial court’s findings of the former President’s alleged role in the January 6, 2021 events at the U.S. Capitol, the state high court ruled that his name may not appear on the state’s ballot and that any votes recorded in writing for him may not be counted. The Justices issued an unsigned order granting a petition for review filed by the former President and heard oral argument on February 8. Read the full synopsis here.

Supreme Court Hears Takings Clause Case

In Devillier v. Texas, the Court considers whether a party can sue a state directly under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment. Read the full synopsis here.

Supreme Court Reviews “Unconstitutional-Conditions” Doctrine in Permit Exactions Context

In Sheetz v. County of El Dorado, the Supreme Court will decide whether legislative enactments are categorically considered unconstitutional conditions under the Takings Clause. The Petitioner, George Sheetz, applied for a permit to construct a manufactured house on his property in El Dorado County, California. The County’s regulations required him to pay $23,420 as a condition for obtaining the permit. This payment was meant to fund road improvements, even though there was no individualized assessment demonstrating an “essential nexus” and “rough proportionality” between the payment and the expected adverse public impacts of his relatively small-scale project. These legal standards were established in the cases of Nollan v. Cal. Coastal Comm’n, 483 U.S. 825, 837 (1987), and Dolan v. City of Tigard, 512 U.S. 374, 391 (1994). Read the full synopsis here.

Supreme Court Weighs Private Actions Under Securities Exchange Act

SEC Regulation S-K, Item 303, requires issuers to identify in SEC filings “any known trends or uncertainties that have had or that are reasonably likely to have a material favorable or unfavorable impact on net sales or revenues or income from continuing operations.” The Supreme Court, in Macquarie Infrastructure Corp. v. Moab Partners, L.P., will determine if that provision allows a private right of action.  Most circuits hold that Item 303 does not support a private right of action, but the Second Circuit recently broke out from the pack to hold that it does. Read the full synopsis here.

Supreme Court Dissects Sixth Amendment Rules of Evidence

In Smith v. Arizona, the Supreme Court dives into whether the Sixth Amendment’s Confrontation Clause allows the prosecution in a criminal trial to present testimony of an expert conveying the testimonial statements of a non-testifying expert.  The question is whether the testimony is valid as an independent opinion and whether the non-testifying expert’s statements are not offered for their truth but to explain the testifying expert’s opinion. Read the full synopsis here.

For more information, please contact Chantel Febus, James Azadian, David Schenck, Cory Webster, Christopher Sakauye, McKenna Crisp, Monika Harris, or Puja Valera.