cert petition – Page 41

Native Village of Kivalina v. ExxonMobile Cert Petition

March 14, 2013Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Here:

Native Village of Kivalina Cert Petition

Question presented:

Petitioners Native Village of Kivalina and the City of Kivalina, a federally-recognized tribe and an Alaskan municipality, are the governing bodies of an Inupiat village located on an Arctic barrier island that is being destroyed by global warming. Greenhouse gases have caused the Earth’s temperature to rise, especially in the Arctic, which has melted the land-fast sea ice that protects the village from powerful oceanic storms. Kivalina is thus now exposed to erosion and flooding from the sea and must relocate or face imminent destruction.

Petitioners seek damages — not injunctive relief–from the largest U.S. sources of greenhouses gases under the federal common law of public nuisance. In American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut (“AEP”), 131 S. Ct. 2527 (2011), the Court dismissed a federal common law claim for injunctive relief, holding that the Clean Air Act displaces “any federal common law right to seek abatement” of emissions because the Clean Air Act “provides a means to seek limits on emissions [2] of carbon dioxide from domestic power plants — the same relief the plaintiffs seek by invoking federal common law.” AEP, 131 S. Ct. at 2537, 2538 (emphasis added).

The question presented is: Whether the Clean Air Act, which provides no damages remedy to persons harmed by greenhouse gas emissions, displaces federal common-law claims for damages.

Lower court materials here.

Cert Stage Briefing Complete in New 49er’s v. Karuk Tribe

February 25, 2013Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here, from SCOTUSblog. The case is set for Conference on March 15, 2013.

Lower court materials here (case formerly captioned as Karuk Tribe of California v. USFS). Previous post here.

Supreme Court Asks for Views of Solicitor General in Oneida Reservation Case

February 19, 2013February 19, 2013Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Today’s order list here.

This is a probably a disappointment for the petitioners — it would be a major surprise if the SG recommends a grant.

The Horrific Story of Printing One’s Own Supreme Court Cert Petition

February 19, 2013February 19, 2013Matthew L.M. Fletcher3 Comments

Funny story, with this serious coda:

In the end, I spent $200 on equipment, around $20 on gas, probably another $20 on electricity (since laser printing is very energy intensive), $300 on the official fee, $95 on fancy paper, $26 on binding, and $24 on postage. Then I sold the LaserJet 5000N for $175 and bought a LaserJet 9050dn (worth nearly $4,000) for $280. My total costs therefore came to about $790, of which $490 was spent preparing the booklets. (I won’t include the expense of Microsoft Word, Adobe InDesign, or the years spent acquiring desktop publishing skills because I already had all of those things, unlike the other ingredients in this crazy soup.) So I basically saved myself up to $1,410, or 75% of the quoted expense.

I also couldn’t help but to use the brief itself to make a point to the Court about their Rule. Despite the strong suggestion that one ask the Court to answer no more than three questions, I added a fourth to my Petition: “WHETHER, this Court’s Rules regarding document submission (e.g. Rule 33.1) and the various conflicting rules of lower courts serve the interests of justice in an age of instantaneous and costless information transmission over the internet.” It’s extremely doubtful that the Court will actually answer it.

Clearly, the Rule begs many questions. How can the Supreme Court reasonably expect people to file if they are not incredibly wealthy or already professional printers? Why are the dimensions required so unusual? Who cut their hand on a staple? How much does it cost the Court to process documents in this manner, and how much would using an electronic process save? And most fundamentally, if this abject nonsense is typical of the justice system at the highest levels, why do we place our trust in it at all?

Supreme Court Conference to Consider Madison County v. Oneida Indian Nation Petition TODAY

February 15, 2013Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here, from SCOTUSblog, are the briefs.

We may know this afternoon if the Court grants the petition.

How about a little poll to gauge the likelihood of a grant?

Turtle Talk Presents … Random Brief Day

February 15, 2013Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Not much going on, so how about a few random briefs?

Here’s a brief from the State of Arizona in the Arizona COA defending a decision to deny state unemployment benefits to a former Navajo Nation elected official who is unemployed after losing an election (Robbins v. Arizona Dept. of Economic Security):

Arizona Brief

And here’s a SCT cert petition from a North Carolina company alleging that the state’s ban on a form of gaming advertisements are violative of the First Amendment (Sandhill Amusements Inc. v. North Carolina):

Sandhill Cert Petition