Unauthorized Immigrants in the Census, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, and More on the Supreme Court’s December Docket

What's the story?

• The Supreme Court convenes for its December argument session on Monday, November 30th. The December session will be headlined by cases involving the Trump administration’s efforts to exclude unauthorized immigrants from the Census for the purposes of congressional apportionment, and a pair of cases related to immunities for foreign governments.
• The Court was scheduled to hear a case involving whether secret grand jury materials from the Mueller investigation can be turned over to the House Judiciary Committee, and if an impeachment trial constitutes a “judicial proceeding” that warrants an exception to the rule of grand jury secrecy. House Democrats asked that the arguments be postponed after election results came in, as the case may be mooted by the outcome. 
• In addition to the cases on the agenda, the Court may hear emergency petitions in additional cases. Here’s a look at the Court’s schedule so far.

What’s on the docket?

Monday, November 30th

• Trump v. New York concerns the Trump administration’s plan to exclude unauthorized immigrants from the state-by-state breakdown of apportionment data used to allocate seats in the House of Representatives. 
• Van Buren v. U.S. has to do with whether it’s a federal crime for a person who has permission to access information on a computer to access it for an improper purpose.

Tuesday, December 1st

• Nestle USA, Inc. v. Doe (consolidated with Cargill, inc. v. Doe) deals with whether foreigners can sue U.S.-based corporations under the Alien Tort Statute alleging violations of international human rights laws.
• CIC Services, LLC v. IRS concerns whether legal challenges against the Internal Revenue Service’s reporting and information-gathering mandates are banned under the Anti-Injunction Act when the violation of those mandates carries tax penalties.

Wednesday, December 2nd

• Edwards v. Vannoy addresses whether the Supreme Court’s decision in Ramos v. Louisiana, which held that the Sixth Amendment establishes a right to a unanimous jury in both federal and state courts, applies retroactively to cases that have already been finalized. 

Monday, December 7th

• Hungary v. Simon deals with whether a federal district court can hear a case brought by former Hungarian nationals against the Republic of Hungary to recover the value of property they lost in World War II under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act when the plaintiffs haven’t sought relief in Hungary first.
• Germany v. Philipp concerns the “expropriation exception” to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which is applicable when “right in property taken in violation of international law are in issue,” applies to a lawsuit claiming a foreign country seized property belonging to its own citizens.

Tuesday, December 8th

• Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid concerns the federal definition of an autodialer, and whether it covers devices which can store and automatically dial phone numbers without the use of a random number generator.
• Henry Schein, Inc. v. Archer & White Sales, Inc. deals with whether an arbitration agreement can carve out some claims from arbitration without negating the delegation of questions of arbitrability to an arbitrator. 

Wednesday, December 9th

• Collins v. Mnuchin (consolidated with Mnuchin v. Collins) concerns the constitutionality of the leadership structure of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and whether shareholders in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can challenge an agreement between the FHFA and the Treasury Dept. relating to the federal bailout of Fannie and Freddie.

— Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: iStock.com / tomwachs)