Actions at the Court
on Aug 22, 2006 at 2:55 pm
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on Tuesday denied without comment a request to delay a federal appeals court order that threatens to shut down part of the television re-broadcast business of the DISH satellite television network. Thomas acted without awaiting a response to the application for a stay pending an appeal to the Supreme Court.
EchoStar Communications Corp.,which operates the DISH Network, contended in its application (06-A-198) that it faced a potentially “staggering” loss of re-broadcast rights under a ruling by the Eleventh Circuit Court in May. In an eight-year-old case, EchoStar had been sued by the major commercial television networks claiming that DISH was re-broadcasting their copyrighted TV programming to individual consumers not eligible to receive such shows under federal satellie TV law. EchoStar had settled with all of the networks except Fox.
In a second mid-summer order issued at the Court Tuesday, Justice Antonin Scalia temporarily delayed a Fifth Circuit Court ruling that would require a manufacturer of women’s accessories to pay $3.5 million in trebled damages for allegedly fixing minimum prices on its merchandise sold by a women’s clothing store in Lewisville, Texas. The manufacturer is Leegin Creative Leather Products, which markets its goods under the brand name “Brighton.” It was sued under antitrust law by PSKS, Inc., which does business as Kay’s Kloset in the Texas community. The Eleventh Circuit, in an unpublished decision March 20, applied the per se liability rule, rather than the rule of reason, in upholding the damages verdict. The application to Scalia was 06-A-179, filed after the Circuit Court refused a stay. Leegin’s application sought a stay pending final action by the Supreme Court on a coming appeal.
Scalia stayed the lower court ruling pending a response from PSKS. That response has now been filed, so a further order by Scalia can be expected.
The case is discussed here on the Antitrust Law blog.
