Petitions of the week

Issues: (1) Whether the Constitution permits the court-martial of a retired military service member; and (2) whether, if so, the Constitution limits the jurisdiction of courts-martial in such cases to offenses that are related to the retiree’s military status.

Issues: (1) Whether Title X of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act violates the Constitution’s separation of powers by creating the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection as an independent agency that exercises expansive executive authority over private citizens but is led by a single director that the president cannot remove from office for policy reasons, is exempted from Congress’ power of the purse and accompanying congressional oversight, and has no internal checks or balances (such as those afforded by a deliberate multi-member commission structure) to mitigate this lack of accountability and restraint; (2) whether Humphrey’s Executor v. United States should be overturned; and (3) whether the appropriations clause, in conjunction with the Constitution’s separation of powers, permits Congress to create perpetual, on-demand funding streams for executive agencies that are unreviewably drawn from the coffers of other independent agencies.

Issue: Whether the Supreme Court should resolve a conflict among the courts of appeals over the correct legal standard for determining whether a lien is a “statutory lien” under the Bankruptcy Code.

Issue: Whether, under the Patent Act, an “offer[] to sell” occurs when the offer is actually made or when the offer contemplates that the proposed sale will take place.