Petitions of the week
on Feb 14, 2019 at 10:05 am
This week we highlight petitions pending before the Supreme Court that address, among other things, the availability of tribal sovereign immunity in inter partes review, a probate-estate beneficiary’s ability to establish a direct injury for a RICO claim in certain circumstances, and the state subsidies pre-empted by the Federal Power Act.
The petitions of the week are:
Issues: (1) Whether the beneficiary of a probate estate can establish the direct injury necessary to bring a civil RICO claim when the alleged RICO violation harms the estate as a whole and any impact on beneficiaries of the estate is indirect and derivative; and (2) whether outside parties who are not members of the alleged RICO enterprise can nevertheless be liable under 18 U.S.C. 1962(c) when they are alleged only to have “assisted” or acted as “necessary tools” to a single RICO defendant in his own operation or management of the RICO enterprise.
Issue: Whether inter partes review before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board is the type of proceeding in which tribal sovereign immunity may be asserted.
Issue: Whether the Federal Power Act pre-empts only state subsidies that explicitly require a wholesale generator to sell its output in auctions approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or whether the Federal Power Act also pre-empts state subsidies that lack such an express requirement but that, by design, subsidize only generators that sell their entire output via such auctions, thereby achieving the same effect.
Issue: Whether the Federal Power Act pre-empts only state subsidies that explicitly require a wholesale generator to sell its output in auctions approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or whether the Federal Power Act also pre-empts state subsidies that lack such an express requirement but that, by design, subsidize only generators that sell their entire output via such auctions, thereby achieving the same effect.
