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Upcoming Invitation Briefs

Last week the Solicitor General filed this invitation brief recommending that certiorari be denied in No. 06-1398, AT&T Pension Benefit Plan v. Call, a case involving the standard of review for certain ERISA benefits determinations and the propriety of an award of prejudgment interest. The SG’s office is likely to file invitation briefs in at least a dozen additional cases in the coming weeks, including:

No. 06-1458, Geddes v. United Staffing Alliance Employee Medical Plan (CVSG 9/1/2007) (standard for judging denials of medical benefits by plan administrators)

No. 07-81, Exxon Mobil v. John Doe (CVSG 11/13/2007) (whether an immediate appeal may be filed if a federal judge refuses a federal government request to dismiss a case in U.S. courts against a foreign government)

No. 07-270, Board of Education of New York v. Gulino (CVSG 12/3/2007) (legal liability for using tests that are alleged to be racially discriminatory in determining the qualitifications of public school teachers)

No. 07-373, Clark County, Nev. v. Vacation Village (CVSG 1/7/2008) (whether federal law bars states from recognizing a property owner’s rights to compensation for use of navigable airspace up to 500 feet above the property)

No. 07-512, Pacific Bell v. LinkLine (CVSG 1/22/08) (whether a company that has no duty under antitrust law to sell to others at wholesale can be held liable for the narrow difference between its wholesale and retail price levels)

No. 07-539, Progress Energy v. Taylor (CVSG 1/14/2008) (Akin Gump for petitioner) (settling FMLA claims)

No. 07-543, AT&T v. Hulteen (CVSG 1/22/08) (Howe & Russell for respondents) (whether federal law requires an employer to set current pension benefits at a level that makes up for a denial of work credit that was legal when it occurred in the past)

No. 07-615, Ministry of Defense v. Elahi (CVSG 2/19/08) (whether U.S. courts can order a seizure of the assets in the U.S. of a foreign government accused of aiding terrorism, with the assets to be used to pay off a debt owed in the U.S.)

No. 07-618, Goss Int’l v. Tokyo Kikai Seisakusho (CVSG 2/19/2008) (whether a U.S. court can bar a company that loses a case and pays a money judgment from suing overseas to try to undo that judgment)

No. 07-619, PT Pertamina v. Karaha Bodas Co. (CVSG 2/19/2008) (foreign litigation and anti-suit injunctions)

No. 07-811, Morris v. Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, Inc. (CVSG 3/31/2008) (role that a law enforcement officer’s motive may play in deciding whether the officer has immunity to a legal claim)

No. 07-841, Amschwand v. Spherion Corp. (CVSG 3/3/2008) (whether a participant or beneficiary in an ERISA health benefits plan may sue for the insurance benefits that would have been available but for a violation of a plan administrator’s duty)

No. 07-8521, Harbison v. Bell (CVSG 3/3/2008) (attempt by a Tennessee death row inmate to get the aid of a federal public defender in state clemency proceedings)

Invitations are also pending in two other cases – No. 07-952, Denton v. Hyman, and No. 07-956, Biomedical Patent Corp. v. California Department of Health Services – but it is likely that briefs in those cases will not be filed until the fall (or later) because the invitations were not issued until April 21.

[Shameless request: If any of you receive invitation briefs in any of these cases, we’d greatly appreciate an electronic copy, as there is sometimes a lag between when they’re filed and when they show up on the SG’s website.]