The Supreme Court affirmed the D.C. Circuit in three out of the four cases it heard during the term that ended last Thursday. Two of the three opinions the high court affirmed were authored by Judge Ginsburg, who took senior status in October.
The D.C. Circuit’s 75% affirmance rate was higher than that of all other federal courts except for the Fourth and Fifth Circuits, which the Supreme Court affirmed in every case (two and three cases respectively).
The four D.C. Circuit cases of the Supreme Court’s October 2011 term were:
- United States v. Maynard, No. 08-3030 (D.C. Cir. Aug. 6, 2010) (Ginsburg, J., joined by Tatel & Griffith, JJ.), reh’g en banc denied sub nom. United States v. Jones, No. 08-3034 (Ginsburg, Tatel, & Griffith, JJ. concurring; Sentelle, C.J., joined by Henderson, Brown, & Kavanaugh, JJ., dissenting; and Kavanaugh, J., dissenting), aff’d sub nom. United States v. Jones, No. 10-1259 (S. Ct. Jan. 23, 2012) (Scalia, J.) (9-0);
- Mohamad v. Rajoub, No. 09-7109 (D.C. Cir. Mar. 18, 2011) (Ginsburg, J., joined by Tatel & Garland, JJ.), aff’d sub nom. Mohamad v. Palestinian Auth., No. 11-88 (S. Ct. Apr. 18, 2012) (Sotomayor) (9-0);
- Zivotofsky v. Sec. of State, No. 07-5347 (D.C. Cir. July 10, 2009) (Griffith, J., joined by Edwards, S.J., with Williams, S.J, concurring in the judgment), reh’g en banc denied, No. 07-5347 (June 29, 2010) (Edwards, S.J., dissenting), rev’d sub nom. Zivotofsky v. Clinton, No. 10-699 (S. Ct. Mar. 26, 2012) (Roberts, C.J.) (8-1); and
- Patchak v. Salazar, No. 09-5324, 632 F.3d 702 (D.C. Cir. Jan. 21, 2011) (Randolph, S.J., joined by Henderson & Griffith, JJ.), aff’d sub. nom. Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band v. Patchak, No. 11-246 (S. Ct. June 18, 2012) (Kagan, J.) (8-1).
But see:
- Intermountain Ins. Serv. of Vail, LLC, v. Comm’r, No. 10-1204 (D.C. Cir. June 21, 2011, amended Aug. 18, 2011) (Tatel, J., joined by Sentelle, C.J., & Randolph, S.J.), granted, vacated, and remanded in light of United States v. Home Concrete & Supply, LLC, No. 11-139 (S. Ct. Apr. 25, 2012) (Breyer, J.) (5-4).
(H/T: Kedar Bhatia, Final October Term 2011 Stat Pack and Summary Memo, SCOTUSblog (Jun. 30, 2012))
