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SNR Wireless LicenseCo, LLC, et al. v. Federal Communications Commission, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, No. 15-1330, 15-1331, 15-1332, 15-1333 · judgment August 29, 2017

Certiorari denied · June 25, 2018

Pre-decision estimate: 7% cert probability (95% interval 4%–11%)

Before the decision, about 1.7× the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for a D.C. Circuit decision below, a dissent in the court below (flagged in the petition), and a business petitioner.

Question presented

This Court has held that agencies must provide regulated parties fair warning of the conduct a regulation prohibits or requires. Courts enforce that principle through the doctrine of “administrative fair notice.” The doctrine is an independent check on agency adjudication, preventing agencies from penalizing regulated parties for noncompliance with unclear agency standards. The circuits, however, have adopted divergent standards for administrative fair notice. Two circuits have adopted a lax standard, exemplified by the decision below, that notice is sufficient as long as a regulated party “should have anticipated” that the agency “might have” adopted the regulatory interpretation it did. But five circuits apply a more stringent standard, requiring administrative agencies to clearly and ascertainably announce their regulatory interpretations before applying them to regulated parties. The question presented is: What is the proper administrative fair notice standard? (i)

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Christopher J. Wright
HWG LLP

For respondent
Noel John Francisco
Jones Day

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Amicus briefs
1 cert-stage

Linked docket
17A544

Proceedings

Jun 25 2018
Petition DENIED.
Jun 05 2018
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 6/21/2018.
Jun 04 2018
Reply of petitioners SNR Wireless LicenseCo, et al. filed.
May 21 2018
Brief of respondents Federal Communications Commission, et al. in opposition filed.
Apr 20 2018
Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is further extended to and including May 21, 2018.
Apr 19 2018
Motion to extend the time to file a response from April 30, 2018 to May 21, 2018, submitted to The Clerk.
Mar 23 2018
Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is further extended to and including April 30, 2018.
Mar 22 2018
Motion to extend the time to file a response from March 30, 2018 to April 30, 2018, submitted to The Clerk.
Feb 27 2018
Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including March 30, 2018.
Feb 23 2018
Motion to extend the time to file a response from February 28, 2018 to March 30, 2018, submitted to The Clerk.
Feb 22 2018
Brief amicus curiae of Public Interest Organizations filed.
Jan 26 2018
Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due February 28, 2018)
Nov 21 2017
Application (17A544) granted by The Chief Justice extending the time to file until January 26, 2018.
Nov 15 2017
Application (17A544) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from November 27, 2017 to January 26, 2018, submitted to The Chief Justice.
Main Document