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Roxann J. Franklin-Mason v. United States

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, No. 2016-1985 · judgment July 14, 2017


Certiorari denied · April 30, 2018
Pre-decision estimate: 7% cert probability (95% interval 4%–11%)

Before the decision, about 1.6× the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for a circuit split argued in the petition, a dissent in the court below (flagged in the petition), and a Federal Circuit decision below.

Questions presented

  1. Whether the Court should exercise its power of supervisory review to resolve the circuit split created by Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 36, which allows a minority of circuit courts to issue one-word affirmances of district court opinions without any explanation of the basis for the affirmance?

  2. Whether the circuit split created by Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 36, which allows a minority of circuit courts to issue unexplained judgments, violates the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution by denying meaningful appellate review to a class of litigants based solely on the random accident of geography?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Aderson B. Francois
Georgetown University Law Center

For respondent
Noel John Francisco
Jones Day

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Linked docket
17A669

Proceedings

  1. Apr 30 2018
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Apr 11 2018
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 4/27/2018.
  3. Apr 02 2018
    Waiver of right of respondent United States to respond filed.
  4. Mar 05 2018
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due April 6, 2018)
  5. Dec 22 2017
    Application (17A669) granted by The Chief Justice extending the time to file until March 3, 2018.
  6. Dec 21 2017
    Application (17A669) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from January 2, 2018 to March 3, 2018, submitted to The Chief Justice.