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South Carolina v. United States, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, No. 18-1684 · judgment January 8, 2019


Certiorari denied · October 15, 2019
Pre-decision estimate: 4% cert probability

Before the decision, roughly 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 Fourth Circuit decision below.

Question presented

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) shipped massive amounts of weapons-grade plutonium to South Carolina for a decade in anticipation of building a facility there—the “MOX Facility”—to process it. After running way behind schedule and far over budget, DOE sought to mothball the still-uncompleted MOX Facility. In response, Congress enacted a statute requiring DOE to keep building the MOX Facility unless DOE gets a “waiver” of that requirement. This lawsuit arose from DOE’s decision to halt construction of the MOX Facility permanently after purportedly satisfying the statute’s requirements for a waiver. South Carolina claims in this suit that DOE’s decision violates the statute, which was specifically designed to protect South Carolina’s interests, and the National Environmental Policy Act. The question presented is whether the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit erred in holding that South Carolina lacked standing to challenge the DOE’s final action and that the challenge is not ripe.

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Randolph Russell Lowell
Willoughby & Hoefer, PA

For respondent
Noel John Francisco
Jones Day

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Amicus briefs
1 cert-stage

Linked docket
18A991

Proceedings

  1. Oct 15 2019
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Sep 25 2019
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 10/11/2019.
  3. Sep 24 2019
    Reply of petitioner State of South Carolina filed. (Distributed)
  4. Sep 11 2019
    Brief of respondent United States of America, et al. in opposition filed.
  5. Aug 05 2019
    Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is further extended to and including September 11, 2019.
  6. Aug 02 2019
    Motion to extend the time to file a response from August 12, 2019 to September 11, 2019, submitted to The Clerk.
  7. Jul 11 2019
    Brief amicus curiae of United States Senator Lindsey Graham filed.
  8. Jul 05 2019
    Motion to extend the time to file a response from July 11, 2019 to August 12, 2019, submitted to The Clerk.
  9. Jul 05 2019
    Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including August 12, 2019.
  10. Jun 07 2019
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due July 11, 2019)
  11. Mar 29 2019
    Application (18A991) granted by The Chief Justice extending the time to file until June 7, 2019.
  12. Mar 28 2019
    Application (18A991) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from April 8, 2019 to June 7, 2019, submitted to The Chief Justice.