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Maritime Life Caribbean Limited v. United States

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, No. 17-10889 · judgment January 16, 2019

Certiorari denied · January 13, 2020
Pre-decision estimate: 3% cert probability

Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.

Question presented

Title 28, section 516, of the United States Code, vests the authority to litigate on behalf of the United States in the Department of Justice, under the supervision of the Attorney General. In turn, section 543 vests the Attorney General with the power to appoint attorneys to assist United States attorneys in the conduct of the litigation. The question presented is whether a district court’s usurpation of the Attorney General’s power to appoint a private attorney to represent the interests of the United States—over the United States’ objection—is subject to harmless error review.

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Michael Andrew Pollard
Baker McKenzie

For respondent
Noel John Francisco
Jones Day

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 2 conferences

Proceedings

  1. Jan 13 2020
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Dec 11 2019
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/10/2020.
  3. Dec 06 2019
    Reply of petitioner Maritime Life Caribbean Limited filed.
  4. Nov 22 2019
    Brief of respondent United States in opposition filed.
  5. Oct 07 2019
    Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is further extended to and including November 22, 2019.
  6. Oct 04 2019
    Motion to extend the time to file a response from October 23, 2019 to November 22, 2019, submitted to The Clerk.
  7. Sep 19 2019
    Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including October 23, 2019.
  8. Sep 18 2019
    Motion to extend the time to file a response from September 23, 2019 to October 23, 2019, submitted to The Clerk.
  9. Aug 23 2019
    Response Requested. (Due September 23, 2019)
  10. Jul 24 2019
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 10/1/2019.
  11. Jul 17 2019
    Waiver of right of respondent United States to respond filed.
  12. Jul 09 2019
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due August 12, 2019)