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Estate of Earnest Lee Boyland, et al. v. Department of Agriculture, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, No. 17-5082 · judgment January 15, 2019

Certiorari denied · January 21, 2020
Pre-decision estimate: 4% cert probability

Before the decision, roughly the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for a D.C. Circuit decision below and a circuit split argued in the petition.

Questions presented

Is it a denial of Equal Protection for the United States Department of Agriculture ("USDA" or "the Department") and Epiq Class Action & Claims Solutions, Inc. ("Epiq"), to afford women and Hispanic claimants access to a remedial claims framework, but bar ,as a threshold matter, access to this claims framework claims by Black male farmers solely due to race and gender in light of the strictest scrutiny to which racial classifications are subject and this Honorable Supreme Court's recent decisions concerning the Government's use of race in the following cases:

  1. Department of Commerce, et al. v. New York, No. 18-966, June 27, 2019, 588 U.S. ___(2019) which states an agency's stated reason for acting on racial grounds may be rejected by a Court on a strong showing of bad faith or improper behavior and may justify extra-record discovery.

  2. Rucho v. Common Cause, et al., No. 18-422, June 27, 2019, 588 U.S.__(2019) which states in light "our country's long and persistent history of racial discrimination…as well as our Fourteenth Amendment jurisprudence

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Paul A Robinson Jr.
Law Office of Paul A. Robinson, Jr.

For respondent
Noel John Francisco
Jones Day

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Proceedings

  1. Jan 21 2020
    Petition DENIED. Justice Kavanaugh took no part in the consideration or decision of this petition.
  2. Dec 30 2019
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/17/2020.
  3. Dec 19 2019
    Waiver of right of respondent United States Department of Agriculture, et al. to respond filed.
  4. Jul 23 2019
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due December 18, 2019)