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Joseph Smith, et al. v. Pamela Motley, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, No. 18-15171 · judgment August 22, 2019


Certiorari denied · February 24, 2020
Pre-decision estimate: 1% cert probability

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

Question presented

Under existing Ninth Circuit and United States Supreme Court authority, a plaintiff can establish an Equal Protection Clause violation in the context of discriminatory policing by presenting either a statistical analysis showing a disparity in the treatment of disfavored and non-disfavored groups or evidence of instances in which the government treated similarly situated individuals differently, allowing for an inference that this disparity resulted from invidious discrimination. May plaintiffs meet their burden of establishing an Equal Protection Clause violation by a third method, where the plaintiffs have only anecdotal evidence of how the government allegedly treated the disfavored group?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Scott William Davenport
Jones Mayer

For respondent
Kevin G. Little

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Proceedings

  1. Feb 24 2020
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Feb 05 2020
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 2/21/2020.
  3. Jan 30 2020
    Waiver of right of respondents Pamela Motley, et al. to respond filed.
  4. Jan 14 2020
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due February 18, 2020)