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Joseph Ferrari v. United States, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, No. 20-36071 · judgment November 12, 2021

Certiorari denied · May 23, 2022
Pre-decision estimate: 5% cert probability

Before the decision, roughly the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for a Ninth Circuit decision below, a circuit split argued in the petition, and counsel who has filed here before.

Questions presented

  1. Is lying by a US employee to undermine the boss outside the scope of employment and therefore prevents US substitution into a suit for the liar and the granting of the liar the US’s immunity from suit?

  2. Should the Feres doctrine immunity be changed to exclude this protection for intentional, malicious liars, thus guaranteeing due process protections for victims of liars in their suits?

  3. Are the federal courts bound by the decision of the highest level of review in the military, precluding an evidentiary hearing under Westfall and Feres?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
William C. Budigan
Budigan Law Firm

For respondent
Elizabeth B. Prelogar
Solicitor General

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Proceedings

  1. May 23 2022
    Petition DENIED.
  2. May 03 2022
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 5/19/2022.
  3. Apr 25 2022
    Waiver of right of respondent United States to respond filed.
    Main Document
  4. Mar 22 2022
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due April 25, 2022)
    PetitionAppendixCertificate of Word CountProof of Service