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Shapour Motamedi, Shayan Motamedi, and Heriberto Moises Lopez v. United States

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, No. 20-10364, 20-10366, 20-10367 · judgment January 11, 2022


Certiorari denied · October 3, 2022
Pre-decision estimate: 3% cert probability

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

Questions presented

  1. Whether Congress, in crafting 42 U.S.C. § 1230a7b(b) and related provisions, violated Article I, § 1 of the United States Constitution by improperly vesting the Department of Health and Human Services with virtually unlimited discretion to determine which activities would be criminalized and which would not.

  2. Whether this Court should adopt—at least for legislation pursuant to which Congress delegates to an Executive agency the power to determine the scope of the criminal law—a more robust test to determine whether Congress’s delegation of rulemaking authority violates the separations-ofpowers principles embodied in Article I, § 1 of the United States Constitution.

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Raphael M. Goldman
Arguedas, Cassman, Headley & Goldman LLP

For respondent
Elizabeth B. Prelogar
Solicitor General

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Linked docket
21A708

Proceedings

  1. Oct 03 2022
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Jul 06 2022
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 9/28/2022.
  3. Jun 29 2022
    Waiver of right of respondent United States to respond filed.
  4. Jun 23 2022
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due July 27, 2022)
  5. May 11 2022
    Application (21A708) granted by Justice Kagan extending the time to file until June 23, 2022.
  6. May 09 2022
    Application (21A708) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from May 24, 2022 to June 23, 2022, submitted to Justice Kagan.