Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →
City of Palestine, Texas, et al. v. Union Pacific Railroad Company
Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, No. 21-40445 · judgment July 22, 2022
Before the decision, about 2× the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for a state or local-government petitioner, a Fifth Circuit decision below, and a circuit split argued in the petition, and down for a business respondent.
Question presented
Whether the Fifth Circuit erred in retroactively applying the preemption provisions of the Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act (ICCTA) to a railroad’s voluntarily assumed contractual obligations to a city and county, in conflict with precedent from other circuits. Specifically: Question 1: In upholding the District Court’s grant of summary judgment de novo, did the Fifth Circuit err in retroactively applying the preemption provisions of the ICCTA in conflict with Eighth and Ninth Circuit precedent? Question 2: Did the Fifth Circuit err in its analysis of Union Pacific’s voluntary decision to assume the obligations contained in the 1954 agreement, in conflict with Fourth Circuit precedent?
Counsel of record
For petitioner
James P. Allison
Allison, Bass & Magee, L.L.P.
For respondent
J. Scott Ballenger
Latham & Watkins
Case
Subject area
Federalism (estimated from the questions presented, in the Supreme Court Database’s categories)
Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference
Order
Order list, January 9, 2023 · Certiorari denied
Proceedings
- Jan 09 2023Petition DENIED.
- Nov 30 2022DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/6/2023.
- Nov 21 2022Waiver of right of respondent Union Pacific Railroad Company to respond filed.
- Nov 17 2022Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due December 21, 2022)