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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


Certiorari denied · January 9, 2023
Pre-decision estimate: 5% cert probability

Before the decision, roughly the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for a Fifth Circuit decision below, a state or local-government petitioner, 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

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Proceedings

  1. Jan 09 2023
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Nov 30 2022
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/6/2023.
  3. Nov 21 2022
    Waiver of right of respondent Union Pacific Railroad Company to respond filed.
  4. Nov 17 2022
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due December 21, 2022)