Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →
Glen Mulready, in His Official Capacity as Insurance Commissioner of Oklahoma, et al. v. Pharmaceutical Care Management Association
Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, No. 22-6074 · judgment August 15, 2023
Before the decision, modestly above the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for counsel who has won certiorari before, a state or local-government petitioner, and a Tenth Circuit decision below.
Question presented
In 2019, the Oklahoma Legislature responded to a wave of pharmacy closures and patient complaints by enacting the Patient’s Right to Pharmacy Choice Act. The Act imposes modest rules on pharmacy benefit managers (“PBMs”), middlemen that wield enormous power in the prescription-drug market and have favored national chains and mail-order pharmacies (which they often own) over local providers that have long been cornerstones of communities and subject to state regulation. While PBMs are not ERISA plans and do not contract exclusively with ERISA plans, they have attempted to wield ERISA’s preemption clause as a de facto immunity from state regulation. This Court unanimously rejected that gambit in Rutledge v. Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, 592 U.S. 80 (2020), which upheld Arkansas’ effort to curb PBM abuse. Yet the Tenth Circuit largely cast Rutledge aside in favor of decades-old lower-court decisions, reviving an expansive view of ERISA preemption far out of step with this Court’s modern precedents. Adding insult to injury, the court held that Medicare Part D precludes States from regulating PBMs with respect to Part D plans at all except as to licensing and plan solvency—openly creating not one, but two, circuit splits in the process. The questions presented are: 1. Whether ERISA preempts state laws that regulate PBMs by preventing them from cutting off rural patients’ access, steering patients to PBMfavored pharmacies, excluding pharmacies willing to
Counsel of record
For petitioner
Paul D. Clement
Clement & Murphy, PLLC
For respondent
Michael B. Kimberly
Winston & Strawn LLP
Proceedings
- Jun 30 2025Petition DENIED.
- Jun 10 2025DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 6/26/2025.
- Jun 09 2025Supplemental brief of petitioners Glen Mulready, et al. filed. (Distributed)
- Jun 09 2025Supplemental brief of respondent Pharmaceutical Care Management Association filed. (Distributed)
- May 27 2025Brief amicus curiae of United States filed.
- Oct 07 2024The Solicitor General is invited to file a brief in this case expressing the views of the United States.
- Aug 14 2024DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 9/30/2024.
- Aug 14 2024Reply of petitioners Glen Mulready, et al. filed. (Distributed)
- Jul 29 2024Brief of respondent Pharmaceutical Care Management Association in opposition filed.
- Jul 01 2024Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is further extended to and including July 29, 2024.
- Jun 28 2024Motion to extend the time to file a response from July 15, 2024 to July 29, 2024, submitted to The Clerk.
- Jun 14 2024Brief amicus curiae of PatientRightsAdvocate.Org, Inc. filed.
- Jun 14 2024Brief amicus curiae of National Association of Specialty Pharmacy filed.
- Jun 14 2024Brief amici curiae of American Pharmacies, Inc., et al. filed.
- Jun 12 2024Brief amici curiae of American Dental Association and Eight Health-Care Provider Associations filed.
- Jun 10 2024Brief amici curiae of Minnesota, et al. filed.
- May 24 2024Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including July 15, 2024. See Rule 30.1.
- May 22 2024Motion to extend the time to file a response from June 14, 2024 to July 13, 2024, submitted to The Clerk.
- May 10 2024Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due June 14, 2024)
- Apr 03 2024Application (23A788) granted by Justice Gorsuch further extending the time to file until May 10, 2024. No further requests for extensions will be entertained for the filing of the petition.
- Mar 28 2024Application (23A788) to extend further the time from April 10, 2024 to May 10, 2024, submitted to Justice Gorsuch.
- Mar 04 2024Application (23A788) granted by Justice Gorsuch extending the time to file until April 10, 2024.
- Feb 23 2024Application (23A788) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from March 11, 2024 to April 10, 2024, submitted to Justice Gorsuch.