Supreme Court Report

Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →

Catherine Antunes v. Xavier Becerra, Secretary of Health and Human Services, et al.,

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, No. 22-2190 · judgment February 9, 2024


Certiorari denied · October 7, 2024
Pre-decision estimate: 2% cert probability

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

Questions presented

  1. Does the Constitutional right to bodily integrity encompass the right to decline a vaccine?

  2. Is Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 (1905), applicable to an employer’s mandate for a vaccine, and is it still good law?

  3. May an employer lawfully achieve through economic coercion what would be battery if it achieved the same thing through physical force (the administration of unwanted medical treatment)?

  4. Does the PREP Act impose a duty on the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to provide the option to decline a drug or device authorized under the emergency provisions of the PREP Act?

  5. Is it a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fifth Amendment for the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services to extend different protections to two different groups of people in the administration of the same drug?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Edward Scott Lloyd
Law Office of E. Scott Lloyd, PLLC

For respondent
Erika Lauren Maley
Virginia Office of the Attorney General

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Proceedings

  1. Oct 07 2024
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Jul 17 2024
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 9/30/2024.
  3. Jul 05 2024
    Waiver of right of respondent Xavier Becerra, Secretary of Health and Human Services to respond filed.
  4. Jun 24 2024
    Waiver of right of respondents Rectors and Visitors of the University of Virginia to respond filed.
  5. May 09 2024
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due July 5, 2024)