Supreme Court Report

Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →

City of Los Angeles, California v. Jesus Pimentel, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, No. 22-55946 · judgment September 9, 2024


Certiorari denied · May 27, 2025
Pre-decision estimate: 5% cert probability

Before the decision, roughly the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for a state or local-government petitioner, a Ninth Circuit decision below, and a dissent in the court below (flagged in the petition).

Question presented

Does a government defending against an Eighth Amendment excessive fines claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 bear a burden to produce affirmative evidence that the fine is not grossly disproportionate to the gravity of the offense, when the plaintiff lacks evidence to establish a prima facie case of gross disproportionality as required by United States v. Bajakajian, 524 U.S. 321 (1998)?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Timothy William Martin
Los Angeles City Attorney's Office

For respondent
Paul Lindsey Hoffman
SSHHZ LLP

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Linked docket
24A579

Proceedings

  1. May 27 2025
    Petition DENIED.
  2. May 06 2025
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 5/22/2025.
  3. Apr 30 2025
    Waiver of right of respondent Jesus Pimentel, et al. to respond filed.
  4. Mar 28 2025
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due May 1, 2025)
  5. Dec 13 2024
    Application (24A579) granted by Justice Kagan extending the time to file until March 28, 2025.
  6. Dec 10 2024
    Application (24A579) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from January 28, 2025 to March 28, 2025, submitted to Justice Kagan.