Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →
Niagara-Wheatfield Central School District v. New York
Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, No. 22-2178 · judgment October 15, 2024
Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.
Question presented
Ordinarily, litigants are not permitted to sue in federal court to vindicate the rights of third parties. Parens patriae standing, whereby a State may sue on behalf of its residents to remedy harms that they have suffered, is an exception to that rule. And it is a potent one that has become a favorite of state attorneys general looking to unleash their governments’ resources against all manner of supposed wrongdoers: corporations, other States, and more. This Court in Alfred L. Snapp & Son, Inc. v. Puerto Rico ex rel. Barez, 458 U.S. 592 (1982) articulated elements that a State must satisfy in order to wield that powerful tool. The State “must express a quasi-sovereign interest”: an “interest[] that the State has in the wellbeing of its populace.” Id. at 602, 607. Further, the State must allege an injury to that interest that affects “a sufficiently substantial segment of its population” and that transcends mere harm to those “particular private parties” themselves. Id. at 607. The question presented, which a Judge below observed has generated such “confusion among the Courts of Appeals” as to warrant “clarification or correction by the Supreme Court,” is: How widespread must an injury to a State’s quasi-sovereign interest be, and how clearly must it transcend harm to particular private parties, to give the State parens patriae standing?
Counsel of record
For petitioner
Brian David Ginsberg
Harris Beach PLLC
For respondent
Barbara Dale Underwood
Solicitor General
Proceedings
- Oct 20 2025Petition DENIED.
- Oct 01 2025DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 10/17/2025.
- Sep 29 2025Reply of petitioner Niagara Wheatfield Central School District filed. (Distributed)
- Sep 12 2025Brief of respondent New York in opposition filed.
- Jul 30 2025Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is further extended to and including September 12, 2025.
- Jul 29 2025Motion to extend the time to file a response from August 13, 2025 to September 12, 2025, submitted to The Clerk.
- Jul 14 2025Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is further extended to and including August 13, 2025.
- Jul 12 2025Motion to extend the time to file a response from July 14, 2025 to August 13, 2025, submitted to The Clerk.
- Jun 11 2025Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including July 14, 2025.
- Jun 10 2025Motion to extend the time to file a response from June 13, 2025 to July 14, 2025, submitted to The Clerk.
- May 12 2025Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due June 13, 2025)
- Apr 01 2025Application (24A842) granted by Justice Sotomayor extending the time to file until May 12, 2025.
- Mar 27 2025Application (24A842) to extend further the time from April 10, 2025 to May 10, 2025, submitted to Justice Sotomayor.
- Mar 03 2025Application (24A842) granted by Justice Sotomayor extending the time to file until April 10, 2025.
- Feb 27 2025Application (24A842) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from March 11, 2025 to April 10, 2025, submitted to Justice Sotomayor.