Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →
Upsolve, Inc., et al. v. Letitia James, Attorney General of New York
Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, No. 22-1345 · judgment September 9, 2025
Before the decision, roughly the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for counsel who has won certiorari before, a Second Circuit decision below, and a business petitioner, and down for a state or local-government respondent.
Question presented
Petitioners, a nonprofit corporation and one of its volunteers, wanted to train nonlawyers to offer narrow, specific advice to poor people facing specific legal problems—a program that turned out to be prohibited by New York’s prohibition on the “unauthorized practice of law,” which reaches even unpaid spoken advice about the law. In the case below, the Second Circuit held that this restriction on Petitioners’ speech is content-neutral because it is not aimed at the content of their speech (which is communicating legal advice and opinions to particular clients) but is instead aimed at the “purpose, focus, and circumstance” of their speech, which is “the rendering of legal advice and opinions to particular clients.” The question presented is: Is a law whose application is triggered by communicating about a particular topic nonetheless content-neutral so long as the law can be described as aimed at the “purpose, focus, and circumstance” of the speech rather than at its content?
Counsel of record
For petitioner
Robert James McNamara
Institute for Justice
For respondent
Barbara Dale Underwood
New York Solicitor General
Proceedings
- Mar 30 2026Petition DENIED.
- Mar 12 2026Brief amici curiae of Pacific Legal Foundation, et al. filed. (Distributed)
- Mar 12 2026Brief amicus curiae of Cato Institute filed. (Distributed)
- Mar 12 2026Brief amici curiae of Professor Rebecca L. Sandefur, et al. filed. (Distributed)
- Mar 12 2026Brief amicus curiae of Manhattan Institute filed. (Distributed)
- Mar 11 2026DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 3/27/2026.
- Mar 11 2026Supplemental brief of petitioners Upsolve, Inc., et al. filed. (Distributed)
- Mar 05 2026Waiver of right of respondent Letitia James to respond filed.
- Feb 06 2026Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due March 12, 2026)
- Dec 17 2025Application (25A381) granted by Justice Sotomayor extending the time to file until February 6, 2026.
- Dec 10 2025Application (25A381) to extend further the time from January 7, 2026 to February 6, 2026, submitted to Justice Sotomayor.
- Oct 05 2025Application (25A381) granted by Justice Sotomayor extending the time to file until January 7, 2026.
- Sep 29 2025Application (25A381) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from December 8, 2025 to January 7, 2026, submitted to Justice Sotomayor.