Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →
Peter Protopapas v. Whittaker Clark & Daniels, Inc., et al.
Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, No. 24-2210, 24-2211, 25-1044 · judgment April 27, 2026
(petition-stage, structural)
Roughly the 4.1% base rate. The model weights this up for a Third Circuit decision below, counsel who has filed here before, and a petition filed soon after the judgment below, and down for a business respondent.
Question presented
Petitioner, a state-appointed receiver, objected to the bankruptcy court’s jurisdiction over Respondent’s Chapter 11 case: relying on the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, Petitioner argued that Respondent (the state-court loser) complains of injuries from a statecourt order appointing Petitioner as receiver and invokes federal bankruptcy jurisdiction to overturn the receivership order. The Third Circuit rejected Petitioner’s objection, relying on circuit precedent that limits the Rooker-Feldman doctrine only to state-court orders that are either final or effectively final. Subsequently, in T.M. v. University of Maryland Medical System Corp., 608 U.S. —, 146 S. Ct. 1739 (June 18, 2026), this Court held that the RookerFeldman doctrine bars district courts from exercising jurisdiction over cases brought by state-court losers complaining of state-court judgments, “regardless of whether those judgments are final trial-court judgments or those of a State’s highest court.” The question presented is whether the Court should grant, vacate, and remand for reconsideration in light of T.M.
Counsel of record
For petitioner
Bryan Michael Killian
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP
For respondent
Paul D. Clement
Clement & Murphy, PLLC
Case
Subject area
Judicial Power (estimated from the questions presented, in the Supreme Court Database’s categories)
Conference history
—
Related
Vide, 26-263
Proceedings
- Sep 04 2026Reply of petitioner Peter Protopapas filed.
- Aug 25 2026Brief of respondents Whittaker, Clark & Daniels, Inc., et al. in opposition filed.
- Jul 24 2026Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due September 2, 2026)