Sligo Creek Center v. Department of Health and Human Services, et al.

Petitioner Sligo Creek Center operates a Medicareparticipating nursing home. Following an investigation into positive tuberculosis tests, the Department of Health and Human Services concluded that Sligo Creek violated federal infection-control requirements and imposed almost $1.5 million in civil penalties. After nearly a decade of administrative proceedings, the Fourth Circuit concluded that the money penalty implicated the Seventh Amendment. But it nevertheless held that Sligo Creek was not deprived of its right to a jury trial because the government here enforced novel statutory obligations unknown to the common law, placing the case within the public-rights presumption articulated in Atlas Roofing Co. v. OSHA, 430 U.S. 442 (1977). The Fourth Circuit’s decision exposes the tension between Atlas Roofing and this Court’s decision in SEC v. Jarkesy, 603 U.S. 109, 128, 131 (2024), which reaffirmed that the narrow public-rights exception is, “after all, an exception” to the rule that a legal claim— even a statutory legal claim—“presumptively concerns private rights” that must be adjudicated in an Article III court, by a jury when the Seventh Amendment applies. By contrast, Atlas Roofing presumes that novel statutory actions are public rights that may be assigned to the political branches for adjudication. The questions presented are:

1. Whether, under a proper application of Jarkesy, Sligo Creek was entitled to have its case decided by a jury in an Article III court.

2. Whether the Court should overrule Atlas Roofing.