Petitions to watch | Conference of 09.26.11

The Court is currently in its summer recess. No oral arguments are scheduled until October, and no Conferences are scheduled until Monday, September 26, when the Justices will be formally back at work. At that Conference, they will select cases for review from the summer lists. Because our list of "Petitions to watch" for that Conference will be quite large, we will feature the petitions in installments, as they are distributed for the Court's review. This set of petitions covers issues such as the rights to stolen artworks, the political question doctrine, and the Commerce Clause. These are petitions raising issues that Tom has determined to have a reasonable chance of being granted, although we post them here without consideration of whether they present appropriate vehicles in which to decide those issues. Title: Lamtec Corp. v. Dep't of Revenue of the State of Washington Docket: 10-1289 Issue(s): (1) Whether this Court's holding in Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, 504 U.S. 298 (1992), that the Commerce Clause prevents a state from imposing a sales or use tax on a company lacking physical presence in the state applies to other state taxes, such as an excise tax on conducting business within the state; and (2) whether petitioner's minimal contacts within the state are insufficient to establish a "physical presence" within the meaning of Quill. Certiorari stage documents: Opinion below (Wash. S. Ct.) Petition for certiorari Brief in opposition Amicus brief of the Council on State Taxation et al. Amicus brief of Market America, Inc. Amicus brief of The Tax Foundation (forthcoming) Petitioner's reply Title: KFC Corp. v. Iowa Department of Revenue Docket: 10-1340 Issue(s): Whether, consistent with the Commerce Clause, a state may tax the income of an out-of-state business that maintains no physical presence in the taxing state. Certiorari stage documents: Opinion below (Iowa S. Ct.) Petition for certiorari Brief in opposition Amicus brief of Tax Executives Institute Amicus brief of Market America, Inc. Amicus brief of International Franchise Association Amicus brief of Institute for Professionals in Taxation Amicus brief for Council on State Taxation Petitioner's reply Title: Spectrum Stores, Inc. v. Citgo Petroleum Corp. Docket: 10-1371 Issue(s): (1) Whether the political question doctrine bars petitioners' federal antitrust claims against the indirect American subsidiary of a foreign sovereign; and (2) whether petitioners' claims are barred by the act of state doctrine, even though the courts need not invalidate any governmental act of a foreign sovereign performed within its own territory and the conspirators have furthered their scheme through an American company acting in the United States. Certiorari stage documents: Opinion below (5th Circuit) Petition for certiorari Brief in opposition Petitioners' reply (forthcoming) Title: Grosz v. Museum of Modern Art Docket: 10-1385 Issue(s): (1) Whether on a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, a federal court may rely on materials extrinsic to a complaint to decide disputed factual issues governing the accrual of statutes of limitations, when this Court in Republic of Austria v. Altmann, 541 U.S. 677 (2004), applied a different standard to a foreign museum; and (2) whether, when the executive branch and Congress have adopted a remedial scheme that relies on traditional legal and equitable remedies to return art stolen during the Nazi era to its true owners and when a state statute of limitations requires actual notice to trigger accrual, a federal court frustrates the executive's foreign affairs powers by adopting a doctrine of constructive notice when that doctrine will cause a forfeiture of rights to stolen artworks. Certiorari stage documents: Opinion below (2d Circuit) Petition for certiorari Brief in opposition Petitioners' reply Amicus brief of the Association for Research into Crimes Against Art et al.

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