On Wed, 15 May 1996, Declan B. McCullagh wrote:
Speaking of appeals, I've been thinking about what happens with the CDA. Okay, so we have two court cases going on, the Shea v. Reno case in NYC and the coalition lawsuits combined in Philly.
What happens if the DoJ loses both the NYC and Philly cases and (as they said they would) appeals to the Supreme Court. Won't they take the weaker of the two cases, which is Shea's?
If they lose they are almost certain to appeal both cases. If they don't appeal a loss, it means that plaintiffs won, i.e. get what they asked for. The government isn't going to sit still for that while another case is proceeding.
And what happens if we win but Shea loses -- does the DoJ appeal in Philly and Shea appeals in NYC?
No problem with two sides each appealing different verdicts to the supreme court. That's what it's for - to sort things out and make the circuits consistent.
If we lose, does our appeal automatically go to the Supreme Court? The language in the statute is unclear here -- it only specifices what happens when the law is declared unconstitutional. But if it isn't, can't the DoJ argue that our appeal should go to the Third Circuit instead?
Sorry, I don't recall the language well enough and I'm on the road. I thought it went to the Supremes no mater what; that's the usual practice, but i could be wrong. there is a procedure for by-passing the Court of Appeal in urgent cases. Also, if one case is on a slow track and the other one is on a fast track, there are procedures for getting involved, at least as amici, in the fast track case. [I am away from Miami from May 8 to May 28. I will have no Internet connection from May 22 to May 29; intermittent connections before then.] A. Michael Froomkin | +1 (305) 284-4285; +1 (305) 284-6506 (fax) Associate Professor of Law | U. Miami School of Law | froomkin@law.miami.edu P.O. Box 248087 | http://www.law.miami.edu/~froomkin Coral Gables, FL 33124 USA | It's warm there.