Here is an update on recent activity at the Supreme Court in cases decided by the Federal Circuit. With respect to granted cases, there is no new activity to report since our last update. While no new petitions were filed with the Court, an amicus brief in support of a petition was filed in an employment case, and the Court denied certiorari in a veterans case and a patent case. Here are the details.
Granted Cases
There is no new activity to report.
Petition Cases
Amicus Brief
An amicus brief was filed by the National Border Patrol Council in Adams v. United States, an employment case concerning hazardous duty pay. In its brief, the National Border Patrol Council supports the petition and expresses disagreement with the Federal Circuit. The brief argues the “majority’s opinion disregards a key portion of the applicable regulation, eliminating hazardous duty pay for Border Patrol agents and other federal employees who performed critical law-enforcement duties in close physical proximity to people infected with COVID-19 while other employees worked safely from home, and rendering the regulation applicable to no identifiable employee.” The brief also contends that, “[u]nder the plain language of the regulation and other interpretive guidance from the Office of Personnel Management, Border Patrol agents,” Federal Bureau of Prisons employees at Federal Correctional Institution Danbury “and other federal law-enforcement officers who were exposed to COVID-19 worked with or in close proximity to a virulent biological and are . . . entitled to hazardous duty pay.”
Denials
The Supreme Court denied certiorari in two cases:
- Skaar v. McDonough (veterans)
- NST Global, LLC v. Sig Sauer Inc. (patent)