Featured / FedCircuitBlog / Supreme Court Activity
on

Here is an update on recent activity at the Supreme Court in cases decided by the Federal Circuit. Since our last update, there has been no new activity at the Supreme Court in the two pending cases decided by the Federal Circuit. As for petitions, a new petition was filed in a pro se case and two waivers of the right to respond to petitions were filed in two other pro se cases. Here are the details.

Pending Cases

Since our last update, there has been no activity at the Supreme Court in the two cases pending at the Court that were decided by the Federal Circuit. As a reminder, in January, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Hikma Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. v. Amarin Pharma, Inc., a patent case addressing so-called skinny labeling and inducement of patent infringement. We are also waiting for the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. V.O.S. Selections, Inc.

Pending Petitions

New Petitions

Since our last update, one new petition has been filed in a case decided by the Federal Circuit. In Engen v. United States, a pro se case, Carol Engen filed a petition asking the Court to review the following questions:

  1. “Whether a summary judgment entered in a 26 U.S.C. § 7403 lien-foreclosure proceeding — whose purpose is limited to enforcing a tax hen and where taxpayers cannot bring refund claims, seek monetary relief, or adjudicate tax liability—constitutes a ‘final judgment on the merits’ for purposes of claim preclusion, thereby barring a later refund suit under the Tucker Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1491.”
  2. “Whether applying claim preclusion to bar a taxpayer’s refund suit violates the Due Process Clause where the taxpayer had no full and fair opportunity to litigate the validity of assessments in the § 7403 proceeding, and whether the Federal Circuit’s rule conflicts with this Court’s precedent in Williams, Flora, Richards, and Taylor.”
  3. “Whether 26 U.S.C. § 7403 violates the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of due process by authorizing the forced sale of a taxpayer’s home based solely on an irrebuttable presumption that IRS tax liens are valid, while denying the taxpayer any opportunity in the foreclosure proceeding to challenge the legality of the underlying assessment or lien—a deficiency the Treasury Inspector General has recognized deprives taxpayers of the protections available in the seizure process.”

Waivers of the Right to Respond

Since our last update, waivers of the right to respond to petitions were filed in the following pro se cases: