The Supreme Court will hear seven cases this week on Tuesday, February 20 and Wednesday, February 21. The first of these is Corner Post, Inc. v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, in which the Court will consider whether a claim made by a plaintiff under the Administrative Procedures Act “first accrues” when an agency first issues a rule, or when the plaintiff has suffered substantive harm. Corner Post, Inc., along with two other North Dakota businesses, filed a lawsuit against the Board of the Federal Reserve for their 2015 clarification of the rule “Regulation II,” which capped fees which banks could charge for debit card transactions. The district court dismissed the case for being beyond the statute of limitations and the Eighth Circuit Court affirmed this decision after appeal.  

The second case on Tuesday is Bissonnette v. LePage Bakeries Park St., LLC. The Court will decide whether workers who engage in interstate transportation of goods are excluded from the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) if they are not employed by an interstate transportation company. Neal Bissonnette and Tyler Wojnarowski worked as independent distributors for Flowers Foods, Inc., which owned the subsidiary company LePage Bakeries. As part of their job, they transported baked goods across state lines. Their contracts required that any disputes with Flowers Foods be arbitrated under the FAA. When disputes regarding unpaid wages arose, however, Bissonnette and Wojnarowski claimed they were exempt from FAA restrictions because they were transportation workers, which are not covered by the Act. The district court disagreed, a decision the Second Circuit affirmed, on the grounds that they were not employed by a company in the transportation industry.  

On Wednesday, the Court will open proceedings with four cases, consolidated into one hearing; Ohio v. EPA, Kinder Morgan, Inc. v. EPA, American Forest and Paper Assn. v. EPA, and U.S. Steel Corp. v. EPA. All four appellees are requesting a stay of a regulation promulgated by the EPA known as the Good Neighbor Plan, which aims to reduce the effects of downwind pollution. The Supreme Court declined to do so and instead scheduled the cases for oral argument on Wednesday. The EPA is facing litigation over the rule, titled “Federal ‘Good Neighbor Plan’ for the 2015 Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards,” after rejecting plans from over twenty upwind states, causing the EPA to then create a plan for these states. Kinder Morgan, Inc, the American Forest and Paper Association, and U.S. Steel are also challenging certain aspects of the plan, such as how it applies to furnaces and boilers at steel mills in the latter’s case.  

Finally, the Court will hear Warner Chappell Music, Inc. v. Nealy to conclude proceedings for the week. In this case, the Court will consider whether a plaintiff filing a copyright suit is able to recover damages for acts that transpired over three years before the complaint, per federal regulation and the discovery accrual rule which the circuit courts apply. Sherman Nealy filed a lawsuit in 2018 against Warner for copyright infringement dating to 2008. His former business partner leased the rights to music produced by Nealy and himself before their company had been dissolved and Nealy sent to prison for unrelated drug charges. Nealy was unaware of lawsuits involving this company and Warner until he was released from prison a second time, at which point he filed a lawsuit. The district court granted summary judgement in part and denied it in part, and the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the plaintiff’s right to recover damages under the discovery accrual rule. 

Landmark will continue to follow these cases and provide updates as circumstances arise.