Immigration · Case note
Forty-Eight Hours: FCC v. Brown and the Writ Against Agency Delay
The Supreme Court stayed a writ that gave the FCC two days to decide an application that had been pending for five months. The dispute is about broadcast rates and an election. The sentences the government will quote the next time it defends a delay suit against USCIS are about neither.
Read the case noteSuits against the immigration agencies: mandamus and APA actions over delay, naturalization litigation, and federal-court review of agency decisions.
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October 2026
Forty-Eight Hours: FCC v. Brown and the Writ Against Agency Delay
The Supreme Court stayed a 48-hour writ against the FCC. Its reasoning concerns a duty to decide with no deadline, and it is likely to be quoted in delay suits against USCIS.
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October 2026
Fee by Proclamation: Global Nurse Force and the $100,000 H-1B Payment
The second court to set aside the agency rules behind the $100,000 H-1B payment did so on curable procedural grounds, and left the Proclamation itself untouched.
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August 2026
Unreasonable by When? Mandamus and the Silent Green-Card File
The jurisdictional bar that is rarely briefed, the two TRAC factors that decide the case, and the exception Barr Laboratories announced and never decided.
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August 2026
The 120-Day Clock: Naturalization Under 8 U.S.C. § 1447(b)
When the clock starts, whether filing strips the agency of authority, and why the door the statute opens is narrower than it looks.
Business and commercial disputes in the state and federal courts: pleadings and motion practice, injunctions, discovery, and trial.
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October 2026
Affirmed Without a Quorum: BMG v. Vetter and the Worldwide Termination Rule
Four Justices took no part, so the Fifth Circuit’s worldwide termination rule stands by statute, not decision. The Second Circuit language against it was an assumption.
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October 2026
Same Court, Same Day: Where the Third Circuit Drew the § 922(g)(1) Line
Same court, same day: a threats conviction disarms, a repeat drunk-driving conviction alone does not. Both majorities began with the elements; their coalitions did not match.
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October 2026
An Ordinary Copyright Case: Westlaw Headnotes and AI Training in the Third Circuit
The Third Circuit called it an ordinary copyright case. Its purpose holding is narrow; its rulings on amount and on AI training-data markets travel.
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October 2026
The Redaction That Wasn’t: Contempt, Rule 37, and the Cost of a White Box
A white box hid nothing. Why the court refused to certify contempt over a leaked bank account but made defense counsel pay anyway — and how it priced the cleanup.
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