FedSoc Forums

This teleforum will discuss the Supreme Court argument in United States ex rel. Hunt v. Cochise Consultancy, Inc., a case about the False Claims Act statute of limitations. In this case, the Court examined whether a relator can rely on the tolling provision of the statute of limitations, which allows a claim to be filed up to three years after the responsible government official learns of facts material to action, even if the government never intervenes. While the case presented two narrow issues—how long can a relator wait to file suit and who is the “responsible government official” whose knowledge of the facts can trigger the limitations period—the Court’s resolution of the case could have potentially touched on several hot-button issues and create ripples that materially change FCA jurisprudence. This Teleforum will discuss the decision and wheather the implications of the decisions are as far reaching as they could have been.
Featuring:
Brandon J. Moss, Associate, Wiley Rein LLP
Mark B. Sweet, Partner, Wiley Rein LLP

In a series of recent decisions, both federal and state courts have allowed the admission of scientific evidence alleging that Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller is associated with lymphoma. These courts have allowed these cases to proceed, despite the fact that the EPA and other authorities have concluded that there is no established link between such products and cancer. Juries have imposed multi-million dollar verdicts and the company faces large-scale litigation involving thousands of claims. Please join David Bernstein, the George Mason University Foundation Professor at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School for a discussion of these decisions.
Featuring:
Prof. David Bernstein, George Mason University Foundation Professor, Antonin Scalia Law School


Teleforum calls are open to all dues paying members of the Federalist Society. To become a member, sign up on our website. As a member, you should receive email announcements of upcoming Teleforum calls which contain the conference call phone number. If you are not receiving those email announcements, please contact us at 202-822-8138.

On May 13, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that Apple may face antitrust liability in a consumer suit over purchases made from the Apple App Store. That may sound like an unremarkable proposition (and Apple in fact may still prevail). But the basis for the decision in Apple v. Pepper is one that will reverberate for years in the courts and the U.S. economy – that consumers who buy products from a platform like the App Store may be considered a direct purchaser and thus allowed to bring lawsuits against the platform concerning alleged anticompetitive conduct. Other technology companies may face antitrust liability they did not expect, companies may seek to restructure their business dealings to avoid liability, and there may be continued challenges to the viability of the federal (but not state) antitrust doctrine that limits liability only to direct (not indirect) purchasers. And – in an interesting fact not unnoticed by Supreme Court observers – the majority opinion written by newly-seated Justice Kavanaugh drew a dissenting opinion by his fellow Trump appointee Justice Gorsuch and joined by all of the other Republican-appointed justices.
Come hear immediate reactions to the Apple v. Pepper decision from two experienced antitrust practitioners who participated in the case – Andrew Finch, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, and Lauren Weinstein of MoloLamken’s Washington, DC, office, who represented a group of 18 antitrust professors that filed an amicus brief in the case. Adam Biegel of Alston & Bird’s Washington, DC, office and a member of the Executive Board of the Federalist Society’s Corporations, Securities, and Antitrust Practice Group, will moderate the teleconference.
Featuring:
Andrew Finch, Principal Deputy Attorney General, Antitrust Division, Department of Justice
Lauren M. Weinstein, Attorney, MoloLamken LLP
Moderator: Adam Biegel, Partner, Alston & Bird

What is the proper balance between Congressional oversight and Executive privilege? As it becomes clear that Congress is not satisfied with the Mueller Report on its face, and it will seek to conduct follow-up inquiries on its own, it has requested an unredacted copy of the Mueller Report, and its supporting documentation, and several witnesses who were interviewed during the investigation, including the former White House Counsel. Historically, Congress and the Executive have resolved their differences on disclosure requirements and moved forward, without significant resort to the Judiciary. What will and should be the role of the courts in any upcoming litigation? Could a final court ruling enhance rather than limit the power of the Executive? These and other questions will be discussed by our experts.
Featuring:
Prof. John C. Yoo, Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law, University of California at Berkeley School of Law
John G. Malcolm, Vice President, Institute for Constitutional Government, Director of the Meese Center for Legal & Judicial Studies and Senior Legal Fellow, The Heritage Foundation


Teleforum calls are open to all dues paying members of the Federalist Society. To become a member, sign up on our website. As a member, you should receive email announcements of upcoming Teleforum calls which contain the conference call phone number. If you are not receiving those email announcements, please contact us at 202-822-8138.

On Wednesday, April 24, the Supreme Court handed down the decision in Lamps Plus, Inc. v. Varela. By a vote of 5-4, the judgment of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit was reversed and the case remanded. Prof. Henry Allen Blair will join us to discuss this decision and what it means for class arbitration issues moving forward.
Featuring:
Prof. Henry Allen Blair, Robins Kaplan Distinguished Professor and John H. Faricy Professor of Empirical Research; Senior Fellow, Dispute Resolution Institute, Mitchell Hamline School of Law

Teleforum calls are open to all dues paying members of the Federalist Society. To become a member, sign up on our website. As a member, you should receive email announcements of upcoming Teleforum calls which contain the conference call phone number. If you are not receiving those email announcements, please contact us at 202-822-8138.

In late March, the Court of International Trade (a U.S. Article III court) upheld the legality of Trump administration tariffs under Sec. 232 of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act (American Institute for Int'l Steel, Inc. v. United States). But one of the judges expressed doubts that the ruling could be reconciled with reviving concerns about the non-delegation doctrine. The case may well reach the U.S. Supreme Court and help clarify constitutional issues that go well beyond the trade context. This teleforum will examine these topics and possible consequences.
Featuring:
Prof. Timothy Meyer, Professor of Law; FedEx Research Professor; Director, International Legal Studies Program, Vanderbilt Law School
Prof. Jide Nzelibe, Professor of Law; Affiliated Faculty, Ford Motor Company Center for Global Citizenship, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
Moderator: Prof. Jeremy A. Rabkin, Professor of Law, George Mason University, Antonin Scalia Law School

Teleforum calls are open to all dues paying members of the Federalist Society. To become a member, sign up on our website. As a member, you should receive email announcements of upcoming Teleforum calls which contain the conference call phone number. If you are not receiving those email announcements, please contact us at 202-822-8138.

In 2018, Governor Jerry Brown of California signed a bill that made California the first state to require corporations and companies based inside the state, even if incorporated elsewhere, to hire a minimum number of women. The bill provides that, by the end of 2019, the corporations that are headquartered in California and are listed on the U.S. Stock Exchange have at least one female director. By 2021, corporate boards of 6 or more must have at least three female members.
The penalties for violating this law are a $100,000 fine for a first offense and a $300,000 fine for every offense afterwards. The bill has brought discussion of gender equality in corporate America to the forefront of the civil rights landscape and could have important implications for the future.
Featuring:
Anastasia P. Boden, Staff Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Report on The Investigation Into Russian Interference In the 2016 Presidential Election was released to the public on April 18th, 2019, capping off a nearly two year-long investigation into the allegations of collusion between the Donald Trump campaign and Russian government officials during the 2016 election. The conclusions of the report are divided into two volumes. Volume I details the extent to which Russia attempted to influence the outcome of the election. Volume II addresses the claims of obstruction of Justice. What do the conclusions mean for the Trump Administration and the country going forward?
Featuring:
Prof. John C. Yoo, Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law, University of California at Berkeley School of Law
John G. Malcolm, Vice President, Institute for Constitutional Government, Director of the Meese Center for Legal & Judicial Studies and Senior Legal Fellow, The Heritage Foundation


Teleforum calls are open to all dues paying members of the Federalist Society. To become a member, sign up on our website. As a member, you should receive email announcements of upcoming Teleforum calls which contain the conference call phone number. If you are not receiving those email announcements, please contact us at 202-822-8138.

On April 23, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Department of Commerce v. New York, the legal challenge arising from Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’s decision to ask about the citizenship of census respondents. The case presents three questions: First, whether the 2020 Decennial Census can ask regarding each person counted at each residential address in the nation whether that person is a U.S. citizen. Second, whether district courts in an Administrative Procedure Act (APA) can order discovery beyond the administrative record to examine a Cabinet officers’ decision-making. And third, whether adding a question on citizenship violates the Constitution’s Enumeration Clause.
Citizenship is not a novel question for during decennial census activities. It was first asked in 1820, and was most recently asked in 1950. However, the district court in this case issued a 270-plus page decision holding that the question on the 2020 census was illegal. An appeal of that decision was pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit when the justices granted certiorari before judgment, the first time doing so in many years. This was likely motivated in part by the federal government’s assertion that census forms must be finalized before July 2019 to properly carry out the 2020 census.
The implications of this case are far-reaching. The federal government maintains a database with the residences of all legal aliens in this country, so cross-referencing those with census forms including citizenship could in theory reveal the whereabouts of most illegal aliens in the United States, assuming potential legal impediments to sharing that information could be resolved. This also could be a significant case on discovery involving high-level government officials, and also of APA litigation.
Featuring:
Dr. John S. Baker, Jr., Professor Emeritus, Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Louisiana State University
Mr. Kenneth A. Klukowski, Senior Fellow, American Civil Rights Union

Teleforum calls are open to all dues paying members of the Federalist Society. To become a member, sign up on our website. As a member, you should receive email announcements of upcoming Teleforum calls which contain the conference call phone number. If you are not receiving those email announcements, please contact us at 202-822-8138.

The American Law Institute (ALI) is a familiar and trusted institution for jurists across the country who rely on its “restatements” of disperse common law jurisprudence. More recently, the ALI embarked on a different type of project; to “restate” not common law, but the federal statutory law of the U.S. Copyright Act. The origins of the project do not attempt to conceal its intent to be normative and to take the place of unsuccessful statutory reform efforts. As a result, the project has raised objections, including from the head of the U.S. Copyright Office, that it is inappropriate to “restate” a field undergirded by statutory law and that it is an invitation to activist judicial decisions to depart from the statute in favor of whatever policies the ALI adopts. Predictably for a norm-setting process, it has been further complicated by concerns about bias and lack of transparency. This panel discussion will consider whether the ALI project is appropriate and fair.

Featuring:
Prof. June Besek, Lecturer in Law; Executive Directo, Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts
Mr. Sy Damle, Partner, Latham & Watkins, LLP
Moderator: Mr. Steven Tepp, President & CEO, Sentinel Worldwide
Teleforum calls are open to all dues paying members of the Federalist Society. To become a member, sign up on our website. As a member, you should receive email announcements of upcoming Teleforum calls which contain the conference call phone number. If you are not receiving those email announcements, please contact us at 202-822-8138.