No. 19-73

Michael W. Gahagan v. Citizenship & Immigration Services

Lower Court: Fifth Circuit
Docketed: 2019-07-15
Status: Denied
Type: Paid
Amici (1) Experienced Counsel
Tags: attorney-fees circuit-split civil-procedure civil-rights due-process fee-award fee-award-interpretation fee-award-laws fogerty-v-fantasy foia-litigation freedom-of-information-act legal-interpretation statutory-construction statutory-interpretation textual-analysis
Key Terms:
AdministrativeLaw ERISA SocialSecurity Immigration Copyright Patent EmploymentDiscrimina
Latest Conference: 2019-10-18
Question Presented (AI Summary)

Does the Fifth Circuit's rule that all federal fee-award laws must be read identically contravene this Court's decision in Fogerty v. Fantasy Inc.?

Question Presented (OCR Extract)

QUESTIONS PRESENTED 1. Does the Fifth Circuit’s rule that all federal fee-award laws must be read identically (i.e., absent express textual differences) contravene this Court’s decision in Fogerty v. Fantasy Inc., 510 U.S. 517 (1994)—and Seventh Circuit precedent implementing Fogerty—which call for individual analysis of federal fee-award laws based on each law’s respective text, structure, history, and purpose? 2. Does Congress’s use of the word “incurred” in a fee-award law refer solely to a legal obligation to pay attorney fees, as the Fifth Circuit has ruled, or does “incurred” also refer to any expended lawyer time, as the Seventh Circuit has ruled, thus allowing a feeaward law to compensate the work of pro bono attorneys, in-house attorneys, government attorneys, and self-representing attorneys alike? 3. Does a fair reading of the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and its fee-award provision, 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(E), allow attorney-fee awards in “any case” under FOIA where the “complainant” has substantially prevailed—including cases where the complainant is a self-representing attorney?

Docket Entries

2019-10-21
Petition DENIED.
2019-10-02
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 10/18/2019.
2019-09-26
Reply of petitioner Michael Gahagan filed.
2019-09-13
Brief of respondents United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, et al. in opposition filed.
2019-08-14
Brief amicus curiae of Public Record Media filed.
2019-08-07
Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including September 13, 2019.
2019-08-06
Motion to extend the time to file a response from August 14, 2019 to September 13, 2019, submitted to The Clerk.
2019-07-11
Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due August 14, 2019)
2019-05-22
Application (18A1209) granted by Justice Alito extending the time to file until July 11, 2019.
2019-05-16
Application (18A1209) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from May 27, 2019 to July 11, 2019, submitted to Justice Alito.

Attorneys

Michael Gahagan
Mahesha Padmanabhan SubbaramanSubbaraman PLLC, Petitioner
Mahesha Padmanabhan SubbaramanSubbaraman PLLC, Petitioner
Public Record Media
Katherine Susan Barrett WiikBest & Flanagan, Amicus
Katherine Susan Barrett WiikBest & Flanagan, Amicus
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, et al.
Noel J. FranciscoSolicitor General, Respondent
Noel J. FranciscoSolicitor General, Respondent