No. 25-6457

Elijah Behringer v. California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, et al.

Lower Court: Ninth Circuit
Docketed: 2025-12-31
Status: Pending
Type: IFP
Response WaivedIFP
Tags: covid-mandates jacobson-precedent jury-trial rational-basis-review sixth-amendment substantive-due-process
Key Terms:
ERISA DueProcess JusticiabilityDoctri
Latest Conference: 2026-02-20
Question Presented (from Petition)

(1) Whether this Court's decision in Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 (1905) provides authority for automatic dismissal of lawsuits challenging the enforcement of COVID-19 mandates or similar emergency-decreed "public health" mandates without holding trial by jury.

(2) Whether the doctrine of "substantive" due process and its corresponding "rational basis review" and "tiered scrutiny" jurisprudence should be overruled or cabined-off as a matter of law.

(3) Whether the common-law preservation of the right to trial by jury embodied in the Sixth and Seventh Amendments safeguards a jury prerogative to pass judgment not only on the facts, but also on the law to be applied in a given case before it.

Question Presented (AI Summary)

Whether the Supreme Court's Jacobson v. Massachusetts precedent allows automatic dismissal of COVID-19 mandate lawsuits without jury trial, and whether substantive due process doctrines should be overruled

Docket Entries

2026-02-05
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 2/20/2026.
2026-01-06
Waiver of right of respondents Board of Trustees of the California State University; President Jeffrey Armstrong; Tina Hadaway-Mells; Valla Hardy; Amy Gode to respond filed.
2025-11-25
Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due January 30, 2026)

Attorneys

Board of Trustees of the California State University; President Jeffrey Armstrong; Tina Hadaway-Mells; Valla Hardy; Amy Gode
Jacob CanterCrowell & Moring LLP, Respondent
Elijah Behringer
Elijah Behringer — Petitioner