In Cyphert v. Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. (In re: Morning Song Bird Food Litig.), No. 15-3943, the Sixth Circuit imposed a high standard on class action plaintiffs seeking to use two sets of objections to a presentence report (PSR) in a criminal case against the corporate defendant. The plaintiffs argued that the objections, which had been … Continue Reading
We have previously discussed the citation of websites by parties as a substitute for citing to the record on appeal, and the practice in some Sixth Circuit opinions to rely on web citations to provide background context. At the time, we noted that Judge Posner of the Seventh Circuit had gone so far as to conduct … Continue Reading
In Smith v. Aegon Companies Pension Plan (No. 12-5492), the Sixth Circuit decided whether to enforce a forum selection clause that was included in an ERISA plan seven years after the plaintiff’s benefits accrued. The Secretary of Labor filed an amicus brief arguing that such clauses are incompatible with ERISA, which requires access to federal … Continue Reading
In connection with the Supreme Court’s health care decision, many commentators doubted whether judges’ questioning at oral argument can be used to predict outcomes. Yet recent research has shown that the emotional content of a judge’s questions does predict voting patterns at the Supreme Court. We applied this research to the Sixth Circuit by looking … Continue Reading
