Tag Archives: unpublished

Justice Thomas, The Fourth Circuit, And Circuit Courts Acting Like Certiorari Courts

The issue of unpublished opinions has received extra attention this past week thanks to a dissent to a denial of certiorari by Justice Thomas.  His opinion criticizes the Fourth Circuit for using an unpublished opinion to allow itself to decide important cases without create binding law.  Though much of the media censure of the Fourth … Continue Reading

Groundbreaking Sixth Circuit Decision Affirms Shutdown Of Fraudulent Tax Prep Franchise, But Not Its Loan Provider

In United States v. ITS Financial, LLC, the Sixth Circuit affirmed the district court’s injunction against a fraudulent tax preparation franchise, but not the franchise’s loan provider (a separate company belonging to the same owner). Defendants’ “business model” consisted in large part of “luring low-income customers by advertising tax refund anticipation loans that were rarely … Continue Reading

Check Your Arbitration Clause: Sixth Circuit Draws Distinction Between “Arising Under” and “Related to”

Siding with the Fifth, Ninth and Second (unpublished) Circuits in a longstanding circuit split, the Sixth Circuit in United States ex rel. Paige v. BAE Sys. Tech. recently distinguished between disputes “arising under” and “related to” a contract for arbitration purposes.  The Sixth Circuit held that an arbitration clause mandating arbitration of “any dispute arising from this Agreement” … Continue Reading

Are Unpublished Cases Precedential? The Citation of Unpublished Cases In Sixth Circuit Decisions

In a previous post, we looked at how often various circuits issue unpublished opinions and the differences between their rules on published decisions.  The Sixth Circuit’s most recent directive is that “[u]npublished decisions in the Sixth Circuit are, of course, not binding precedent on subsequent panels, but their reasoning may be ‘instructive’ or helpful.”  Crump v. … Continue Reading

The Trend Toward The Use of Summary Dispositions

We have previously reported on the Sixth Circuit’s caseload and the trend toward the use of unpublished opinions.  We’ve discussed that the number of published decisions per judge, the opinions that are the most important to create precedent, are fairly consistent throughout all circuits.  But the latest statistics show an interesting trend toward the use … Continue Reading
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