Second Circuit Review: The Second Circuit in the Supreme Court (September 2020)

Litigation of counsel Martin Flumenbaum and firm chairman Brad Karp’s latest Second Circuit Review column, “The Second Circuit in the Supreme Court,” appeared in the September 22 issue of the New York Law Journal. The authors conduct their 36th annual review of the performance of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit during the past Supreme Court term. In light of challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the court issued only 53 signed merits opinions during the term—its fewest since the Civil War. Eight of the Supreme Court’s decisions from this past term arose from the Second Circuit, with six of those decisions reversed or vacated—a 75% reversal-or-vacatur rate. Only the Ninth Circuit had more cases decided by the Court than the Second Circuit during the past term. The authors discuss the Supreme Court’s most significant decisions arising from the Second Circuit this past term, including employment protections for LGBT individuals, the president’s private financial records, and the Trump administration’s rescission of the “DACA” immigration policy. Litigation associate William Marks and summer associate Ryan Neu assisted in the preparation of this column.

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