Amy Howe

Dec 7 2018

One new grant today

This afternoon the justices issued an initial set of orders from their private conference today. They added just one new case, involving maritime law, to their merits docket for the term; they did not act on any of the higher-profile cases that they considered this morning, involving issues ranging from partisan gerrymandering to the death penalty and prayer by a high-school football coach.

The Jones Act – a federal law regulating seaborne commerce in the United States – provides a remedy for seamen who are injured or killed at work because of their employer’s negligence. In The Dutra Group v. Batterton, the justices agreed to consider whether punitive damages may be awarded to a seaman who brings a personal-injury lawsuit alleging that his employer has breached the general maritime duty to provide a seaworthy vessel.

The Supreme Court is expected to release more orders on Monday, December 10, at 9:30 a.m. After that, the justices’ next conference is not scheduled until January 4, 2019.

This post was also published on SCOTUSblog.

Amy L Howe
Until September 2016, Amy served as the editor and reporter for SCOTUSblog, a blog devoted to coverage of the Supreme Court of the United States; she continues to serve as an independent contractor and reporter for SCOTUSblog. Before turning to full-time blogging, she served as counsel in over two dozen merits cases at the Supreme Court and argued two cases there. From 2004 until 2011, she co-taught Supreme Court litigation at Stanford Law School; from 2005 until 2013, she co-taught a similar class at Harvard Law School. She has also served as an adjunct professor at American University’s Washington College of Law and Vanderbilt Law School. Amy is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and holds a master’s degree in Arab Studies and a law degree from Georgetown University.
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