The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued two significant decisions today.
In the first, Sherley v. Sebelius, a unanimous panel affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment to the federal government rejecting a challenge to federal funding of emryonic stem cell research. Chief Judge Sentelle wrote for the court. Judges Henderson and Brown wrote separate concurrences. Co-blogger Russell Korobkin has several posts on this litigation. (See here, and scroll down.)
In the second, R.J. Reynolds Co. v. FDA, a divided panel affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment to tobacco companies in their First Amendment challenge to the FDA’s new cigarette labeling rules. Judge Brown wrote for the court, joined by Senior Judge Randolph. Judge Rogers dissented.
As if I wasn’t already sufficiently behind on my blogging, I’ve also yet to post about the D.C. Circuit’s decision Tuesday striking down the EPA’s cross-state air pollution rule, or the petition for en banc reconsideration filed in the greenhouse gas litigation. Time permitting, there will be more to come on all these cases.