Last week, in Sisay v. Smith, a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit overturned a district court order enjoining the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport from enforcing new rules granting select taxicab companies the exclusive right to pickup passengers at the airport. Several small taxicab companies had challenged the rules on due process and other grounds. The panel divided on whether they had demonstrated a sufficient likelihood of success on their due process claim, and specifically over whether the plaintiffs could show they had been deprived of a constitutionally protected property interest when they were denied the right to pick up passengers from the airport.

I find the case interesting on the merits (I think it could make for a good AdminLaw hypo) and because I am a frequent user of Cleveland Hopkins airport. I am also curious as to why the Sixth Circuit opted to release this as an unpublished opinion. The opinion addresses a weighty issue at some length (43 pages all told), and produced a substantial dissent. Whatever the formal criteria for publishing an opinion of the Court, I would have thought this case fits. Apparently not.