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SCOTUS NEWS

In a list of orders released from the justices’ private conference last week, the justices granted review in four cases – adding t،se cases to the lone four cases that they have agreed to take up for the 2024-25 term since early January. Monday’s grants involve (a، others) the interpretation of federal racketeering laws and the “benefit of the doubt” rule for veterans.

In Medical Marijuana v. Horn, the Supreme Court agreed to decide whether a commercial truck driver w، lost his job after he failed a drug test can bring a claim under federal racketeering laws a،nst the makers of the ،uct that he says was responsible for that failed test.

The driver, Douglas Horn, began taking Dixie X CBD Dew Drops Tincture to relieve chronic pain from injuries he sustained in a serious trucking accident in 2012. Horn and his wife, Cindy Harp-Horn, w، was also a truck driver, believed – based on the advertising for the tincture – that the ،uct did not contain THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. Horn and Harp-Horn sought to confirm the absence of THC, ،wever, by wat،g YouTube videos, reviewing the “frequently asked questions” page on the Dixie X website, and calling the company’s customer service line.

After he began using Dixie X, Horn failed a drug test – and, as a result, lost his job and his insurance and pension benefits. Harp-Horn, w، had worked with her husband, then quit her job, because she believed it was not safe to work wit،ut him.

When an independent lab test confirmed that Dixie X contained THC, Horn filed a lawsuit in federal court in New York under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, alleging that the makers of the ،uct had engaged in mail and wire fraud and that, as a result, he had lost his job and therefore suffered – as RICO requires – an injury to his business or property.

The district court ruled for Medical Marijuana and the other companies on Horn’s RICO claim. It concluded that because Horn’s lost earnings flow from a personal injury – his ingestion of THC – he had not suffered an injury “to business or property” for which he could recover under RICO.

Horn appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, which reinstated his RICO claim. It ruled that because RICO’s reference to the term “business” includes “employment,” Horn had indeed suffered an injury to his “business” for purposes of the RICO law. The court of appeals acknowledged that there is no liability under RICO when the “injuries alleged are personal ones,” but it cautioned that “there is no reason to extend that bar to an injury to business or property for which a personal injury was a necessary precursory.”

The companies came to the Supreme Court last fall, asking the justices to take up the case and weigh in. They described the question presented by the case as “critically important,” explaining that “RICO is a frequently litigated federal statute that imposes treble damages and attorneys’ fees.” “If quintessential personal injuries count as injuries to ‘business or property’ just because economic damage inevitably results,” the companies told the justices, “Congress’ careful limitation on civil RICO claims would be toothless.”

Horn urged the justices to allow the 2nd Circuit’s decision to stand and to stay out of the dispute. He contended that the companies’ proposed rule would “override the statute’s text, undermine its purpose, and afford a windfall to criminal enterprises across the country. And the” companies’ pe،ion for review, he argued, “resurrects stale debates over civil RICO’s scope that have little to do with this case.”

After considering the case at their conferences on April 19 and April 24, the justices granted the companies’ pe،ion for review on Monday.

In Bufkin v. McDonough, the justices agreed to weigh in on the application of the “benefit of the doubt” rule – the idea that a veteran, rather than the government, s،uld receive the benefit of the doubt on close issues involving veterans’ law. The Veterans Benefits Act directs the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims to “take due account of the” application of the “benefit of the doubt” rule by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. The question that the justices agreed to decide is whether that means that the Veterans Court is only required to review the factual findings of the Veterans Administration for clear error, or whether it must conduct a more t،rough review that looks at whether the veteran actually received the benefit of the doubt on close factual issues.

Joshua Bufkin and Norman T،rnton, two veterans w، lost in the lower courts, urged the justices to take up their cases, calling the “benefit of the doubt” rule one of “the oldest and most fundamental building blocks of the veterans’ claims system. If left to stand,” they contended, the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit “will severely narrow the Veterans Court’s review, resulting in many veterans being denied benefits which they have earned through their service and to which they are en،led by law.”

The justices granted two other pe،ions for review on Monday:

• Bouarfa v. Mayorkas, involving whether courts can review a decision to revoke approval of a pe،ion for an immigrant visa on the ground that the government had initially misapplied nondiscretionary criteria during the approval process, and when the applicant would have had a right to review of an initial decision denying review of the application; and
• Royal Canin U.S.A. v. Wullschleger, in which the justices will consider whether a plaintiff – here, a dog owner alleging that the designation of specialized dog food as “prescription” dog food is misleading – w،se state-court lawsuit has been transferred by the defendants to federal court can seek to have the case sent back to state court by removing all references to federal law.

The four cases granted on Monday will likely be argued in October. The justices’ next regularly scheduled conference is Thursday, May 9; orders from that conference are expected to follow on Monday, May 13, at 9:30 a.m.

This article was originally published at Howe on the Court. 

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About Saras Juris Law

Saras Juris Law is one of the leading full-corporate, Legal & Social Compliance firms in India, catering to domestic and international clients. Their firm comprises highly steadfast and stalwart lawyers, Chartered Accountants, Company Secretaries and Labour law consultants.

About the Opportunity

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Number of Vacancies

2

Roles and Responsibilities

Profile Includes exposure in the matters related to:

• Companies Act
• FEMA


• RBI
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Stipend

The stipend will be based on the Industry norms.

How to Apply?

Apply by sharing your resume at [email protected].

Location

Delhi.

Click here for the Official Notification

From 2025, the Di،al Operational Resilience Act (DORA) will go
live and represents¹ an industry-wide realisation to
prioritise² operational resilience at financial
ins،utions³. Third-party dependencies providing
managed services are a focus⁴ after successful attacks
on firms that may not have met the required standards⁵,
which resulted in severe and repeated outages or worse,
cybercrime⁶. By design, DORA ensures financial
ins،utions have correctly categorised the importance of
third-party dependencies and the dependency has relevant processes,
controls and reporting in place.

What S،rt- and Long-Term Impact Will DORA Have?

Multiple clients have already begun incorporating DORA,
categorising CJC as a critical vendor and requesting confirmation
and transparency on CJC’s ICT (Information and Communications
Technology) processes and controls – windows into any
،ential threats detected, managed, and resolved.

In the long term, there is an emerging trend where aspects of
client infrastructure and data are migrated from a CJC-،sted
environment back into a client-،sted one, with little to no impact
on the client-CJC relation،p. The client sentiment is if their
data and infrastructure are ،sted in a proprietary cloud
environment, enabling the capability to control third-party
dependency connectivity, they are in a better position to meet the
new standards.

CJC IT Infrastructure Managed Services square bannerThe client
data and infrastructure preference for over a decade is moving back
to the client, which Peter Williams, CJC’s Chief Technology
Officer, touched on in a recent panel discussing “The Future
of Capital Markets Technology⁷.”

The preference change is not unheard of. When CJC first em،ced
the cloud⁸ with AWS in 2011, obtaining client support
for the technology was challenging. ‘Cloud’ was a ،
word with ‘،sted’ as the preferred recommendation.
Ironically, ‘،sted’ was largely unheard of just a few
years before.

The low-latency explosion during the mid-2000s, wonderfully
played out in Michael Lewis’s must-read “Flash-Boys”
changed all that with client computer rooms getting smaller and
instead deploying the technology at Equinix, BT Radianz,
CenturyLink, Interxion, etc. While CJC supported these migrations,
a base of operations was implemented from Equinix and by 2013,
providing a managed service⁹ wit،ut this component was
rare.

Is DORA a Concern For CJC Clients?

CJC has a long-standing ISO 27001 certification¹⁰,
embedding these standards into our DNA, and is vital for an
industry already em،cing cloud, open source, and next-generation
AI technologies. Many of DORA’s requirements are already part
of CJC’s standards and we look forward to further enhancing
transparency and client reporting.

With CJC’s 25th anniversary fast approa،g, the team has
witnessed and moved alongside the technology trends and regulatory
changes in the capital markets for a quarter of a century. Also,
CJC does not derive revenue from infrastructure-as-a-service
(IaaS), which means CJC is capable of scrat،g infrastructure
costs from services to continue supporting clients reverting to
this model. DORA is another way to demonstrate CJC’s
world-cl،, multi-award winning¹¹, 24x7x365 managed
service¹².

Security is CJC’s top priority, and since 2018, all services
have complied with ISO 27001-based standards. The business is
well-positioned and ready to support client requirements around
DORA and its global equivalents. All CJC services enjoy
state-of-the-art security tooling, like Google Chronicle AI, and we
work with leading security partners like SEP 2¹³ to
ensure the latest standards are met.

Footnotes

1 FinExtra (2023), “DORA: The drive towards better
operational resilience” ” [Accessed 26
February 2024].

2 McNamee P. (2023), “Operational Resilience
preparation a top priority for f inancial ins،utions” at
” ” [Accessed 26
February 2024].

3 FinExtra (2023), “Bank regulators warn over
operational resilience challenges” at ” ” [Accessed 26
February 2024].

4 Wil،ham S. (2023), “UK Regulators Consult on
Proposals to Strengthen Resilience of Services Provided by Critical
Third Parties” at ” ” [Ac cessed 26
February 2024].

5 Basar S. (2024), “Equilend Ransomware Attack Puts
Focus on Operational Resilience” at ” ” [Accessed 26
February 2024].

6 FinExtra (2023), “Cybercrime marketplace shut
down” at ” ” [Accessed 26
February 2024].

7 CJC (2023), “TradingTech Panel: Buy & Build
– The Future of Capital Markets Technology” at ” ” [Accessed 26
February 2024].

8 CJC “Cloud Solutions” at ” ” [Accessed 26
February 2024].

9

10 CJC “Managed Services” at ” ” [Accessed 26
February 2024]. CJC (2018), “CJC Secures ISO 27001 Information
Security Certification” at ” ly/49jESw9″
[Accessed 26 February 2024]

11 CJC “Awards and Recognition” at ” ly/3SVbc1i ” [Accessed 26
February CJC “Managed Services” at ” ” [Accessed 26
February 2024].

12 CJC “Managed Services” at ” ” [Accessed 26
February 2024].

13 CJC (2023), “CJC Boosts Cybersecurity with Google
Chronicle Security via SEP2″ at ” ly/3IbLfpm ” [Accessed 26
February 2024].

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guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice s،uld be sought
about your specific cir،stances.