Quote:
Originally Posted by *TT*
I think the answer from JBJ above explains that July's oral arguments are to determine standing only, assuming they are successful then the case returns to the Third Curcuit of Appeals. This is my understanding from discussions with Joe as well as his post above. Hope this helps!
TT, I think that your impression is not completely correct. The oral argument is about the appeal to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals from the District Court that granted the DOJ's motion to dismiss iMEGA's case. The actual grounds for this dismissal was lack of standing to argue any legal issue except for a first amendment claim which the Court then rejected.
Thus, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals must first decide if the judge properly rejected the first amendment issue, then determine if iMEGA has standing to bring other issues like the substantive due process privacy claim and the void for vagueness claim and finally, if it chooses, the decide the merits of these other claims assuming it grants iMEGA standing to argue them.
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals could reverse the District Court on the first amendment issue and rule that the UIGEA violates first amendment rights, but this is not likely.
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals could affirm the first amendment ruling and affirm the ruling that the iMEGA lacks standing to bring any other issues and thus affirm the District Court. This is possible, but IMO it will grant iMEGA standing to argue the other issues. (just a guess)
So if the Third Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the District Court on the standing issue, then it may send the case back to this court for hearing on the other issues. If so, then more trees dies, more legal time for lawyers to bill and more time before we get a ruling on the UIGEA constitutionality. IMO, the District Court will uphold the UIGEA based on her first opinion, so the case will go back to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals which will take another year or two. This is likely because appellate courts like to rule on the narrowest of grounds that it can rather than save everyone time and decide the case. However, sometimes they just decide all the issues.
So you may be right that the Third Circuit Court of Appeals will only decide the standing issues, but it may decide on the whole case. The briefs and oral arguments do cover the whole case; not just the standing issues. IMO iMEGA should have included some individual plaintiffs because establishing standing would then have been much easier. Other attorneys posting in the legislation forum wondered why individual plaintiffs were not included in the original petition.