By Harry Cole, CommLawBlog, January 10, 2014
Poster's note: as I indicated in a previous message, "Cert" = certiorari, an order issued by the U.S. Supreme Court to a lower court (typically one of the Courts of Appeals) indicating that the Supreme Court will accept a case for further review. The Court issued cert in the Aereo case today. Alito recused himself, thus opening the possibility of a 4-4 split decision. If that were to happen, the Second Circuit's decision favoring Aereo would stand.
| Broadcasters' cert petition is granted; Alito recuses himself, | Kagan doesn't | | The Supreme Court has decided that now would be a good time to | consider the arguments arising from the Second Circuit's Aereo | decisions to date -- so the Supremes have granted the petition | for certiorari filed by the broadcaster parties to the Second | Circuit case. While this could ordinarily bode well for the | broadcasters -- after all, if the Supreme Court thought the | Second Circuit got it right, they could just deny cert and let | the Second Circuit's action stand -- you can probably expect | Aereo to claim something of a victory here because, as we have | previously reported, Aereo itself urged the Court to take the | case. | | As of this writing the briefing and argument schedules haven't | been posted on the Supreme Court's website. Since the Court | will be hearing arguments until the end of April, it seems | reasonably likely that the Aereo case will be briefed and | argued this term, which would mean that a decision from the | Court by the end of June would be a near certainty.
Continued:
Neal McLain