Many people have asked when a decision will come from recent oral argument at the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.  Another common question: after a ruling, what’s next?

The Second Circuit issues two types of rulings: Summary Orders and Written Decisions.

A summary order is a very brief order, typically denying appellant’s petition.  This type of order is usually made without approximately two weeks of the oral argument.  So, no news is good news – for now.

A written decision can take a very long time – up to a year!  If the second circuit issues a written decision, it may or may not side with students.

The decision might take any number of forms.  Some possibilities:

• Denial of the petition: This means that the district court order stands, and the college officials are granted immunity.  If this happens, the students can appeal to an en banc panel of the court, asking the other judges to review their colleagues’ decision.  There will likely also be direct action in New Paltz in response to this decision.
• Remand with questions: In this case, the court might send the case back to district court with some additional questions for the district court judge to answer.  Once these matters of law are resolved, the case might proceed to discovery or it might still be dismissed.
• Reversal in whole or in part: The second circuit might reverse all or part of the district court decision and remand the case for discovery.  This is the best scenario for student free speech.

As soon as a decision is released, it will be posted here on CampusCoup.org.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 6th, 2009 at 8:33 pm and is filed under Releases. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.