Americans for Prosperity and Americans for Prosperity Foundation frequently write amicus curiae briefs to support other litigants and present important issues to courts. Please contact us at amicus@afphq.org if you would like amicus support for your case.
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| Case Name | Year | Question Presented | Court | Issue Area | Attorneys | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Gatewood v. United States | 2021 | (1) Whether cause exists to excuse a habeas petitioner’s procedural default when near-unanimous circuit precedent foreclosed the petitioner’s claim; and (2) whether cause exists to excuse a habeas petitioner’s procedural default when the Supreme Court explicitly overrules one of its precedents. | U.S. Supreme Court | Criminal Justice Reform | |
| Daves v. Dallas County | 2021 | Whether pre-determined, scheduled bail schemes that do not provide individualized bail determinations violate the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. | Fifth Circuit | Criminal Justice Reform | |
| Curry v. United States | 2021 | Whether the drug conduct in the Armed Career Criminal Act’s “serious drug offense” definition in 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(A)(ii) requires knowledge of the illicit nature of the controlled substance. | U.S. Supreme Court | Criminal Justice Reform | |
 | Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. | 2021 | Whether Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503 (1969), which holds that public school officials may regulate speech that would materially and substantially disrupt the work and discipline of the school, applies to student speech that occurs off campus. | U.S. Supreme Court | Free Expression | |
 | Axon Enterprise, Inc. v. FTC | 2021 | Whether the Federal Trade Commission Act bars district court review of substantial constitutional claims during the pendency of an administrative proceeding. | Ninth Circuit | Regulatory Reform | |
| Ramirez v. Guadarrama | 2021 | Whether, in light of Taylor v. Riojas, the Fifth Circuit panel erred in granting qualified immunity to officers who tased a man they knew to be covered in gasoline causing him to catch fire and die. | Fifth Circuit | Criminal Justice Reform | |
 | Carson v. Makin | 2021 | Whether a state violates the religion clauses or equal protection clause of the United States Constitution by prohibiting students participating in an otherwise generally available student-aid program from choosing to use their aid to attend schools that provide religious, or “sectarian,” instruction. Read more. | U.S. Supreme Court | Educational Freedom | |
 | Thompson v. Marietta Education Association | 2021 | (1) Whether the government violates the First Amendment when it designates a labor union to represent and speak for public-sector employees who object to its advocacy on their behalf; and (2) whether Minnesota State Board for Community Colleges v. Knight should be limited to it's holding or overruled. | U.S. Supreme Court | Public Sector Workforce | |
| Terry v. United States | 2021 | Whether pre-August 3, 2010, crack offenders sentenced under 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(C) have a “covered offense” under Section 404 of the First Step Act. | U.S. Supreme Court | Criminal Justice Reform | |
| Andrews v. New Jersey | 2021 | Whether the self-incrimination clause of the Fifth Amendment protects an individual from being compelled to recall and truthfully disclose a memorized passcode, when communicating the passcode may lead to the discovery of incriminating evidence to be used against him in a criminal prosecution. Read more. | U.S. Supreme Court | Criminal Justice Reform | |
| Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid | 2021 | Whether a California regulation that grants union organizers access to private agricultural property without compensating the landowner is a physical taking under the Fifth Amendment. Read more. | U.S. Supreme Court | Regulatory Reform | |
| Butler v. Watson | 2021 | Whether the reduction of Mississippi's congressional districts from five to four in 2002 invalidates Section 273(3) of the state Constitution, which permits constitutional amendment via ballot initiative. | Mississippi Supreme Court | Free Expression | |
| United States v. Arthrex, Inc. | 2020 | Whether administrative patent judges of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office are principal or inferior Officers; and, if they are principal officers, the court of appeals properly cured any appointments clause defect by severing the application of 5 U.S.C. § 7513(a) to those judges. | U.S. Supreme Court | Regulatory Reform | |
 | New Hampshire v. Massachusetts | 2020 | Whether Massachusetts can tax New Hampshire citizens who work for Massachusetts companies but work remotely from New Hampshire. | U.S. Supreme Court | Fiscal | |
 | Cochran v. SEC | 2020 | Whether judicially created barriers to timely and meaningful Article III review of agency actions are inconsistent with the separation of powers and the text, structure, and history of the U.S. Constitution. | Fifth Circuit | Separation of Powers | |
| Hoever v. Carraway | 2020 | Whether Section 1997e of the Prison Litigation Reform Act bars recovery of punitive damages for violations of prisoners' First Amendment rights. | Eleventh Circuit | Criminal Justice Reform | |
 | FCC v. Prometheus Radio Project | 2020 | Whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit erred in vacating as arbitrary and capricious the Federal Communications Commission orders under review, which, among other things, relaxed the agency’s cross-ownership restrictions to accommodate changed market conditions. | U.S. Supreme Court | Technology & Innovation | |
| United States v. Kousisis | 2020 | Whether breaches of contractual terms involving intangible interests are “money or property” within the meaning of the federal property fraud statutes sufficient to support criminal liability under a “basis of the bargain” theory. | Third Circuit | Criminal Justice Reform | |
| Courtney v. Danner | 2020 | Whether the Ninth Circuit mistakenly applied the Commerce Clause as a limitation on citizens’ rights to use the navigable waters of the United States rather than incorporating those rights against the states through the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Read more. | U.S. Supreme Court | Regulatory Reform | |
| Jimmy Richardson, II, v. Twenty Thousand Seven Hundred Seventy-One and 00/100 Dollars U.S. Currency | 2020 | Whether South Carolina’s civil asset forfeiture regime is facially unconstitutional. | South Carolina Supreme Court | Criminal Justice Reform | |
| 4 Good Government v. Davidson County Election Commission | 2020 | Whether the Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act will be placed on the ballot. Read more. | Davidson County Chancery Court of Tennessee | Separation of Powers | |
| Oklahoma v. Johnson & Johnson | 2020 | Whether the Oklahoma trial court’s expansion of the public nuisance doctrine and equitable abatement remedy to hold Johnson & Johnson liable for the opioid crisis violates the separation of powers. | Oklahoma Supreme Court | Separation of Powers | |
| Stein v. United States | 2020 | Whether the Due Process Clause excuses the government’s knowing use of false testimony in a criminal prosecution so long as the government divulged evidence during discovery indicating that the testimony was false. | U.S. Supreme Court | Criminal Justice Reform | |
| AMG Capital Management, LLC v. FTC | 2020 | Whether Section 13(b) of the Federal Trade Commission Act, by authorizing “injunction[s],” also authorizes the Federal Trade Commission to demand monetary relief such as restitution—and if so, the scope of the limits or requirements for such relief. Read more. | U.S. Supreme Court | Technology & Innovation | |
| Gibson v. SEC | 2020 | Whether judicially-created barriers to timely and meaningful Article III review of agency actions are inconsistent with the separation of powers and the text, structure, and history of the U.S. Constitution. | U.S. Supreme Court | Separation of Powers | |
| Uzuegbunam v. Preczewski | 2020 | Whether a government’s post-filing change of an unconstitutional policy moots nominal-damages claims that vindicate the government’s past, completed violation of a plaintiff’s constitutional right. Read more. | U.S. Supreme Court | Free Expression | |
| Collins v. Mnuchin | 2020 | Whether the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s structure violates the separation of powers; and whether the courts must set aside a final agency action that FHFA took when it was unconstitutionally structured and strike down the statutory provisions that make FHFA independent. | U.S. Supreme Court | Separation of Powers | |
| Mountaire Farms, Inc. v. United Food and Commercial Workers Local 27 | 2020 | Whether the Contract Bar Doctrine is unconstitutional. | National Labor Relations Board | Private Sector Labor & Employment | |
| NAACP v. DeVos | 2020 | Whether a rule implemented by the Dept. of Education to apportion CARES Act funds between public and private schools is illegal. | District Court for D.C. | Foundational Education | |
| Fochtman v. Hendren Plastics, Inc. | 2020 | Whether participants in a voluntary drug-court program were employees under the Arkansas Minimum Wage Act. | Eighth Circuit | Criminal Justice Reform | |
| Lawall v. Hobbs | 2020 | Whether the Second Chances Act is a valid ballot initiative. | Arizona Superior Court | Criminal Justice Reform | |
| CIC Services, LLC v. IRS | 2020 | Whether the Anti-Injunction Act’s bar on lawsuits for the purpose of restraining the assessment or collection of taxes also bars challenges to unlawful regulatory mandates issued by administrative agencies that are not taxes. Read more. | U.S. Supreme Court | Regulatory Reform | |
| Wikimedia v. NSA | 2020 | Whether NSA's mass surveillance of international internet communications is unconstitutional. | Fourth Circuit | Technology & Innovation | |
| Van Buren v. U.S. | 2020 | Whether a person who is authorized to access information on a computer for certain purposes violates Section 1030(a)(2) of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act if he accesses the same information for an improper purpose. Read more. | U.S. Supreme Court | Technology & Innovation | |
| Indian River County v. Dept. of Transportation | 2020 | Whether the court of appeals properly deferred to the agency’s informal views under Skidmore, without finding the statute ambiguous or applying (much less exhausting) traditional interpretive tools. Read more. | U.S. Supreme Court | Separation of Powers | |
| Philadelphia Community Bail Fund v. Arraignment Court Magistrates of the First Judicial District | 2020 | Whether the Pennsylvania Supreme Court should provide standards for setting bail and to reform the existing bail system. | Pennsylvania Supreme Court | Criminal Justice Reform | |
| Fulton v. City of Philadelphia | 2020 | Whether Philadelphia may prohibit Catholic Social Services from participating in the city's foster child placement program because it refuses to violate its religious belief on same-sex couples. | U.S. Supreme Court | Free Expression | |
| American Society of Journalists and Authors v. Becerra | 2020 | Whether California Assembly Bill 5 violates the First Amendment by treating speakers differently based on their identity and communicative activities. | Ninth Circuit | Free Expression | |
| Taylor v. Riojas | 2020 | Whether the Court should recalibrate or reverse the doctrine of qualified immunity. | U.S. Supreme Court | Criminal Justice Reform | |
| Schires v. City of Peoria | 2020 | Whether the city's provision of financial support to firms violates the Arizona Constitution's Gift Clause. Read more. | Arizona Supreme Court | Cronyism | |
| Borden v. U.S. | 2020 | Whether a criminal offense that can be committed with a mens rea of recklessness can qualify as a "violent felony" under the Armed Career Criminal Act, 18 U.S.C. 924(e). | U.S. Supreme Court | Criminal Justice Reform | |
| Wisconsin Legislature v. Palm | 2020 | Whether the Wisconsin COVID-19 shutdown orders are lawful. Read more. | Wisconsin Supreme Court | Separation of Powers | |
| Rozenblit v. Lyles | 2020 | Whether the release-time provisions in the collective-bargaining agreement violate the New Jersey Constitution, statute, or public policy. | New Jersey Supreme Court | Public Sector Workforce | |
| U.S. v. Jackson | 2020 | Whether the First Step Act's charge-stacking prohibition applies and whether a sentence has been "imposed" if an appellate court vacates a district court's sentence and remands for resentencing. | Sixth Circuit | Criminal Justice Reform | |
| SEC v. Romeril | 2020 | Whether the SEC's policy of requiring gag clauses in settlement orders violates the First Amendment and whether the clauses are void as against public policy. | Second Circuit | Free Expression | |
| Jessop v. City of Fresno | 2020 | Whether the Court should recalibrate or reverse the doctrine of qualified immunity. | U.S. Supreme Court | Criminal Justice Reform | |
| Fleming v. USDA | 2020 | What is the proper relief due from an adjudication by an unconstitutionally appointed ALJ? | D.C. Circuit | Separation of Powers | |
| Uzuegbunam v. Preczewski | 2020 | Whether a government's post-filing change of an unconstitutional policy moots nominal-damages claims that vindicate the government's past, completed violation of a plaintiff's constitutional right. Read more. | U.S. Supreme Court | Free Expression | |
| CIC Services v. IRS | 2020 | Whether Due Process requires an exception from the Anti-Injunction Act for IRS regulations enforced with criminal sanction and without an alternative avenue for review. | U.S. Supreme Court | Regulatory Reform | |
| Lucia v. SEC | 2020 | Whether a federal court has jurisdiction to hear claims of constitutional violations and ultra vires agency action while an administrative proceeding is ongoing. | Ninth Circuit | Separation of Powers | |
| Walker v. United States | 2020 | Whether a criminal offense that can be committed with a mens rea of recklessness can qualify as a "violent felony" under the Armed Career Criminal Act, 18 U.S.C. 924(e). | U.S. Supreme Court | Criminal Justice Reform | |
| Liu v. SEC | 2019 | Whether the SEC may seek and obtain disgorgement from a court as 'equitable relief' for a securities law violation even though this Court has determined that such disgorgement is a penalty. Read more. | U.S. Supreme Court | Separation of Powers | |
| Seila Law LLC v. CFPB | 2019 | Whether the CFPB's structure violates the separation of powers and whether Humprey's Executor should be narrowed. | U.S. Supreme Court | Separation of Powers | |
 | Maine Community Health Options v. United States | 2019 | Whether Congress may defund the risk corridor program created by the Affordable Care Act. Read more. | U.S. Supreme Court | Healthcare | |
| Baldwin v. United States | 2019 | Whether the U.S. Supreme Court should overturn its prior decision in Brand X, which grants deference to agency interpretations of statutes. Read more. | U.S. Supreme Court | Separation of Powers | |
| Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue | 2019 | Does it violate the Religion Clauses or Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution to invalidate a generally available and religiously neutral student-aid program simply because the program affords students the choice of attending religious schools? | U.S. Supreme Court | Foundational Education | |
| HRDC v. Baxter County | 2019 | Whether inmates can obtain news and other information and make communications while incarcerated. | Eighth Circuit | Criminal Justice Reform | |
| Donna Harper v. West Virginia AFL-CIO | 2019 | Whether West Virginia's right to work law is unconstitutional. Read more. | West Virginia Supreme Court | Private Sector Labor & Employment | |
| Baxter v. Harris | 2019 | Qualified immunity for law enforcement. | U.S. Supreme Court | Criminal Justice Reform | |
| Jessop v. City of Fresno | 2019 | Qualified immunity for law enforcement. Read more. | Ninth Circuit | Criminal Justice Reform | |
| Prison Legal News vs Florida Dept. of Corrections | 2018 | First Amendment challenge to Florida Dept. of Corrections shutting down a magazine citing security reasons. | Eleventh Circuit | Free Expression | |
| Timbs v. Indiana | 2018 | Whether the Excessive Fines Clause of the Eighth Amendment is enforceable against the States. Read more. | U.S. Supreme Court | Criminal Justice Reform | |
| Frank v. Gaos | 2018 | Whether the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause, the First Amendment's Free Speech Clause, and Rule 23(e)(2) require courts to reject proposed cy pres class action settlements that deprive class members of their legal remedies and compel speech approved of by class counsel, defendants, and the court without meaningful consent by class members. | U.S. Supreme Court | Free Expression | |
| Almighty Supreme Born Allah v. Milling | 2018 | Qualified immunity for law enforcement. Read more. | U.S. Supreme Court | Criminal Justice Reform | |
| South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. | 2018 | Can states force out-of-state businesses to collect and remit sales tax. Read more. | U.S. Supreme Court | Regulatory Reform | |
| Delaware Strong Families v. Denn | 2016 | Whether a state's interest in “increas[ing] . . . information concerning those who support the candidates,” Buckley v. Valeo, permits it to condition a charity's publication of a nonpartisan voter education guide, which lists all candidates equally and makes no endorsements, upon the immediate and public disclosures of the names and addresses of individuals making unrelated donations over the previous four years. | U.S. Supreme Court | Free Expression | |
| Community Financial Services Association of America v. FDIC | 2014 | Whether "Operation Chokepoint" conducted by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Department of Justice was unlawful. | District Court for D.C. | Regulatory Reform |