Insider view on how the Supreme Court works these days: Q&A with Hodgson Russ General Counsel

Like most institutions, the U.S. Supreme Court is evolving, and the decisions being made these days have gained a lot of attention among business leaders and the public. Recently it has reinstated voting maps, struck down pandemic measures and reinstated relaxed environmental rules. In addition, the Supreme Court’s majority appears to have eliminated “irreparable harm” from the stay analysis, and instead it’s simply staying decisions the majority does not like.   

In this episode of the Thought Leaders in Law and Business podcast, presented by Hodgson Russ and The Business Journals, Buffalo Business First Publisher John Tebeau interviews Hodgson Russ Partner and General Counsel Kevin Kearney on how the highest court in the land works these days. 

Kearney has defended clients in securities and antitrust class actions, litigated a wide variety of corporate governance disputes and has real-world experience with the Supreme Court. He clerked for Judge James L. Oakes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and for Associate Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the U.S. Supreme Court during the October 1988 term. After his federal clerkships, he served as a confidential advisor to Judge Howard M. Holzmann of the Iran/U.S. Claims Tribunal at The Hague, which dealt with a variety of public and private international law issues.

“It's important for folks to recognize the Supreme Court doesn't view its role as correcting error,” Kearney said. “The fact that a court below got it wrong is interesting, but it's not going to be a basis for the court to take a question. What the court's going to be doing is resolving conflicts and to deal with important federal questions.”

Listen to this episode to learn more about: 

• How the Supreme Court decides what issues and what cases it will hear.
• How the cert pool works in dividing up responsibilities amongst clerks of the court.
• The influence law clerks have, which is a controversial subject.  
• The standards the Supreme Court applies when deciding to grant cert.
• What the “shadow docket” is and the court’s ability to enter extraordinary orders. 

Learn more about Hodgson Russ at hodgsonruss.com.

This podcast does not provide legal advice.