Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Citizens United Appeal

I had been predicting that the Court would not hear the Citizens United appeal, arising out of tv advertisements for an anti-Hillary Clinton movie. Today the Court dismissed the case for want of jurisdiction, after asking for briefing on the question whether the jurisdictional statute allows a direct appeal to the Supreme Court for a non-final challenge to a provision of BCRA. Justice Breyer would have summarily affirmed.

I believe the time has expired for Citizens United to have appealed the denial of their request for a preliminary injunction to the DC Circuit. It is possible that the case will continue, with Citizens United pushing for a final judgment on the merits and then coming back to the Supreme Court for a ruling.

Posted by Rick Hasen at March 24, 2008 07:14 AM