Justice Kavanaugh Still Wants to Hear More Cases

This morning’s Supreme Court Order List noted that the Court has granted certiorari in two cases (Carnahan v. Maloney and Brown v. U.S./Jackson v. U.S. combined) and noted jurisdiction in a third (Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP). The Court also denied certiorari in several dozen more.

One case in which the Court denied certiorari was Teva Pharmaceuticals USA v. GlaxoSmithKline LLC, which presented the question: “If a generic drug’s FDA-approved label carves out all of the language that the brand manufacturer has identified as covering its patented uses, can the generic manufacturer be held liable on a theory that its label still intentionally encourages infringement of those carved-out uses?” Of note, the Order List notes that Justice Kavanaugh would have granted certiorari.

This is not the first time Justice Kavanaugh has publicly noted his desire to hear a case in which his colleagues had little interest. As I noted last month, there have been at least two other instances in which Justice Kavanaugh dissented from the denial of certiorari this term.