SCT: Breyer to Jackson

by Dennis Crouch

Justice Stephen Breyer is retiring today from the Supreme Court after 28 years on the bench.  Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will be sworn-in as his replacement. Congratulations!  Justice Breyer was an administrative law and copyright scholar at Harvard before moving into the judiciary in 1980 (1st Circuit). President Bill Clinton nominated Breyer to the Supreme Court in 1994 on the retirement of Harry Blackmun.

Justice Breyer wrote the opinion for a unanimous court in Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc., 566 U.S. 66 (2012).  That decision established the two step eligibility test and broadly construed the concept of a ‘law of nature.’ In Dickinson v. Zurko, 527 U.S. 150 (1999), Justice Breyer wrote the majority opinion holding that the Administrative Procedure Act’s (APA) standards applied to appellate review of USPTO factual findings.  The result is a high level of deference and thus a low chance of overturning a PTAB factual finding on appeal.

Judge Jackson was a D.C. district court judge and then later on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. on the the D.C.  In those roles, she handled a number of administrative cases in the FDA/Patent space.

17 thoughts on “SCT: Breyer to Jackson

  1. 8

    Prof. Crouch, I have another moderated comment (it would correspond to #8) due to multiple links. Please do the needful when you’re able, thanks!

  2. 7

    Dennis doesn’t like me criticizing the new dictator.

    But she will be awful. Swirling psychotic abstractions built on a framework of the woke. No connection with reality. G*d help our country.

    1. 4.1

      I was wrong. Still there are so many odd things about that case. My bet is they will take another one that is similar to American Axel but doesn’t have all the oddities about it.

      1. 4.1.1

        My bet is they will take another one that is similar to American Axel but doesn’t have all the oddities about it.

        From your lips to God’s own ears.

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