Instead of issuing a real decision and explaining itself, the Supreme Court summarily disposed of Coke v. Long Island Care, vacating and remanding the case to Second Circuit in light of a Department of Labor Memorandum issued 4 months after the Second Circuit’s decision. The memo presumably promises that the Second Circuit misunderstood what it intended in 1974 (though of course it had every opportunity to make its view clear during litigation). I previously explained what was at stake in this case here.
I hope the Second Circuit sticks to its guns and simply holds — as I think it should — that the DOL’s excuses after the fact don’t change the Court’s correct legal conclusions one bit. Unfortunately, my money is elsewhere.
[UPDATE: The DOL Memorandum was issued a year and 4 months after the Second Circuit’s ruling]
Posted by Ethan Leib on January 23, 2006 at 11:14 AM