So far this term the Supreme Court has granted certiorari to review two Third Circuit cases.

The first is Merrill Lynch v. Manning. The question presented, per Scotusblog:

Whether Section 27 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 provides federal jurisdiction over state-law claims seeking to establish liability based on violations of the Act or its regulations or seeking to enforce duties created by the Act or its regulations.

My summary of the Third Circuit opinion noted an explicit circuit split and that the loser had  high-powered counsel (headlined by former acting SG Walter Dellinger), so the cert grant is no big surprise. The case has been set for argument December 1.

The other one is Heffernan v. City of Paterson. Eugene Volokh was among the lawyers who signed the successful cert petition. The QP:

Whether the First Amendment bars the government from demoting a public employee based on a supervisor’s perception that the employee supports a political candidate.

I called the Third Circuit opinion a head-scratcher and described its holding as “[w]acky.” Time will tell whether the Court agrees.