SCOTUS Grants Cert in Due Process Case

Supreme Court and appellate litigation head Shay Dvoretzky, counsel Parker Rider-Longmaid, and associate Kyser Blakely secured a grant of certiorari on behalf of Halima Tariffa Culley and Lena Sutton in Culley v. Marshall. The case presents an important due process question in the context of civil forfeiture proceedings. Federal and state courts are split 5-2 over which standard applies when deciding whether and when due process requires a post-seizure, prejudgment hearing to challenge the government’s retention of property during civil forfeiture proceedings: the three-factor inquiry from Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319 (1976), or the four-factor speedy trial test from Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514 (1972). Culley is the eighth merits case the Supreme Court and appellate litigation practice will handle since launching just over two years ago.