Quest to Reclaim Stolen Pissarro Masterpiece Turns Erie. NFL Sued for Discrimination by Former Head Coach. Florida Supreme Court Rules ABA's CLE Programs Improperly Impose Quotas

• Date: 01 April 2022
• Author: Oran F. Whiting

Published in Litigation News Volume 47, Number 3, Spring 2022. © 2022 b y the American Bar Ass ociation. Reproduc ed with permission. A ll rights reserv ed. This information or an y portion there of may not be copied or dis seminated in any

form or by any means or sto red in an electronic da tabase or retrieval sy stem without the ex press writt en consent of the Amer ican Bar Associatio n.

++Quest to Reclaim Stolen Pissarro Masterpiece

Turns Erie

++NFL Sued for Discrimination by Former Head Coach

++Florida Supreme Court Rules ABA’s CLE Programs

Improperly Impose Quotas

U.S. SUP REME COUR T

First Amendment

The Supreme Court heard argument

about the scope of religious expres-

sion rights under the First Amendment

in connection with Boston’s rejection

of a request to f‌ly a f‌lag embraced by

some Protestant churches at City Hall

to celebrate Boston’s Judeo-Christian

heritage as well as Constitution Day.

The Court will also address whether

the city’s actions constituted an

unconstitutional expansion of the gov-

ernment speech doctrine. Shurtle v.

City of Boston, No. 20-1800.

Choice of Law—Erie

Doctrine

In a case involving the attempted

recovery of an Impressionist master-

piece stolen at the beginning of World

War II, the Supreme Court will opine

on choice of law when a federal court

hears state law claims brought under

the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.

At issue is whether the federal court

should apply the state’s choice-of-

law rules to determine what substan-

tive law governs the claims at issue,

or instead use federal common law to

choose the source of the substantive

law. In the underlying case, the heir

of the painting’s original owner sued

the country of Spain and a museum

in possession of the painting, assert-

ing conversion, unlawful possession

of property, and other common law

claims under California state law, seek-

ing both damages and the return

of the painting. Cassirer v. Thyssen-

Bornemisza Collection Foundation, No.

20-1566.

U.S. DEPAR TMENT OF JUS TICE

The Justice Department has f‌iled the

latest in a series of civil forfeiture

complaints in federal court concern-

ing the use of funds obtained through

alleged embezzlement and fraud from

PrivatBank in Ukraine, in violation of

federal money-laundering statutes. The

department alleges in its most recent

complaint that branches of PrivatBank

were involved with a web of entities

created to launder portions of mis-

appropriated funds. United States of

America v. The Promissory Note, No.

1:22-cv-20238.

U.S. DISTRICT COURTS

Southern District of New

York: Discrimination—

Section 1981

A former National Football League

(NFL) head coach has f‌iled a class

action discrimination complaint

against the NFL and three teams. Brian

Flores’s comprehensive complaint

alleges discrimination in hiring and

in the hiring process, disparate treat-

ment, unequal compensation, and

retention. At the time of f‌iling, Flores

was still being considered for head

coaching jobs in the NFL. Flores et

al. v. National Football League et el.,

No.1:22-cv-00871 D.

District of Columbia:

Environmental

The U.S. D istrict Court for the Distric t

of Columbia rul ed the Biden admin-

istration did not su ciently take cli-

mate change into acco unt when it

auctioned oi l and gas leases of more

than 80 million a cres in the Gulf

of Mexico. The cour t held the U.S.

Department of the Interior violated

the 1970 National Enviro nmental

AND MORE . . . BY HO N. ORAN F. WHITI NG (RET.), LITIGATION NEWS ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Policy Act by actin g “arbitrarily and

capriciousl y in excluding foreign con-

sumption from the ir greenhouse gas

emissions.” Friends of the Earth et al .,

v. Haaland et al., No. 21-2317.

STATE S

Colorado: Fourth

Amendment—Searches and

Seizures

The Colorado Supreme Court recently

armed an appellate court ruling

holding that the Colorado Springs

Police Department’s use of an adjust-

able camera mounted on a utility pole

across the street from a fenced-in sus-

pected drug house constituted a war-

rantless search violating the Fourth

Amendment. The court highlighted

the three-month duration, continuity,

and nature of surveillance as determi-

native of a violation. People v. Tafoya,

No. 20SC9.

Florida: Equal Protection

The ABA’s continuing legal education

(CLE) programs improperly impose

“quotas” on panels that “smack of

stereotyping or naked balancing,”

according to a recent Florida Supreme

Court ruling. The ruling armed a

lower court decision banning Florida

lawyers from receiving CLE credit for

programs requiring diversity among

panelists. In re Amendment to Rule

Regulating the Florida Bar 6-10.3, No.

SC21-284.

AMERICA N BAR ASSOCIATION SPRING 20 22 • VOL. 47 NO. 3 | 9

KEEPING WATCH EMERGING DEVELOPMENTS FOR LITIGATORS