Episode description

Welcome to Supreme Court Opinions. In this episode, you’ll hear the Court’s opinion in Acheson Hotels, LLC v Laufer.

In this case, the court considered this issue: Does an ADA “tester” have Article III standing to challenge a hotel’s failure to provide disability accessibility information on its website, even if she has no plans to visit the hotel?

The case was decided on December 5, 2023.

The Supreme Court vacated the case as moot because Laufer voluntarily dismissed her pending suits in lower courts with prejudice due to serious misconduct by her lawyers. Justice Amy Coney Barrett authored the majority opinion of the court vacating the case as moot and declining, despite Acheson’s request to the contrary, to resolve the still-live circuit split on the question of standing.

Justice Clarence Thomas authored an opinion concurring in the judgment arguing that he would reach the standing issue and resolve that question in the negative.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson author an opinion concurring in the judgment, explaining that she concurs only because of the Court’s precedent of vacating the judgment of the Court of Appeals below “when mootness occurs through . . . the unilateral action of the party who prevailed in the lower court.” In her view, however, vacatur is not appropriate in situations, as here, where the parties did not provide any equitable basis for vacatur.

The opinion is presented here in its entirety, but with citations omitted. If you appreciate this episode, please subscribe. Thank you.