Monday, August 29, 2011

Constitutionality of Mandatory Stay Pending ITC Investigation Questioned

The court denied the parties' joint motion to stay pending an ITC proceeding but sua sponte granted a stay pending further order of the court. "[T]he Court doubts the constitutionality of Section 1659(a)'s requirement that a district court 'shall stay' a case. Such provision appears to go beyond the legislative powers granted to Congress under Article I of the Constitution. See U.S. Const. art. 1, §§ 1,8; Hayburn's Case, 2 U.S. (2 Dall.) 408, 410 (1792) ('no decision of any court in the United States can, under any circumstances, in our opinion, agreeable to the constitution, be liable to a revision, or even a suspension, by the legislature itself, in whom no judicial power of any kind appears to be vested, but the important one relative to impeachments'). However, the Court does not so hold at this time. It is therefore ordered . . . that this action is stayed pending further order of this Court."

Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. v. Zoran Corporation, et. al., 1-11-cv-00472 (TXWD August 25, 2011, Order) (Yeakel, J.)

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