Briefing Schedule Sought on Petitions for Review of Digital Discrimination Order

clerk of court Michael Gans wrote counsel for the various parties Wednesday. The proposed briefing schedule “should either provide for briefing to be complete, and the cases ready for submission on the merits,” before the end of calendar 2024, or include an explanation “why the parties believe such a schedule is not reasonably attainable,” his letter said. In his initial review of the petitions, Gans “has preliminarily identified two groups of petitioners, with the members of each group appearing to challenge the agency action in one of two different respects,” it said, without specificity. He thus anticipates that the consolidated cases “will be broken into two tracks, with each of the two groups briefing their respective issues separately, before the cases are ultimately argued and submitted together to the same panel of judges on the same day,” it said. He asked that the proposed briefing schedule “indicate whether the parties agree with the clerk’s preliminary assessment that two separate tracks are warranted.” Gans also asked whether the petitioners intend to submit separate opening briefs, a single consolidated opening brief, or two consolidated opening briefs, “one from each preliminarily identified group of petitioners.”