US Supreme Court grants rare summer certiorari in Jouppi v. Alaska

Over the summer, the Supreme Court typically issues miscellaneous orders as needed for individual cases. Toward the end of July and August, the Court usually releases a formal orders list, with most entries consisting of denials of rehearing or orders in pending cases. However, today's order list contained a surprise: a cert grant.

25-246 JOUPPI, KENNETH J. V. ALASKA — The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted.

Question Presented

The question before the Court is:

"Whether, in determining whether a fine contravenes the Excessive Fines Clause, courts may consider the gravity of the underlying offense purely in the abstract or should consider the gravity of the specific defendant's wrongdoing."

Unusual Procedural History

This case has an unusual posture:

• The cert petition was filed in August 2025.
• On November 25, the case was distributed for the December 12 conference.
• No action was taken for some time, suggesting a Justice may have been holding the case pending resolution of Pung v. Isabella County, decided on June 23.
• On June 25, the Petitioner filed a supplemental brief arguing that Pung "proved largely irrelevant to this case, plenary review continues to be warranted" and "casts no doubt on the cert-worthiness of the petition here." The Respondent did not file anything.
• The case was then conferenced at the June 29 cleanup conference.
• No grant was issued on June 30, alongside other cases.

Now, nearly three weeks later, the grant has arrived.

Possible Explanations

What happened in the interim? Several possibilities emerge:

• Did the Justices tentatively decide to grant on June 29, pending further internal deliberations?
• Did a Justice want to take one more look before granting?
• Did the Justices discuss the case over the summer break?
• Did they simply want to fill the fall calendar?

This process is highly unusual.

Historical Precedent

SCOTUSBlog identified several prior instances of summer cert grants:

• August 2012: Cert was granted in Chafin v. Chafin, a case distributed for the long conference that was granted earlier.
• August 2021: Two cases — Johnson v. Arteaga-Martinez and Garland v. Gonzalez — were conferenced at the July 1 conference and granted about a month later.

Broader Context

Next week, I will publish an essay arguing that the Court should eliminate the summer recess, in part to avoid cert petitions piling up over the summer. Today's orders list provides a useful data point for that argument.