Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. on Wednesday announced his first signed opinion since joining the Supreme Court, and it fit the Court’s traditional formula for maiden efforts: brief, unanimous, and not destined for the top 10 list of the Court’s decisions of the term.
Roberts’ debut came in Martin v. Franklin Capital Corp., an attorney-fee case argued Nov. 8, which is an unusually quick turnaround for any justice, novice or veteran.
The case, which interpreted the statute that governs the removal and remand of civil cases between state and federal courts, did not lend itself to soaring constitutional rhetoric, and it got none from Roberts.
Instead it was a straightforward eight-and-a-half-page ruling with few flourishes and only one footnote. The Court ruled that when a case is removed to federal court but then sent back to state court, attorney fees should not be awarded when the party who sought removal had an objectively reasonable basis for doing so.