immigration-Related Case in Supreme Court

This case really is more about civil procedure than immigration law, at least it is a civil procedure issue (the scope of the so-called final judgment rule that generally bars federal appeals of anything but final judgments) that the Supreme Court has agreed to address.  Still, the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday agreed to review an Eleveneth Circuit decision requiring Mohawk Industries Inc. (Mohawk Indus. Inc. v. Carpenter) to respond to discovery requests by a former employee who claimed he was fired for refusing to recant his allegation that the company employed undocumented workers.  The justices granted Mohawk’s petition for review the Eleventh Circuit’s decision that a district court’s discovery order, which found that the company had waived the attorney-client privilege, was not yet appealable.  See 541 F.3d 1048 (11th Cir. 2008). Discovery orders ordinarily are not appealable until the district court has entered a final judgment in the case.

Mohawk is a defendant in a separate suit alleging that it violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and the Georgia RICO law by conspiring with labor recruiters to hire illegal workers in order to reduce labor costs and depress wages for legal workers (Williams v. Mohawk Indus. Inc., N.D. Ga., No. 4:04-cv-03). The U.S. Supreme Court in February 2007 let stand the Eleventh Circuit’s September 2006 ruling denying Mohawk’s motion to dismiss the RICO claims.  See 465 F.3d 1277 (11th Cir. 2006).

SCOTUS has posted various filings in the case.

KJ