Facebook, Inc. v. Amalgamated Bank
The Supreme Court dismissed Facebook's case in a single sentence, leaving the Ninth Circuit's ruling in place without deciding any legal question or explaining why it changed course after agreeing to hear the case.
How it got here: The case arose from the Ninth Circuit; the Supreme Court granted review but then dismissed the case without deciding it on the merits.
The Case in Depth
What happened
The Supreme Court's one-line order provides no description of the underlying dispute. Facebook, Inc. and affiliated entities sought Supreme Court review of a Ninth Circuit decision brought by Amalgamated Bank and other parties. The Court agreed to hear the case but issued no opinion on the merits.
The question before the Court
What legal question from the Ninth Circuit, involving Facebook and Amalgamated Bank, did the Supreme Court agree — then decline — to decide?
Why it matters
The Ninth Circuit's ruling is the final word for these parties, but the Supreme Court's dismissal sets no new legal precedent — it neither endorses nor rejects what the lower court decided. Anyone watching this case for broader legal guidance is left to look elsewhere.
What changes now
The Ninth Circuit's decision stands and governs the outcome of this dispute. The Supreme Court's dismissal creates no new legal precedent. Any further proceedings between the parties will be conducted under the Ninth Circuit's ruling. The Court gave no indication whether a different case raising the same legal question might be accepted in the future.
What this does not decide
The Court decided nothing about the underlying legal dispute. The dismissal neither approves nor disapproves the Ninth Circuit's reasoning. Any legal question Facebook sought to have resolved remains unsettled at the Supreme Court level.
How the Court got there
The legal reasoning, step by step
- The Court's entire order is one sentence — no reasoning is provided. A dismissal as improvidently granted (sometimes called a 'DIG') means the Court decided, after agreeing to hear the case, that it was not a suitable vehicle to resolve the legal question presented.
- A DIG restores the Ninth Circuit's ruling to full effect without the Supreme Court passing judgment on whether that ruling was right or wrong. It does not create binding precedent for any other case.
- Because the order is unsigned and unelaborated, there is no way to know from the opinion text alone why the Court chose not to proceed — disagreement over the facts, the record, the framing of the question, or the parties' standing are among the typical reasons courts dismiss cases this way.