Opinion

Hettinga v. United States

  • 677 F.3d 471
  • 400 U.S. App. D.C. 218
  • 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 7443
  • 2012 WL 1232592
Court
Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
Filed
Apr 13, 2012
Status
Published
Author
Griffith
On the bench
Sentelle, Brown, Griffith
Cited by
613 cases

recognizing that courts may deny a motion to amend if the amendment would be futile

How later courts described this case

  • recognizing that courts may deny a motion to amend if the amendment would be futile
  • holding that a court need not “accept legal conclusions cast as factual allegations[,]” or “inferences drawn by [the] plaintiff if those inferences are not supported by the facts set out in the complaint”
  • noting that “[t]he challenger bears the burden of showing that the statute is not a rational means of advancing a legitimate government purpose”
  • holding that plaintiffs must plead a “threshold requirement” of due process claims: “that the government has interfered with a cognizable liberty or property interest”

Written by the judges who cited it.

The opinion

GRIFFITH, Circuit Judge,

concurring:

I, too, agree fully with the per curiam opinion, but do not join my colleagues’ concurrence with its spirited criticism of the Supreme Court’s long-standing approach to claims of economic liberty. Although by no means unsympathetic to their criticism nor critical of their choice to express their perspective, I am reluctant to set forth my own views on the wisdom of such a broad area of the Supreme Court’s settled jurisprudence that was not challenged by the petitioner.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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