What happened
The U.S. Supreme Court sent Grande Communications Networks' copyright fight with UMG Recordings back to the Fifth Circuit for another look in light of the justices' Cox Communications decision.
In an order list, the court granted Grande's certiorari petition, vacated the judgment below and remanded the case to the Fifth Circuit for further consideration under Cox Communications Inc. v. Sony Music Entertainment. The order list does not describe the underlying claims, the Fifth Circuit's reasoning or the specific Cox issue the lower court must revisit.
The justices also issued grant-vacate-remand orders in several other matters. They sent Alexander Sittenfeld's case back to the Sixth Circuit in light of a pending motion to dismiss the indictment, directed the Ninth Circuit to send the FBI v. Fazaga matter to the district court for reconsideration in light of recent factual developments and the government's motion to dismiss, and remanded Stephen K. Bannon's case to the D.C. Circuit in light of a pending motion to dismiss the indictment.
Two additional criminal matters, brought by Wesley Swick and Rodrick Johnson, were returned to the Fifth Circuit for further consideration in light of Rico v. United States. The court granted the petitioners leave to proceed in forma pauperis, granted certiorari, vacated the judgments and remanded the cases.
The order list also asked the solicitor general to file a brief expressing the federal government's views in Aldridge v. Regions Bank, a step that often signals the justices want the administration's assessment before deciding whether to take up a case. The packet does not include the petition or lower-court decision in Aldridge, so the legal question presented cannot be verified from the supplied source.
Separately, the court granted certiorari in Johnson v. United States Congress and denied review in a longer list of matters, including Schoenthal v. Raoul, InComm Financial Services v. Superior Court of California and Shop Rite v. Small Business Administration. No dissents, concurrences or explanations accompanied the denial entries in the supplied spans.