Close enough?

A surprising amount of case law addresses not whether a particular legal conclusion is correct, but whether it is “correct enough”–qualified immunity, for example, as well as mandamus cases about whether a “clear error” occurred in applying the law. Another such area involves whether the Fifth or the Federal Circuit has appellate jurisdiction over “Walker Process cases”–antitrust claims based on enforcement of a fraudulent patent. In Chandler v. Phoenix Services LLC, the Fifth Circuit held:

“We differ with the Federal Circuit over whether we have appellate jurisdiction over Walker Process cases. But the Supreme Court has told us to accept circuit-to-circuit transfers if the jurisdictional question is ‘plausible.’ While we continue to disagree with the Federal Circuit on this point, we do not find the transfer implausible. We therefore accept the case and affirm the district court’s judgment.”

No. 21-10626 (Aug. 15, 2022) (citations omitted).