Acheson Hotels, LLC v. Laufer

Certiorari To The United States Court Of Appeals For The First Circuit

No. 22–429. Argued October 4, 2023—Decided December 5, 2023

The Court granted review in this case to consider whether Deborah Laufer has Article III standing to sue hotels whose websites failed to state whether they have accessible rooms for the disabled as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, even if Laufer had no thought of staying at the hotels, much less booking a room. After a lower court sanctioned her lawyer, Laufer voluntarily dismissed her pending suits, including her case against Acheson Hotels, LLC, and filed a suggestion of mootness in this Court. Though Laufer’s case is moot, the circuit split on the issue briefed and argued in this Court is very much alive.

Held: This case is vacated as moot. The Court has the authority to address jurisdictional issues of mootness and standing in any order it chooses. See Sinochem Int’l Co. v. Malaysia Int’l Shipping Corp., 549 U. S. 422, 431. And while the Court is sensitive to Acheson’s concern about litigants manipulating this Court’s jurisdiction, the Court is not convinced that Laufer abandoned her case in an effort to evade the Court’s review. Pp. 2–3.

50 F. 4th 259, vacated and remanded.

 Barrett, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Roberts, C. J., and Alito, Sotomayor, Kagan, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh, JJ., joined. Thomas, J., and Jackson, J., filed opinions concurring in the judgment.