Supreme Court experience
U.S. Supreme Court
John has worked on more than 20 merits cases at the U.S. Supreme Court, winning most of them. He personally argued 13 of those cases, ranging from constitutional questions to telecommunications law to intellectual property (with audio links):
- Medina v. Planned Parenthood
- R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes v. EEOC
- Lee v. United States
- Star Athletica, LLC v. Varsity Brands, Inc.
- Obergefell v. Hodges
- Michigan v. Bay Mills Indian Community
- Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action By Any Means Necessary
- Burt v. Titlow
- McQuiggin v. Perkins
- Metrish v. Lancaster
- Lafler v. Cooper
- Howes v. Fields
- Talk America v. Michigan Bell Telephone Co.
Michigan Supreme Court
John has argued 36 Michigan Supreme Court cases, 34 of them just since 2011, and has argued multiple cases in the Michigan Supreme Court in eight separate Terms (five in the 2016-17 Term alone). John has received a record nine Distinguished Brief Awards for his Michigan Supreme Court work, and he is the principal author of the Guide to Counsel, the Court's own publication regarding effective written and oral advocacy before the Court.
John's arguments include many of the Michigan Supreme Court's most significant decisions in recent years, such as the validity of Michigan's Freedom to Work legislation, the proper legal standard to apply when assessing the validity of commercial non-competes, the interplay between Michigan's sales and use taxes, the constitutionality of Michigan's deadbeat-parent law, and multiple disputes involving Michigan ballot initiatives.
