Deepak Gupta

Public Citizen Litigation Group
1600 20th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009
(202) 588-1000 | E-mail: dgupta @ citizen.org

Deepak Gupta is a staff attorney at Public Citizen Litigation Group, the litigating arm of the non-profit consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen. Deepak runs the group's Consumer Justice Project, which collaborates with private lawyers and other organizations nationwide on class actions and appeals that have the potential to broadly impact consumers' rights. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center and American University's Washington College of Law, teaching courses on public interest law and appellate advocacy.

Deepak's practice focuses on consumer law, constitutional law, and general appellate litigation. He has presented oral argument in the state supreme courts of Alaska, Connecticut, Maryland, and Michigan, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (twice) and the Eleventh Circuit (twice), and federal district courts in Washington, D.C., New York, San Francisco, and San Jose. He has briefed numerous cases, both as lead counsel and co-counsel, in the U.S. Supreme Court, several federal appeals courts, and state appellate courts. Deepak's cases have involved a wide range of topics, including procedural and substantive due process, Eleventh Amendment immunity, the free speech and petition clauses of the First Amendment, mandatory arbitration, the federal preemption doctrine, class action fairness, and federal statutes including the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Federal Arbitration Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act.

In addition to his litigation work, Deepak has engaged in public policy advocacy related to his cases, has appeared on television and radio programs including ABC’s World News and Good Morning America, CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight, and National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, and has been quoted by such as publications as the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and USA Today. He is a co-coordinator of the Consumer Law & Policy Blog and Editor of The Consumer Advocate, the journal of the National Association of Consumer Advocates.

Deepak joined Public Citizen in 2004, serving for one year as the Alan Morrison Supreme Court Assistance Fellow. In that position, he coordinated the organization's assistance to lawyers arguing public interest cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and prepared cert-stage and merits-stage petitions and briefs on questions ranging from the constitutional implications of nationwide class actions to the substantive due process rights of pretrial detainees. Deepak continues to assist other lawyers with Supreme Court litigation by participating in moot courts and preparing briefs, including briefs in opposition to petitions seeking review of public-interest victories in the lower courts.

Prior to joining Public Citizen, Deepak served as a law clerk to the Honorable Lawrence K. Karlton of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. Before that, he worked on voting rights litigation at the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, church-state litigation at Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and prisoners’ rights litigation at the American Civil Liberties Union. He received his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center, studied Sanskrit at St. Catherine's College, Oxford, and received his undergraduate degree in philosophy, magna cum laude, from Fordham University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and competed in national and international parliamentary debate tournaments.

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U.S SUPREME COURT:

Cassens Transport Company v. Brown, 08-1375 (whether workers can sue their employers for workers' compensation fraud, or whether such suits are reverse-preempted by the McCarran-Ferguson Act) (pending; cert-stage)

Stolt-Nielsen v. Animalfeeds International, 08-1198 (whether class-action proceedings are permissible in arbitration where the arbitration agreement is silent on that point) (pending; merits-stage)

Jerman v. Carlisle, McNellie, Rini, Kramer & Ulrich, LPA, 08-1200 (whether ignorance of the law is a complete defense to civil liabilty for abusive collection practices) (pending; merits-stage)

Mohawk v. Carpenter, 08-678 (whether denials of attorney-client privilege claims can be immediately appealed through the federal courts) (pending; merits-stage)

The Coffee Beanery v. WW, Welshans, and Williams, 08-1396 (whether arbitration awards can be vacated based on manifest disregard of the law) (successful brief in opposition)

Friends of Pinto Creek v. Carlota Copper Company, 129 S.Ct. 896 (2009) (whether EPA’s issuance of a permit for an open-pit copper mine on one of the nation’s most endangered rivers violated Clean Water Act regulations) (successful brief in opposition)

T-Mobile USA, Inc. v. Laster, 128 S. Ct. 2500 (2008) (whether decisions striking down class-action bans as unconscionable under state law are preempted by Federal Arbitration Act) (successful brief in opposition)

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company v. Tuazon, 549 U.S. 1076 (2006) (whether general jurisdiction based on sales-related contacts alone violates the Due Process Clause) (successful brief in opposition)

John Hancock Insurance Company v. Patten, 549 U.S. 975 (2006) (whether the manifest-disregard-of-law standard for judicial review of arbitration awards should be narrowed) (successful brief in opposition)

Garry Ioffe v. Skokie Motor Sales, Inc., 546 U.S. 121 (2006) (whether the Motor Vehicle Safety and Information Act, also known as the Odometer Act, extends to title fraud unrelated to mileage) (unsuccessful petition for certiorari)

Dolan v. United States, 546 U.S. 481 (2006) (whether, and to what extent, the United States Postal Service has sovereign immunity from personal-injury suits under the Federal Tort Claims Act) (successful merits briefing)

Jones v. Flowers, 547 U.S. 220 (2006) (whether due process requires the state to take additional steps to notify a property owner upon return of a certified-mail notice of a tax sale or property forfeiture) (successful petition for certiorari and merits briefing)

Will v. Hallock, 546 U.S. 345 (2006) (whether the collateral order doctrine allows an interlocutory appeal from a decision denying the federal government’s invocation of the Federal Tort Claims Act judgment-bar) (successful merits briefing)

General Motors v. Delmas Ford, et al., 546 U.S. 935 (2005) (whether application of one state’s law in a nationwide products-liability class action violates the Commerce Clause or Due Process Clause) (successful brief in opposition)

Arpaio v. Demery, 545 U.S. 1139 (2005) (whether 24-hour Internet video broadcasts of the activities of pretrial jail detainees violates their right to substantive due process) (successful brief in opposition)

Bayer AG v. Paul, 544 U.S. 919 (2005) (whether federal appellate courts have jurisdiction to review remand orders where the reasons for remand are different from those identified in the motion to remand) (successful brief in opposition)

SSA Gulf, Inc. v. Magee, 544 U.S. 904 (2005) (whether the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act completely preempts state law) (successful brief in opposition)

Johanns v. Livestock Marketing Association, 544 U.S. 550 (2005) (whether an advertising program that all beef producers are compelled by the government to support can be saved from invalidation as compelled speech on the theory that it is government speech or commercial speech) (amicus)

Lockhart v. United States, 546 U.S. 142 (2005) (whether the federal government may withhold a person’s Social Security disability benefits to collect on old student loan debt) (drafted successful petition for certiorari; case was unsuccessful on the merits)

Correctional Services Corporation v. Malesko, 534 U.S. 61 (2001) (whether a prisoner may sue a private prison corporation under Bivens for violating his or her constitutional rights under the Eighth Amendment) (drafted ACLU’s amicus brief)

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STATE AND FEDERAL APPELLATE COURTS:

Pepper v. Routh Crabtree (Alaska Supreme Court) (whether the trial court erred in holding that the Petition Clause of the First Amendment and the Noerr-Pennington doctrine immunize unfair and deceptive trade practices carried out in the context of litigation) (briefed and argued; pending)

West v. Carfax (Ohio Court of Appeals) (whether a nationwide consumer class action settlement providing notice to only a fraction of the class and providing relief in the form of coupons is fair, adequate and reasonable) (briefed and argued; pending)

Harris v. Mexican Specialty Foods, 564 F.3d 1301 (11th Cir. 2009) (obtained reversal of lower-court decision striking down Fair Credit Reporting Act’s statutory-damages provision as unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause) (briefed and argued)

Danow v. Borack, 2009 WL 2883469 (11th Cir. 2009) (successfully defended jury verdict in collection harassment case) (lead appellate counsel)

Picard v. Credit Solutions, Inc., 564 F.3d 1249 (11th Cir. 2009) (whether the Credit Repair Organizations Act’s anti-waiver provision precludes mandatory binding arbitration) (amicus)

New York State Restaurant Ass'n v. New York City Bd. of Health, 556 F.3d 114 (2nd Cir. 2009) (New York City’s regulation requiring posting of calorie counts on fast food menus is not preempted by the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act and does not violate the First Amendment’s prohibition on compelled speech) (lead counsel for amici Congressman Henry Waxman, former FDA Commissioner David Kessler, American Medical Association, American Public Health Association, American Diabetes Association, Center for Science in the Public Interest, and professors of medicine, nutrition, and public health)

Del Campo v. Kennedy, 517 F.3d 1070 (9th Cir. 2008) (won precedent establishing that private government contractors may not be shielded by state sovereign immunity under the Eleventh Amendment) (briefed and argued)

Sidun v. Wayne County Treasurer, 481 Mich. 503, 751 N.W.2d 453 (Mich. 2008) (successful constitutional challenge to home foreclosure procedures on due process grounds) (briefed and argued)

Reichert v. National Credit Systems, Inc., 531 F.3d 1002 (9th Cir. 2008) (defeated a debt collector’s novel reliance-on-the-creditor defense to liability under Fair Debt Collection Practices Act) (briefed and argued)

Palmer v. Friendly Ice Cream Corp., 285 Conn. 462, 940 A.2d 742 (Conn. 2008) (whether denials of class certification are appealable final orders under the “death knell” theory) (briefed and argued)

Griffin v. Bierman, 403 Md. 186, 941 A.2d 475 (Md. 2008) (unsuccessful constitutional due process challenge to Maryland’s home mortgage foreclosure procedures, which were subsequently reformed by the Maryland Legislature) (briefed and argued)

Jones v. Flowers, --- S.W.3d ----, 373 Ark. 213 (Ark. 2008) (established, on remand from a U.S. Supreme Court victory in a constitutional challenge to state tax foreclosure procedures, that attorney’s fees may be recovered under federal civil rights law even when the plaintiff’s original complaint did not cite the federal statute) (briefed, co-counsel)

Rosario v. American Corrective Counseling Services, 506 F.3d 1039 (11th Cir. 2007) (obtained reversal of lower-court decision dismissing statewide class action; the Eleventh Circuit, distinguishing its own prior precedent, held that a private corporation under contract with Florida state prosecutors was not entitled to Eleventh Amendment immunity) (briefed and argued)

Beuter v. Canyon State Professional Services, 261 Fed.Appx. 14 (9th Cir. 2007) (successful appeal establishing that debt collectors cannot avoid liability under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act based on reliance on their clients) (briefed, lead appellate counsel)

Danow v. Borack, 197 Fed.Appx. 853(11th Cir. 2006) (obtained reversal of a district court’s improper sua sponte dismissal of a consumer's complaint of telephone harassment by a debt collector) (briefed, lead appellate counsel)

Luessenhop v. Clinton County, 466 F.3d 259 (2nd Cir. 2006) (adopting amicus brief’s argument that the federal Tax Injunction Act does not preclude due-process challenges to state tax foreclosure procedures) (amicus)

Stackhouse v. McKnight, 168 Fed. Appx. 464 (2nd Cir. 2004) (reversing magistrate judge’s approval of consumer class-action settlement on grounds that objectors had not waived their right to decision by an Article III judge) (briefed, co-counsel)

American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio v. Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board, 243 F.3d 289 (6th Cir. 2001) (en banc) (drafted brief of Americans United for Separation of Church and State and Anti-Defamation League as amici curiae in constitutional challenge to Ohio's Biblical motto)

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FEDERAL DISTRICT COURTS:

Public Citizen, et al v. Mukasey, 2008 WL 4532540 (N.D. Cal.) (lead counsel for three national consumer groups in an APA unreasonable-delay suit against the U.S. Department of Justice, resulting in ongoing implementation of the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System)

Briggs v. Army & Air Force Exchange Service (N.D. Cal.) (representing a nationwide class of soldiers and veterans in case challenging the government’s illegal withholding of federal benefits to collect old debts arising out of purchases of military uniforms)

Rosario v American Corrective Counseling Services (M.D. Fla.), Hamilton v. American Corrective Counseling Services (N.D. Ind.), and Del Campo v. American Corrective Counseling Services (N.D. Cal.) (representing statewide classes of consumers in Florida, Indiana, and California challenging the abusive practices of a debt collector that operates collection programs under contract with local prosecutors, using false threats of prosecution and jail to coerce payment of collection fees)

Schwarm v. District Attorney Technical Services, 552 F. Supp. 2d 105 (E.D. Cal. 2008) (successfully represented a statewide class of plaintiffs in California challenging the abusive practices of a debt collector that operated collection programs under contract with local prosecutors)

New York State Restaurant Ass’n v. New York City, 509 F. Supp. 2d 351 (S.D.N.Y. 2007) and NYSRA v. NYC II, 2008 WL 1752455, stay denied, 545 F. Supp. 2d 363 (S.D.N.Y. 2008) (lead counsel for Congressman Henry Waxman, former FDA Commissioner David Kessler, the American Medical Association, the American Public Health Association, the American Diabetes Association, other public health groups, and leading professors of medicine and public health, as amici curiae, in defense of New York City’s calorie labeling law against challenges based on federal preemption and First Amendment)

Dynetech v. Leonard, 523 F. Supp. 2d 1344 (M.D. Fla. 2007) (successfully represented two consumer-review websites in this Internet free speech dispute, in which an infomercial company attempted to invoke trademark law to stifle critical commentary about its questionable investment software products)

Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now v. Federal Emergency Management Agency, 463 F. Supp. 2d 26 (D.D.C. 2006) (successfully represented survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in a successful constitutional due process challenge to FEMA’s procedures for denying federal disaster assistance)