Case Citator › Miller v. California Pacific Medical Center

Miller v. California Pacific Medical Center

Is it still good law? What later courts have actually done to this case.

Abrogated
Court
Ninth Circuit
Citation
19 F.3d 449
Decided
Confirmed treatments
3
Flagged citations read
35 of 35
Citing cases (total)
35
Treatment dates
2000–2024

Status

Abrogated
A reviewed court treats this case as abrogated by later authority. Miller v. California Pacific Medical Center remains authority for using traditional equitable principles in Section 10(j) injunction cases, but its lenient thresholds for irreparable harm and likely success on the merits have been displaced by Supreme Court decisions. Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. requires likely irreparable harm, as the Ninth Circuit recognized in McDermott v. Ampersand Publishing, LLC and Garcia v. Sacramento Coca-Cola Bottling Co., Inc. Starbucks Corp. v. McKinney requires a clear showing of likely success and judicial assessment of disputed facts and law; Justice Jackson's separate opinion identified Miller's more lenient merits test as the approach she would retain.
More on how this was screened

The Tenth Circuit also declined to adopt Miller's rejection of a separate reasonable cause inquiry. The confirmed treatments are listed below. All 35 flagged citations have been read.

Every treatment on this page is written from the citing opinion itself, with a verbatim quote, never copied from a commercial citator. A citation flagged by our screen but not shown here was read and found not to weaken this case.

35 later cases cite Miller v. California Pacific Medical Center; 35 of those citations sat close to treatment language and were flagged for reading, and all of them have been read. Citations that did not sit near treatment language were not flagged and were not read one by one, so a court that weakened this case without using any of that language would not appear here.

Relying on Miller v. California Pacific Medical Center?

This page shows what later courts did to it. Ask about your specific facts and see whether it still carries your argument, with citations you can check.

Treatments

Abrogated

  • The Supreme Court rejected the possibility of irreparable harm threshold that Miller had permitted for a preliminary injunction; an applicant must show likely irreparable harm.

    Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. · Supreme Court of the United States · filed

    Issuing a preliminary injunction based only on a possibility of irreparable harm is inconsistent with our characterization of injunctive relief as an extraordinary remedy that may only be awarded upon a clear showing that the plaintiff is entitled to such relief.
    Read the full opinion on CourtListener →
  • The Supreme Court displaced Miller's rule that some evidence and an arguable legal theory suffice to show likely success in a Section 10(j) case.

    Starbucks Corp. v. McKinney · Supreme Court of the United States · filed

    There is an obvious difference between having the Board show that it is “likely” to succeed on the merits and having it show only that its theory of the case is “substantial and not frivolous,” without having to convince the court that its theory is likely meritorious.
    Read the full opinion on CourtListener →

Declined to follow

  • The Tenth Circuit kept its separate reasonable cause inquiry for Section 10(j) relief despite Miller's contrary rule in the Ninth Circuit.

    Sharp ex rel. National Labor Relations Board v. Webco Industries, Inc. · Tenth Circuit · filed

    But cf. Miller v. California Pac. Med. Ctr., 19 F.3d 449, 456 (9th Cir. 1994 (en banc) (holding that § 10(j) has "no 'reasonable cause' component").
    Read the full opinion on CourtListener →

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