Sheriff v. Gillie (578 U.S. 317)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided May 16, 2016 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 578 U.S. 317 · 136 S. Ct. 1594
- Docket
- No. 15-338
- Argued
- March 29, 2016
- Decided
- May 16, 2016
- Term
- October Term 2015
- Vote
- 8–0
- Majority author
- Justice Ginsburg
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Kennedy, Justice Thomas, Justice Ginsburg (wrote), Justice Breyer, Justice Alito, Justice Sotomayor, Justice Kagan
Oral argument transcript and advocates · Opinion on Justia
Opinion excerpt
Justice GINSBURG delivered the opinion of the Court. Ohio law authorizes the State's Attorney General to retain, as independent contractors, "special counsel" to act on the Attorney General's behalf in collecting certain debts owed to Ohio or an instrumentality of the State. Ohio Rev.Code Ann. § 109.08 (Lexis 2014). As required by the Attorney General, special counsel use the Attorney General's letterhead in communicating with debtors. App. 93. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 91 Stat. 874, 15 U.S.C. § 1692 et seq . (FDCPA or Act), aims to eliminate "abusive debt collection practices." § 1692(a) -(d). To that end, the Act imposes various procedural and substantive obligations on debt collectors. See, e.g., § 1692d (prohibiting harassing, oppressive, or abusive conduct); § 1692e (barring "false, deceptive, or misleading representation[s] ... in connection with the collection of any debt"); § 1692g(a) (setting out requirements for the contents of initial notices to consumers). The FDCPA excludes from the definition of "debt collector" "any officer or employee of the United States or any State to the extent that collecting ... any debt is in the performance of his official duties." § 1692a(6)(C). This case involves litigation between debtors to Ohio institutions and special counsel who sought to collect money owed to the institutions. The petition raises two questions:…
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