Federal Express Corp. v. United States Department of Commerce
United States District Court for the District of Columbia
486 F. Supp. 3d 69 (2020)

- Written by Rich Walter, JD
Facts
The United States Department of Commerce (department) (defendant) issued regulations implementing the Export Control and Reform Act (ECRA), a federal statute that prohibited the transfer of certain listed items to designated foreign entities. For ECRA violations, the regulations imposed civil and criminal penalties that varied according to a violator’s awareness of participation in a prohibited transfer. Federal Express Corporation (FedEx) (plaintiff) annually shipped millions of packages to customers around the world. FedEx complained that under the ECRA regulations, FedEx could be held strictly liable for unwittingly shipping a prohibited item, whereas FedEx’s customer could be punished only if the customer received that shipment knowing its contents to be prohibited. FedEx sued the department in federal district court for depriving FedEx of substantive due process and for exceeding the department’s ECRA authority. The department moved for dismissal.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Bates, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 832,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,400 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.