C. Frederick Beckner III

Rick’s representative appellate matters include:

• HollyFrontier Cheyenne Refining, LLC, et al. v. Renewable Fuels Association et al. 141 S. Ct. 2172 (2021).  Successfully represented HollyFrontier Cheyenne Refining before the Supreme Court in high-profile case involving the requirements of the Renewable Fuel Standards. The Supreme Court reversed the Tenth Circuit’s decision vacating the small refinery exemptions that had been granted to Holly Frontier.
• Represented the National Council For Adoption (NCFA) in a pro bono victory in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Reversing the district court, the D.C. Circuit unanimously found that NCFA had associational standing and vacated the State Department “guidance” that prohibited adoption practices commonly used to advocate for hard-to-adopt children.
• Environmental Defense Fund v. EPA, 922 F.3d 446 (D.C. Cir. 2019). Successfully represented a number of major trade associations acting as intervenors in support of the EPA in the first challenge to the EPA’s revised rules implementing the Toxic Substances Control Act.
• United States. AT&T. Inc., 916 F,3d 1029 (D.C. Cir. 2019). Representing AT&T in the government’s appeal of the district court decision allowing AT&T to merge with Time Warner. The Wall Street Journal observed that this decision “cemented one of the biggest losses for the Justice Department’s antitrust division in a generation.”
• Citizens Telecomms. Co. of Minn. v. FCC, 901 F.3d 991 (8th Cir. 2018). Representing intervenors, successfully defended FCC Order that reformed regulation of business data services provided by incumbent telephone carriers.
• Chamber of Commerce v. EPA, No. 577 U.S.  1127 (2016). Representing the nation’s leading business trade associations, Sidley successfully obtained an unprecedented stay of the sweeping rules that the Environmental Protection Agency issued to regulate greenhouse gases by power plants.
• Texas v. EPA, 829 F.3d 405 (5th Cir. 2016). Representing a coalition of Texas business associations and the Chamber of Commerce, Sidley successfully supported the lawsuits filed by the State of Texas and a Texas-based utility to obtain a stay of a rule issued by the Environmental Protection Agency that would have imposed substantial emission reduction obligations under the agency’s “regional haze” program.
• Federal Energy Regulatory Commission v. Electric Power Supply Ass’n, 136 S. Ct. 760 (2016): Representing petitioners, Sidley successfully overturned a decision by the D.C. Circuit holding that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has lacked under the Federal Power Act to regulate the compensation that regional transmission operators pay for demand response services and that held that FERC’s compensation standard was unlawful.
• EME Homer City Generation, L.P. v. EPA, 686 F.3d 7 (D.C. Cir. 2012). Assisted Luminant Generation Company in obtaining a favorable decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that The Washington Post described as “a major victory for utilities and business groups.”
• Medicines Company v. Kappos, 462 F. App’x 974 (Fed. Cir. 2012), 731 F. Supp. 2d 470 (E.D. Va. 2010), 699 F. Supp. 2d 804 (E.D. Va. 2010). Assisted Medicines Company (MDCO) in prevailing in a long-running challenge to a Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) denial for a patent extension for the company’s anti-coagulant, Angiomax®.
• United States v. Cinergy Corp., 623 F.3d 455 (7th Cir. Oct. 12, 2010). Assisted Cinergy (a subsidiary of Duke Energy) in prevailing in a long-running enforcement suit brought by the EPA, which had sued Cinergy under the New Source Review provisions of the Clean Air Act (CAA), claiming that over 50 like-kind replacement projects at Cinergy’s coal-fired power plants in Indiana and Ohio violated the CAA. 
• Flying J Inc. v. FERC, 363 F.3d 495 (D.C. Cir. 2004) and Ass’n of Oil Pipe Lines v. FERC, 281 F.3d 239 (D.C. Cir. 2002). Successfully argued on behalf of the Association of Oil Pipe Lines in two appeals concerning the five-year oil pipeline pricing index adopted by FERC.

Rick represented Judge Denise Lindberg in Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints v. Wisan, 698 F.3d 1295 (10th Cir. 2012). Judge Lindberg was sued in federal district court on the grounds that she violated the First Amendment when reforming a state trust to protect the trust’s beneficiaries and prevent unlawful practices. Warren Jeffs was the leader of a polygamist sect who had used his control of the trust to coerce beneficiaries to consent to arranged polygamist marriages for their minor daughters. Sidley was retained after the federal district court issued a preliminary injunction that would have returned control of the trust and its substantial assets back to Jeffs. On appeal, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit vacated the district court’s injunction and ordered the federal district court to dismiss all of the claims against Judge Lindberg and the other defendants.