Justices to Settle Procedural Split on Courts’ Legal Errors

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review a procedural question that could settle a split in the appeals courts over whether judges’ legal errors allow relief from final judgments.

Granting review of Dexter Kemp’s postconviction appeal on Monday, the justices can answer a question that he said has openly divided the lower courts for the last 50 years: whether Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b)(1) authorizes relief from judgment based on a court’s legal error.

The case arises from the district court’s rejection of Kemp’s postconviction motion as untimely. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit agreed it ...