The U.S. Supreme Court denied a writ of certiorari request from the National Association of Realtors (NAR), meaning it will not weigh in on the years-long court battle between NAR and the Department of Justice (DOJ).

NAR sought to appeal a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that the DOJ is permitted to reopen an antitrust investigation of NAR.

According to court documents, NAR and DOJ tried to negotiate a settlement in 2020. NAR asked for guarantees from the DOJ that it would not investigate its participation rule for 10 years. The DOJ refused to commit to that, but it did agree NAR had no obligation to respond to two outstanding civil investigative demands (CIDs) once the consent decree was filed.

Less than a year later, DOJ withdrew the proposed consent order, dismissed the complaint, and then issued a new CID related to NAR’s participation rule and clear cooperation policy.

In its October 2024 petition for writ of certiorari, NAR argued it had started to perform the requirements under the proposed consent order, it had satisfied its obligations up to that point, and the DOJ’s new CID amounted to a breach of the agreement between the two parties.

NAR asked in the writ the “whether the United States enjoys greater rights than a private party to withdraw from a contract based solely on its determination that it no longer wishes to be bound by that contract.”

In a December 2024 brief filed by the DOJ in response, the department said it never told NAR it was permanently closing its investigation into the organization. It said the court of appeals “determined that the government had made no commitment to refrain from reopening an antitrust investigation that the government had closed. That decision is correct, and it does not conflict with any decision of this court or another court of appeals."