 On appeal, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed the trial court in an opinion dated July 29, 2011 and held that the genes were eligible for patents.On December 7, 2011, the ACLU filed a petition for a writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court.On March 26, 2012, the Supreme Court vacated the Federal Circuit's judgment and remanded the case for further consideration in light of "Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc.", in which the Supreme Court had ruled, just six days earlier, that more restrictive rules were required to patent observations about natural phenomena.