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Supreme Court Caseload Hits 160-Year Low
Not since the Civil War has the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in as few cases as it will this term — the latest milestone for the court's shrinking docket, and one attorneys say might have more to do with the high court's culture than its expanding emergency appeals caseload.
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February 02, 2026
Advocates Urge Justices To Overturn Cannabis Gun Ban
Cannabis consumer advocates, guns rights activists and libertarian think tanks have all filed friend-of-the-court briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court urging the justices to find that a law disarming marijuana users runs afoul of the Second Amendment.
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February 02, 2026
Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court
A pair of new high-dollar suits in Delaware's Court of Chancery showed last week that post-deal stock appraisal suits still have legs, despite some efforts to reduce potential from deal-price gains challenges. The week ended with Delaware's justices nipping $100 million from the attorney fees owed by Tesla founder Elon Musk from $176.2 million to roughly $70.9 million, rejecting part of a Court of Chancery fee calculation.
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February 02, 2026
Split Fed. Circ. Won't Revive Massager Design Patent Case
A Maine federal judge properly found Armaid Co. Inc. didn't infringe Range of Motion Products LLC's design patent covering a personal massage device, a divided Federal Circuit held Monday.
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February 02, 2026
Med Mal Suits Offer Ga. Justices Path Back To Damages Caps
The Supreme Court of Georgia will hear arguments Tuesday in two medical malpractice cases that give the state's justices a chance to impose a limit on damages in wrongful death suits, 15 years after the court declared such caps unconstitutional.
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February 02, 2026
1st Circ. Judge Wary Of Boston Bid To Revive PBM Opioid Suit
The city of Boston faced pushback from a First Circuit judge on Monday as it argued it didn't miss its window to sue pharmacy benefit managers for their alleged role in the opioid epidemic.
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February 02, 2026
IT Exec Can't Shake False Billing Conviction, 4th Circ. Rules
The Fourth Circuit on Monday said there was more than enough evidence for a Maryland jury to convict the CEO of an IT company for lying about the hours she worked on a project for the National Security Agency, rejecting her claims that the trial was tainted by a misleading exhibit and prosecutorial misconduct.
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February 02, 2026
Tracey Anderson Workouts Are Copyrightable, 9th Circ. Told
Celebrity fitness trainer Tracy Anderson urged the Ninth Circuit on Monday to reverse a ruling that invalidated copyrights to her "Tracy Anderson Method" workout routines, arguing that her routines are expressive protectable works distinct from yoga poses at issue in the Ninth Circuit's Bikram ruling.
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February 02, 2026
Panel Backs Pa. In Widow's 'Line Of Duty' Benefits Bid
While a doctor's opinion that a firefighter's fatal cancer was likely caused by job-related hazards counted to entitle his widow to worker's compensation benefits, it fell short of the higher causation requirements for "line of duty death" benefits, a Pennsylvania appellate court said Monday.
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February 02, 2026
Sixth Circuit Clears Judge Boasberg In DOJ Ethics Complaint
The complaint the U.S. Department of Justice filed against Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg of the District of Columbia has been dismissed.
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February 02, 2026
3rd Circ. Affirms Fee Awards For Immigration Habeas Actions
A Third Circuit panel ruled federal law authorizes attorney fee awards for immigrants who successfully challenge their detention through habeas actions, affirming awards made to two noncitizens who were detained for over a year and denied bond hearings.
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February 02, 2026
Town's Northeastern Univ. Land Grab Divides Mass. Top Court
Justices on Massachusetts' highest court appeared split Monday over whether a town's use of eminent domain to prevent Northeastern University from expanding a research center was a proper use of that power.
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February 02, 2026
Oil Trader Wants Prison Date Delayed Over $1.7M Forfeiture
A Connecticut oil trader convicted of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has asked to postpone his date to report to prison by two months, saying he "needs additional time to put his financial affairs in order" so he can pay a $1.7 million forfeiture plus an additional $300,000 fine.
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February 02, 2026
NJ Panel Backs Dismissal Of Longtime Redevelopment Feud
A New Jersey appellate court on Monday upheld the dismissal of multiple claims involving two Jersey City parcels that were related to a long-running redevelopment dispute between business partners.
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February 02, 2026
Judiciary Open As Usual Until Thursday Despite Shutdown
The federal judiciary has enough funding to sustain normal operations until Thursday, following the partial government shutdown that started at midnight on Saturday.
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January 30, 2026
Tesla Gets Del. Justices To Cut $100M From Investor Atty Fees
The Delaware Supreme Court on Friday handed Tesla a win, reducing by roughly $100 million the attorney fees awarded to shareholder counsel as part of an excessive director compensation suit settlement, rejecting the lower court's fee calculation.
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January 30, 2026
11th Circ. Urged To Undo $38M Chiquita Verdict, $229K Fee
The Eleventh Circuit heard arguments Friday in two cases stemming from claims that Chiquita funded a right-wing paramilitary group, with Chiquita urging the court to vacate a $38 million verdict finding it caused eight deaths, while an attorney for the plaintiffs asked to reverse a firm's $229,000 fee award.
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January 30, 2026
Conn. Justices Free Calif. Woman From Tax Bank Seizure
The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Friday that a tax collector cannot recover a shuttered company's debts from a California woman's personal bank accounts, saying the case presented an issue of first impression that has "vexed legal scholars" and "spawned a split of authority" among and within federal and state courts.
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January 30, 2026
3rd Circ. Backs 'Modern Icarus' Conviction, Cuts Restitution
The Third Circuit affirmed Friday the fraud and identify theft conviction of a former clean-energy company CEO who characterized himself as a "modern Icarus" in his appeal, but held that the lower court wrongly ordered him to pay $100,000 in victims' attorney fees in addition to $1.1 million in restitution.
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January 30, 2026
3rd Circ. Preview: Privacy Issues Top Feb. Argument Lineup
Issues involving privacy feature prominently on the Third Circuit's February oral argument schedule, with panels set to hear a dispute regarding an optometry business's duty to protect private data belonging to third-party customers, and a case over whether the city of Philadelphia can be sued by a mother after a police officer shared images of her son's death from the scene where he committed suicide.
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January 30, 2026
Fla. Panel Tosses Punitive Damages From Turo Car Crash Suit
A Florida appeals court on Friday tossed a punitive damages claim in a suit accusing car-sharing platform Turo Inc. of allowing a negligently maintained truck to be rented, resulting in a fatal crash, saying there were insufficient allegations of intentional misconduct.
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January 30, 2026
2nd Circ. Affirms $2.8M Award In Ex-NFL Player's PPE Suit
The Second Circuit declined Friday to let a New York real estate attorney escape from a roughly $2.8 million arbitration award to a former NFL linebacker after a deal to purchase and distribute medical gloves went sour, holding that the arbitrator did not exceed her authority or botch the process.
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January 30, 2026
Texas Appeals Court Upholds $14M Truck Crash Verdict
A Texas appellate court kept largely intact a $14 million verdict against a cellular phone tower construction company and an employee, saying the company knew the employee had a history of alcoholism before he caused a crash that left a couple with debilitating injuries.
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January 30, 2026
5th Circ. Gives Lumen Investors Another Shot In Lead Suit
The Fifth Circuit determined Friday that a group of shareholders should get another chance to amend their proposed class action accusing Lumen Technologies Inc. of not disclosing potential liabilities related to its lead-wrapped cables, saying the lower court did not sufficiently explain why it would not allow them to amend their suit after dismissing it.
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January 30, 2026
9th Circ. Says DOJ Can Withhold VW Grand Jury Records
The Ninth Circuit on Friday held that the U.S. Department of Justice couldn't be forced to hand over about 6 million Volkswagen documents that were part of a Jones Day investigation into the automaker's 2015 emissions-cheating scandal, as the government obtained them through a grand jury subpoena.
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January 30, 2026
8th Circ. Affirms Toss Of ND Tribal Landowners' Pipeline Suit
The Eighth Circuit Friday refused to revive a group of landowning Three Affiliated Tribes members' lawsuit accusing oil pipeline operator Andeavor of trespassing across their North Dakota reservation lands, with a panel majority concluding that the members had no federal common law trespass claim.
Editor's Picks
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The Topics Appellate Attys Are Tracking Most Closely In 2026
A few far-reaching topics will dominate the appellate practice in 2026, attorneys predict, as appeals courts navigate an ever-growing thicket of Trump administration litigation and thorny questions involving artificial intelligence.
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4 High Court Cases To Watch This Spring
The U.S. Supreme Court justices will return from the winter holidays to tackle several constitutional disputes that range from who is entitled to birthright citizenship to whether transgender individuals are entitled to heightened levels of protection from discrimination.
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Circuit-By-Circuit Guide To 2025's Most Memorable Moments
Federal circuit courts in 2025 strained under a crush of Trump administration lawsuits, as judges directed animated language at litigants and even their fellow judges. And while the president only added a handful of appellate jurists, they had outsize impacts on circuit benches as they joined the cadre of conservatives seated in his first term.
Expert Analysis
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State Of Insurance: Q4 Notes From Illinois
In 2025's last quarter, Illinois’ appellate courts weighed in on overlapping homeowners coverages for water-related damages, contractual suit limitation provisions in uninsured motorist policies, and protections for genetic health information in life insurance underwriting, while the Department of Insurance sought nationwide homeowners' insurance data from State Farm, says Matthew Fortin at BatesCarey.
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How 2 Tech Statutes Are Being Applied To Agentic AI
The application of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the California Invasion of Privacy Act to agentic artificial intelligence is still developing, but recent case law, like Amazon's lawsuit against Perplexity in California federal court, provides some initial guidance for companies developing or deploying these technologies, say attorneys at Weil.
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Defense Strategy Takeaways From Recent TCPA Class Actions
Although recent Telephone Consumer Protection Act decisions do not establish any bright-line tests for defeating predominance based on an argument that class members provided consent for the calls, certain trends have emerged that should inform defense strategies at class certification, say attorneys at Womble Bond.
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NYC Bar Opinion Warns Attys On Use Of AI Recording Tools
Attorneys who use artificial intelligence tools to record, transcribe and summarize conversations with clients should heed the New York City Bar Association’s recent opinion addressing the legal and ethical risks posed by such tools, and follow several best practices to avoid violating the Rules of Professional Conduct, say attorneys at Smith Gambrell.
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Series
The Biz Court Digest: Dispatches From Utah's Newest Court
While a robust body of law hasn't yet developed since the Utah Business and Chancery Court's founding in October 2024, the number of cases filed there has recently picked up, and its existence illustrates Utah's desire to be top of mind for businesses across the country, says Evan Strassberg at Michael Best.
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4 Quick Emotional Resets For Lawyers With Conflict Fatigue
Though the emotional wear and tear of legal work can trap attorneys in conflict fatigue — leaving them unable to shake off tense interactions or return to a calm baseline — simple therapeutic techniques for resetting the nervous system can help break the cycle, says Chantel Cohen at CWC Coaching & Therapy.
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2 Rulings Showcase Fuzzy Limits Of 'Related To' Jurisdiction
The Fifth and Ninth Circuits recently handed down decisions, in Sanchez Energy and Sawtelle Partners, respectively, reminding practitioners that bankruptcy court jurisdiction over lingering disputes is not guaranteed, regardless of whether confirmation orders contain specific "retention of jurisdiction" language, says Brian Shaw at Cozen O’Connor.
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3 Key Ohio Financial Services Developments From 2025
Ohio's banking and financial services sector saw particularly notable developments in 2025, including a significant Ohio Supreme Court decision on creditor disclosure duties to guarantors in Huntington National Bank v. Schneider, and some major proposed changes to the state's Homebuyer Plus program, says Alex Durst at Durst Kerridge.
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Patent Eligibility Faces Widening Gap Between USPTO, Courts
The year 2026 opened with a profoundly altered Patent Act Section 101 ecosystem — the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has pushed eligibility as far open as it can for artificial intelligence technologies, but the courts are not on the same page, say attorneys at Skadden.
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Navigating Trade Secret Exceptions In Noncompete Bans
Recent and ongoing developments in the noncompete landscape, including a potential decision from the Tenth Circuit in Edwards Lifesciences v. Thompson, could offer tools for employers to bring noncompete agreements within trade secret exceptions amid an era of heightened employee mobility, say attorneys at Sullivan & Cromwell.
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Series
Playing Tennis Makes Me A Better Lawyer
An instinct to turn pain into purpose meant frequent trips to the tennis court, where learning to move ahead one point at a time was a lesson that also applied to the steep learning curve of patent prosecution law, says Daniel Henry at Marshall Gerstein.
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False Ad Suit Shows Need For Clear, Conspicuous Disclosure
The Eleventh Circuit's recent false advertising decision in Federal Trade Commission v. Corpay reiterated the FTC's guidance imploring advertisers to ensure that any disclosures are clear and conspicuous to consumers, providing companies with numerous lessons about truthful advertising and highlighting some common disclosure pitfalls to avoid, says Michael Justus at Carlton Fields.
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Justices' BDO Denial May Allow For Increased Auditor Liability
The Supreme Court's recent denial of certiorari in BDO v. New England Carpenters could lead to more actions filed against accounting firms, as it lets stand a 2024 Second Circuit ruling that provided a road map for pleading falsity with respect to audit certifications, says Dean Conway at Carlton Fields.
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What To Expect From Justices' 401(k) Ruling, DOL Rulemaking
The U.S. Supreme Court's upcoming ruling in Anderson v. Intel, addressing alternative assets in defined contribution plans, coupled with the U.S. Department of Labor's recently proposed regulation on fiduciary duties in selecting alternative investments, could alleviate the litigation risk that has impeded wider consideration of such investments, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.
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Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: January Lessons
In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses five rulings from October and November, and identifies practice tips from cases involving consumer fraud, oil and gas leases, toxic torts, and wage and hour issues.