Appellate

  • July 21, 2026

    NJ Panel Rules Town Board Can Redo Warehouse Review

    A New Jersey appeals court rejected a developer's request for automatic approval of its development plan in a local warehouse district, siding with a trial judge in finding a local planning board correctly sought to scrutinize its own jurisdiction over the project.

  • July 21, 2026

    NJ Panel Backs Big Box Denial Over Traffic Study Gaps

    A New Jersey appellate panel on Tuesday reversed a lower court ruling that vacated a planning board's rejection of a proposed one-story, 161,000-square-foot big box retail project.

  • July 21, 2026

    Guam Group Says Air Force Can't Skip Review Of Detonations

    A nonprofit in Guam asked the U.S. Supreme Court to affirm a ruling that the U.S. Air Force shirked environmental review duties when it applied to renew a permit to detonate expired munitions, as well as reject the agency's attempts to avoid them.

  • July 21, 2026

    Wash. Tribe, Enviro Org. Say FERC Hydro Delay Imperils Sites

    A Washington tribe and an environmental group are asking the Ninth Circuit to deny a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission bid to hold a challenge against the agency's issuance of a hydroelectric license in abeyance, arguing that it won't stop the project from moving toward construction that will destroy resources.

  • July 21, 2026

    Minn. County Urges State Justices Review School Tax Break

    A Minnesota childcare center that missed a filing deadline related to a property tax exemption for educational institutions should not have been allowed to appeal the matter to the state tax court, a county told the state Supreme Court, urging it to review the case.

  • July 21, 2026

    4th Circ. Asks SC Justices To Weigh In On Heater Death Suit

    The Fourth Circuit has certified a question to the South Carolina Supreme Court in a suit alleging the defective design of a propane heater led to the death of a man using it, asking the justices to determine if adequate labeling precludes a defect claim under state law.

  • July 21, 2026

    DC Circ. Says NLRB 'Successor Bar' Conflicts With Labor Law

    A split D.C. Circuit panel said Tuesday that the National Labor Relations Board's practice of insulating unions from removal after businesses change hands defies federal labor law, applying a landmark 2024 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that scaled back courts' deference to federal agencies.

  • July 20, 2026

    Panel Revives Malpractice Suit Against Criminal Defense Atty

    A Washington state appellate panel Monday revived legal malpractice claims against a public defense attorney who failed to correct an erroneous sentencing document that placed his client on supervised probation, when a plea deal instead called for unsupervised probation.

  • July 20, 2026

    NJ Court Backs Utility In Motorist's Tree-Fall Injury Suit

    A New Jersey man who suffered a "catastrophic" spinal cord injury after a tree fell on his car while driving cannot pursue damages against Jersey Central Power & Light Co., a state appeals court ruled Monday, saying utilities have no duty to cut vegetation to keep passing motorists safe.

  • July 20, 2026

    4th Circ. Upholds Conviction Despite Closed Court Testimony

    The Fourth Circuit on Monday ruled that a North Carolina man was given a fair trial even though the courtroom was temporarily closed after a witness believed someone in the audience was trying to intimidate them.

  • July 20, 2026

    10th Circ. Backs Debt Collector In FCRA Identity Theft Dispute

    A Georgia-based debt collection company does not have to face a $500,000 jury verdict that it failed to reasonably investigate a disputed debt involving identity theft, the Tenth Circuit ruled Monday, joining other circuits in holding that it's up to the consumer to show the underlying information was incorrect.

  • July 20, 2026

    Filing Delay Dooms Mother's Traffic Stop Suit, 6th Circ. Finds

    A split Sixth Circuit panel has dismissed a woman's civil rights lawsuit alleging a Nashville police officer illegally arrested her and lied that she led him on a car chase with her son in the car, finding she waited too long to sue even though prosecutors withheld dispatch recordings that supported her story for years.

  • July 20, 2026

    DOJ Hints Russian Court Ruling May Not Stop $5B Award

    The Trump administration on Monday urged the D.C. Circuit to closely evaluate a Russian court's determination that an underlying arbitration agreement is invalid as it weighs whether to enforce a nearly $5 billion arbitral award against the Kremlin, saying circumstances surrounding the ruling should be a factor.

  • July 20, 2026

    4th Circ. Overturns Class Cert. In Boeing Investor Case

    The Fourth Circuit on Monday reversed class certification granted in an investor lawsuit against Boeing over the company's alleged concealment of safety issues with its 737 Max fleet, finding that neither the plaintiffs nor the lower court met the standards for certification set in a 2013 Supreme Court ruling.

  • July 20, 2026

    9th Circ. Says Age-Based Groups Are Immutable In Asylum Bid

    The Ninth Circuit Monday revived the asylum bid of a Mexican mother and her children who escaped masked men, saying an immigration appeals panel disobeyed its own precedent when rejecting an age-based social group she based her petition on.

  • July 20, 2026

    Scientist Seeks To Enforce Journalist's 2024 Contempt Order

    Yanping Chen, a scientist who accused an FBI agent of leaking her confidential immigration records to former Fox News correspondent Catherine Herridge, is asking a D.C. federal judge to finally enforce a yearsold contempt order against Herridge now that the appeals process has run its course.

  • July 20, 2026

    Denver Strip Club Says Officer's Suit Taints Labor Appeal

    A Denver strip club Friday asked a state court judge to prohibit a Denver Labor hearing officer from presiding over its appeal challenging $14 million in fines stemming from wage theft allegations, claiming the hearing officer is biased and didn't fully disclose her professional relationship with the Denver Labor director who hired her.

  • July 20, 2026

    7th Circ. Backs Printing Co. In $265M ESOP Sale Fight

    The Seventh Circuit won't revive a lawsuit claiming a printing company's directors and employee stock ownership plan trustee illegally undersold the business into private equity for $265 million, saying a lower court made no clear errors in throwing out the case.

  • July 20, 2026

    Mass. Panel Says Competing Atty Fee Awards Can't Be Offset

    Massachusetts' intermediate-level appeals court Monday determined that a housing court was wrong to offset attorney fees awarded to a landlord against fees granted to the tenant on the other side of a housing dispute, finding the awards should be entered as separate judgments to preserve the lawyers' rights.

  • July 20, 2026

    NJ Justices Call Land Swap An Abuse Of Eminent Domain

    The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that a municipality violated state law and constitutional limits when it condemned two privately owned parcels of land to trade them to a developer, holding that the town never intended to put the seized properties to public use.

  • July 20, 2026

    4th Circ. Remands Models' Image-Misuse Coverage Fight

    An insurance company's coverage dispute with a Virginia Beach restaurant accused by a group of models of misappropriating their images was sent back to the district court Monday by the Fourth Circuit to determine if the lawsuit became moot when the restaurant settled with the models.

  • July 20, 2026

    Vanda's NDA Rejection Challenge Can't Be Heard At DC Court

    A D.C. federal judge has said he no longer has jurisdiction to hear Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s challenge alleging the FDA violated the Appointments Clause by allowing a non-officer to exercise "signatory authority" and reject its new drug application for tradipitant, since Vanda went to the D.C. Circuit raising the same argument already.

  • July 20, 2026

    3rd Circ. Clears Supplier Of Safety 'Duty' In Fatal Explosion

    The Third Circuit ruled in a precedential opinion Monday that an industrial equipment supplier did not have a duty to provide safety training to civilian workers who were killed or injured by an explosion in a paint-mixing facility at an army depot.

  • July 20, 2026

    Wis. Village Can't Void Tribal Land Trust Order, 7th Circ. Told

    The U.S. Department of the Interior is asking the Seventh Circuit to reject a Wisconsin village's appeal that seeks to undo the agency's decision to place 500 acres into trust for the Oneida Nation, arguing that the municipality can't overcome Congress' power to regulate Indian affairs.

  • July 20, 2026

    Insurers Seek Clarity On Arbitration Estoppel Rules

    Another group of insurers is pressing the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve whether state or federal law applies when deciding whether a nonsignatory to an international arbitration agreement can force arbitration of a property damage coverage dispute, an issue they say is "of national and international importance."

Expert Analysis

  • A Framework For Habeas Relief After 5th Circ. Bond Ruling

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    Following the Fifth Circuit’s recent Buenrostro-Mendez v. Bondi decision foreclosing statutory bond for detained nonimmigrants not deemed admitted to the U.S., lawyers should adopt a framework that requests habeas relief pursuant to the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause, says Kemal Hepsen at Mandamus Lawyers.

  • 4th Circ. Ruling Will Rewrite Class Action Litigation Strategies

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    The Fourth Circuit's recent decision in Oliver v. Navy Federal Credit Union is the first from a federal circuit court to hold that motions to strike are inappropriate vehicles for challenging class allegations at the pleading stage, invalidating a tactic that had been used for decades, says Jim Francis at Francis Mailman.

  • Startup Founder Disputes Increasingly Turn On Governance

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    Recent Delaware developments suggest that as courts place increasing emphasis on board process, independence and oversight in founder-led startups, the growing intersection of governance, technology risk and investor oversight is accelerating both the emergence and escalation of founder disputes, says mediator Frank Burke.

  • 3 AI Adoption Mistakes GCs Should Avoid

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    The pressure in-house legal teams face to quickly adopt artificial intelligence tools, combined with budget constraints and the need to evaluate a crowded market of options, sets the stage for implementation mistakes that are often difficult to undo, says former 23andMe general counsel Guy Chayoun.

  • Series

    Playing Basketball Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My grandfather used to say "I wear your jersey" as shorthand for wholly committing to support someone with loyalty and integrity — ideals that have shaped my life on the basketball court and in legal practice, says Tracy Schimelfenig at Schimelfenig Legal.

  • Salt-N-Pepa Suit May Shake Up Music Copyright Issue

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    James v. UMG Recordings is a copyright termination rights case that provides an opportunity for the Second Circuit to make concrete choices about grant language, authorship, work-for-hire status and survival of derivative works, says attorney Abdul Abdullahi.

  • Opinion

    5th Circ.'s Abortion Pill Order Is Shaky On Multiple Grounds

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    The Fifth Circuit's recent order in Louisiana v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, reinstating an in-person dispensing requirement for the abortion medication mifepristone, seems to turn federalism upside-down, and is also questionable for several other reasons, says Gregory Curtner at Curtner Law.

  • Series

    The Biz Court Digest: Georgia Court Has Business On Its Mind

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    Thanks to recent legislation, the Georgia State-wide Business Court will soon offer business litigants greater access to the court than ever before, further enhancing the court's emphasis on efficiency, predictability and accessibility for sophisticated commercial disputes, says former GSBC judge Walt Davis at Jones Day.

  • 5 Takeaways From Justices' Subpoena Fight Ruling

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in First Choice v. Davenport fortifies a line of First Amendment associational privacy cases stretching back nearly 70 years, and ensures that organizations subject to government demands for donor information have a meaningful federal forum in which to defend their constitutional rights, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

  • Where The Preemption Fight Over Prediction Markets Stands

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    While the Third Circuit's recent ruling in Kalshi v. Flaherty remains a significant win for the federal government in its quest to regulate prediction markets, the Fourth, Sixth and Ninth Circuits appear more skeptical, indicating that this fight is likely headed for the Supreme Court, says Johnny ElHachem at Holland & Knight.

  • Md. Justices' State Climate Tort Ban May Shape National Path

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    The Maryland Supreme Court’s recent ruling that federal law preempted state-level deceptive marketing tort claims brought by several municipalities could offer the U.S. Supreme Court a road map to use in the pending Suncor Energy v. Boulder County case to exclude states from the business of regulating global emissions, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • 4 Emerging Approaches To AI Protective Order Language

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    Over the last year, at least five federal district courts have issued or analyzed specific protective order provisions restricting the use of generative artificial intelligence platforms with protected materials, establishing that proactive AI-specific provisions are now standard practice and demonstrating that no single model works for every case, says Joel Bush at Kilpatrick.

  • What Justices Are Focusing On In 'Skinny Label' Patent Case

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    Though Hikma v. Amarin appears to be a patent dispute that could reshape inducement doctrine in the pharmaceutical context, oral argument suggests the U.S. Supreme Court may treat this as primarily a pleading-stage dispute, with important unresolved questions lurking beneath the surface, says Shashank Upadhye at Upadhye Tang.

  • Employer Tips After 4th Circ. Rejects Trimmed Suit Deadlines

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    The Fourth Circuit's recent holding in Thomas v. EOTech that employers cannot use contractual provisions to shorten statutory filing periods for Title VII or Age Discrimination in Employment Act claims offers a warning for employers to review any such documents and reassess their litigation risk, say attorneys at Ogletree.

  • Binance Win Shows Constraints On Anti-Terrorism Act Claims

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    The Southern District of New York's recent ruling in Troell v. Binance illustrates that the Second Circuit's earlier decision in Ashley v. Deutsche Bank is holding weight with courts, and companies facing aiding and abetting risk should thus monitor evolving case law and assess exposure based on nexus allegations, say attorneys at Freshfields.

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