Appellate

  • October 17, 2025

    Idaho Asks Justices To Reject Mootness In Trans Ban Case

    The state of Idaho has again encouraged the U.S. Supreme Court to proceed with its review of whether the state's ban on transgender women in sports is unconstitutional after a lower court earlier this week rejected the plaintiff's efforts to voluntarily dismiss the suit.

  • October 17, 2025

    Man Arrested In Mistaken ID Case Can Sue, 11th Circ. Says

    A Florida police officer cannot escape a lawsuit alleging the officer violated the Fourth Amendment when he entered a home without a warrant and then tasered and arrested the father of a suspect in a case of mistaken identity, the Eleventh Circuit has ruled, while remanding related claims for further review.

  • October 17, 2025

    Federal Courts To Scale Back Operations Amid Shutdown

    The federal court system has run out of money and will scale back operations beginning Monday as a result of the ongoing government shutdown, possibly leading to case delays.

  • October 17, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Backs Noninfringement Ruling In Fence Patent Case

    The Federal Circuit on Friday wouldn't revive an Ohio-based outdoor product company's lawsuit accusing a Texas rival of infringing various fencing patents, finding nothing was wrong with the way the lower court interpreted key terminology in the patent.

  • October 17, 2025

    MGA Fights New Trial On Damages In Doll TM Case

    Toy maker MGA Entertainment wants to appeal a California federal judge's decision calling for a new jury trial to consider whether to award punitive damages to hip-hop moguls Clifford "T.I." Harris and Tameka "Tiny" Harris over a line of dolls called L.O.L. Surprise O.M.G.

  • October 17, 2025

    NC Justices Say Doctor Can't Appeal Dismissal Denial

    The North Carolina Supreme Court on Friday denied a doctor and hospital's attempt to reverse an appeals court order upholding the denial of their requests to dismiss a malpractice suit, saying they did not have the right to appeal the denial in the first place.

  • October 17, 2025

    11th Circ. Says Adjusters May Be Insurance Cos.' Employees

    A jury could reasonably find that a pair of insurance companies employed three insurance adjusters, the Eleventh Circuit ruled, flipping an Alabama district court's findings that the workers were independent contractors.

  • October 17, 2025

    NY Court Orders Hearing On Counsel Conflict In Drug Case

    A man who pled guilty to gun and drug charges and was sentenced to 12 years in prison can argue for a new trial due to ineffective counsel after a similarly culpable co-defendant got a light sentence allegedly due to cooperation between their attorneys, a New York state appeals court said in a reversal.

  • October 17, 2025

    9th Circ. Upholds Nigerian's Asylum Denial For Marriage Fraud

    An immigration judge reasonably denied a Nigerian man's application for asylum after finding him not credible based on a prior marriage fraud admission, a Ninth Circuit panel ruled.

  • October 16, 2025

    Bannon Tells Justices Legal Advice Dooms Contempt Rap

    A lawyer's advice to Steve Bannon not to respond to a congressional subpoena over the Jan. 6 insurrection means he couldn't have "willfully" flouted the subpoena and negates his conviction, the onetime Trump adviser has told the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • October 16, 2025

    Protests Aren't Rebellions Justifying The Guard, 7th Circ. Says

    The Seventh Circuit elaborated Thursday on its reasoning for denying the Trump administration's request to stay a ruling blocking the deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago, noting that "spirited, sustained and occasionally violent actions" of protest demonstrators, without more, don't constitute a "rebellion" that would justify deploying the Guard.

  • October 16, 2025

    Farmers Urge Wash. Justices To Void Fuel Exemption Regs

    A Washington Supreme Court justice suggested Thursday that the state's framework for an exemption under its greenhouse gas "cap-and-invest" program has fallen short of lawmakers' express goal of ensuring farmers have access to surcharge-free fuel for agricultural purposes.

  • October 16, 2025

    7th Circ. Affirms French Montana's Win In Copyright Case

    The Seventh Circuit on Thursday backed French Montana's win in a copyright case brought by a musician who alleged the rapper sampled his instrumental song to make the hit single "Ain't Worried About Nothin'," saying there wasn't evidence to show Montana duplicated the work "as opposed to merely imitating it."

  • October 16, 2025

    Kalshi Tells 4th Circ. Md. Is Stepping On CFTC Oversight

    Maryland federal judge was wrong to reject sports betting company Kalshi's argument that its so-called prediction market, which allows users to wager on the outcome of real-world events, counts as a federal derivative exchange, the company said to the Fourth Circuit.

  • October 16, 2025

    Army Vets Say Fluor Deviating From 4th Circ. Ruling

    A U.S. Army veteran told the U.S. Supreme Court that defense contractor Fluor Corp. has "abandoned the Fourth Circuit's rationale" in defending a panel's decision that affirmed the dismissal of his state-based injury claims stemming from a 2016 suicide bombing in Afghanistan.

  • October 16, 2025

    Justices Told Presidential Firing Limits Rely On 'Soured' Logic

    President Donald Trump and a cadre of supporters have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to wipe out what remains of a 90-year-old ruling that empowers Congress to prohibit the president from firing certain agency officials at will, arguing the decision was flawed when originally issued and is now well past its prime. 

  • October 16, 2025

    Texas Panel Blocks Hospital Subpoenas In Trans Care Suit

    A Texas appellate court on Thursday directed a trial court to withdraw an order requiring two Dallas hospitals to turn over documents concerning alleged gender affirming care, saying the lower court abused its discretion since nonparty patients had motions for protection pending in another court.

  • October 16, 2025

    Peloton Moves To Toss Investors' Revived COVID-19 Suit

    Peloton has once again moved to dismiss a proposed class action lawsuit revived by the Second Circuit last month, saying that investors couldn't prove executives intentionally misled them into believing that a spike in demand during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic was sustainable.

  • October 16, 2025

    Generics Makers Urge 3rd Circ. To Nix Price-Fixing Classes

    Actavis and Mylan have urged the Third Circuit to reverse the certification of two classes of buyers for a pair of medications in the sprawling multidistrict litigation over alleged price-fixing in the generic drug industry.

  • October 16, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Affirms Dismissal Of Nev. Tribe's $208M Breach Suit

    The Federal Circuit on Thursday said it won't overturn a Court of Federal Claims' decision to dismiss the Winnemucca Indian Colony's $208 million breach of trust allegations against the Bureau of Indian Affairs, saying the Nevada tribe failed to identify a substantive source of law that requires compensation.

  • October 16, 2025

    USPTO Says Fed. Circ. Should Skip 'Settled Expectations' Case

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office wants the Federal Circuit to reject a challenge to the way the agency has denied review of patents based on the owner's "settled expectations," saying Thursday it has full discretion on whether to review patents or not.

  • October 16, 2025

    Fla. Panel Revives Relief Bid After Key Witnesses Recant

    A Florida appeals court ordered that a man should be given a second chance at post-conviction relief after finding his attorneys did not spend adequate time advising him on whether he should testify to rebut evidence from two key prosecution witnesses who later recanted.

  • October 16, 2025

    Fla. Asks Justices To Halt Calif., Wash. Truck Licensing Lapses

    Florida has taken steps to sue California and Washington in the U.S. Supreme Court, alleging the Democratic-led states have flouted federal law by allowing unauthorized immigrants to obtain commercial drivers licenses to haul big rigs cross-country, endangering motorists and causing "mayhem" on roadways.

  • October 16, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Won't Revive Gesture Patent After Reexam

    The Federal Circuit on Thursday backed a Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision that tossed claims in a motion sensor patent owned by Gesture Technology Partners LLC, the latest development in a larger patent dispute involving the company.

  • October 16, 2025

    Mich. Panel Tosses Black Deputy Wardens' Race Bias Suit

    A Michigan appellate panel has spared the state's corrections agency from a discrimination lawsuit filed by two Black deputy wardens who said they were passed over for warden roles that went to white colleagues.

Expert Analysis

  • Ruling On Labor Peace Law Marks Shift For Cannabis Cos.

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    Currently on appeal to the Ninth Circuit, an Oregon federal court’s novel decision in Casala v. Kotek, invalidating a state law that requires labor peace agreements as a condition of cannabis business licensure, marks the potential for compliance uncertainty for all cannabis employers in states with labor peace mandates, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.

  • Fed. Circ. Rulings Refine Patent Claim Construction Standards

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    Four Federal Circuit patent decisions this year clarify several crucial principles governing patent claim construction, including the importance of prosecution history, and the need for error-free, precise language from claims drafters, say attorneys at Taft.

  • Opinion

    Congress Must Resolve PSLRA Issue For Section 11 Litigants

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    By establishing a uniform judgment reduction credit for all defendants in cases involving Section 11 of the Securities Act, Congress could remove unnecessary statutory ambiguity from the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act and enable litigants to price potential settlements with greater certainty, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Agentic AI Puts A New Twist On Attorney Ethics Obligations

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    As lawyers increasingly use autonomous artificial intelligence agents, disciplinary authorities must decide whether attorney responsibility for an AI-caused legal ethics violation is personal or supervisory, and firms must enact strong policies regarding agentic AI use and supervision, says Grace Wynn at HWG.

  • Series

    Being A Professional Wrestler Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Pursuing my childhood dream of being a professional wrestler has taught me important legal career lessons about communication, adaptability, oral advocacy and professionalism, says Christopher Freiberg at Midwest Disability.

  • Patent Claim Lessons From Fed. Circ.'s Teva Decision

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    The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Janssen v. Teva is an important precedent for parties drafting patent claims or litigating obviousness where the prior art has potentially overlapping ranges for a claimed element, and may be particularly instructive to patent applicants in the pharmaceutical field, say attorneys at Cooley.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Adapting To The Age Of AI

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    Though law school may not have specifically taught us how to use generative artificial intelligence to help with our daily legal tasks, it did provide us the mental building blocks necessary for adapting to this new technology — and the judgment to discern what shouldn’t be automated, says Pamela Dorian at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Ch. 11 Ruling Voiding $2M Litigation Funding Sends A Warning

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    A recent Texas bankruptcy court decision that a postconfirmation litigation trust has no obligations to repay a completely drawn down $2 million litigation funding agreement serves as a warning for estate administrators and funders to properly disclose the intended financing, say attorneys at Kleinberg Kaplan.

  • A Changing Playbook For Fighting Records Requests In Del.

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    The Delaware Supreme Court's recent decision in Wong v. Amazon, reversing the denial of an inspection demand brought by a stockholder, serves as a stark warning to corporations challenging books and records requests, making clear that companies cannot defeat such demands solely by attacking the scope of their stated purpose, say attorneys at Duane Morris.

  • Demystifying The Civil Procedure Rules Amendment Process

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    Every year, an advisory committee receives dozens of proposals to amend the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, most of which are never adopted — but a few pointers can help maximize the likelihood that an amendment will be adopted, says Josh Gardner at DLA Piper.

  • How The 5th, DC Circuits Agreed On FCC Forfeiture Orders

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    The Fifth and D.C. Circuits split this year on the Federal Communications Commission's process for adjudicating enforcement actions, but both implicitly recognized the problem with penalizing a party based on a forfeiture order that has not yet been challenged in any way in court, says Jared Marx at HWG.

  • With Obligor Ruling, Ohio Justices Calm Lending Waters

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    A recent decision by the Ohio Supreme Court, affirming a fundamental principle that lenders have no duty to disclose material risks to obligors, provides clarity for commercial lending practices in Ohio and beyond, and offers a reminder of the risks presented by guarantee arrangements, says Carrie Brosius at Vorys.

  • 'Solicit' Ruling Offers Proxy Advisers Compliance Relief

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    The D.C. Circuit recently found that proxy voting advice does not fall under the legal definition of "solicitation," significantly narrowing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's regulatory power over such advisers, offering stability to the proxy advisory industry and providing temporary relief from new compliance burdens, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.

  • 7th Circ. FLSA Notice Test Adds Flexibility, Raises Questions

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    In Richards v. Eli Lilly, the Seventh Circuit created a new approach for district courts to determine whether to issue notice to opt-in plaintiffs in Fair Labor Standards Act collective actions, but its road map leaves many unanswered questions, says Rebecca Ojserkis at Cohen Milstein.

  • How 2nd Circ. Cannabis Ruling Upends NY Licensing

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    A recent Second Circuit decision in Variscite NY Four v. New York, holding that New York's extra-priority cannabis licensing preference for applicants with in-state marijuana convictions violates the dormant commerce clause, underscores that state-legal cannabis markets remain subject to the same constitutional constraints as other economic markets, say attorneys at Harris Beach.

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