Appellate

  • September 23, 2026

    Circuit Rift On Pension Credit May Catch Supreme Court's Eye

    The Seventh Circuit recently established how to credit employers for a previous partial withdrawal from a multiemployer pension fund when calculating liability for a complete exit, resulting in a split with the Ninth and Eleventh circuits and raising the likelihood the issue could eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court, attorneys said.

  • September 23, 2026

    Colo. Town Says Agenda Change Didn't Void Closed Meeting

    A Colorado Court of Appeals panel appeared skeptical Wednesday that an improperly noticed meeting revokes the privacy privilege of an executive session held at the meeting in a town's appeal of a lower court's order to make what was discussed during the session public.

  • September 23, 2026

    9th Circ. Grounds Suit Over Wash. Airport Flight Path Pollution

    A Ninth Circuit panel said Wednesday that a provision of the Clean Air Act limiting state regulation of aircraft emissions is enough to extinguish a group of Washington residents' proposed class action against Delta Air Lines, Alaska Airlines and the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport's operator over alleged flight path pollution.

  • September 23, 2026

    Squires Wants Even More Review Of Patent From $253M Case

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director again intervened in a case stemming from a Patent Trial and Appeal Board's invalidation of patent claims in a $253 million judgment against GoDaddy, asking the Federal Circuit to remand an appeal over a decision by top judges that revived the claims.

  • September 23, 2026

    Conn. Panel Seeks Info On Intervenor Standing In Setoff Case

    A Connecticut appellate court has asked for more information about whether intervenors challenging caps that could cut millions of dollars of benefits in a state-managed rehabilitation of PHL Variable Insurance Co. are actual policyholders who have standing to be involved in an appeal.

  • September 23, 2026

    5th Circ. Asks Texas Students If Drag Is Same As 'Striptease'

    The full Fifth Circuit pressed student LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations to explain how drag shows on Texas college campuses met the standards for First Amendment protection, asking Wednesday if the organizations were arguing the schools should allow "striptease" performances.

  • September 23, 2026

    Colo. Judge Declines To Sanction Hospital In Gender Care Suit

    Children's Hospital Colorado properly complied with an injunction prohibiting it from refusing to provide medically necessary gender-affirming care to transgender youth patients, a state judge ruled, rejecting a request by a class of patients to hold the hospital in contempt.

  • September 23, 2026

    9th Circ. Won't Rehear Klamath Project ESA Ruling

    The Ninth Circuit said Wednesday it won't disturb a divided three-judge panel's ruling affirming that a federal regulator must abide by the Endangered Species Act's interagency consultation requirements as it operates a water management project in northern California and southern Oregon.

  • September 23, 2026

    11th Circ. Backs Off-Duty Officer's Immunity From Force Suit

    The Eleventh Circuit has ruled that an off-duty Alabama police officer should have qualified immunity from a lawsuit alleging unlawful use of deadly force after he fatally shot his unarmed neighbor who was suffering from a brain cancer-related mental health crisis.

  • September 23, 2026

    Keysight Can't Get Full Fed. Circ. To Review Centripetal Case

    The full Federal Circuit will not review a decision upholding the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's finding that Keysight Technologies Inc. failed to show that five claims in a Centripetal Networks LLC cybersecurity patent are invalid, rejecting Keysight's argument that the panel focused on "form over substance."

  • September 23, 2026

    9th Circ. Rejects Squatter's-Rights Claim On Dead Baby's Name

    Walter Glenn Primrose testified at trial that he stole a dead baby's name to escape debt and threats in the 1980s and used it for three decades — even joining the U.S. Coast Guard and becoming a defense contractor — before his arrest and convictions. This week, the Ninth Circuit rejected Primrose's novel claim that his identity theft convictions can't stand because he has squatter's rights over the infant's identity.

  • September 23, 2026

    DOJ Partially Backs Apple In Epic High Court Contempt Case

    The U.S. Department of Justice told the U.S. Supreme Court in an amicus brief that the Ninth Circuit wrongly faulted Apple for charging a 27% commission on transactions linked out from apps, but it backed other parts of the California federal court's contempt order won by Epic Games.

  • September 23, 2026

    Sam Smith Can't Shimmy Out Of 'Dancing' Copyright Suit

    A California federal judge will not throw out a lawsuit accusing pop singers Sam Smith and Normani of copying another song in their 2019 hit "Dancing With a Stranger," saying there were factual issues over the alleged similarity of the songs.

  • September 23, 2026

    Appeals Court Won't Enforce Hotel Co. Personal Injury Deal

    A Georgia appeals court on Wednesday rejected a hotel operator's push to enforce a $300,000 personal injury settlement with a man who said he'd been attacked while staying at the hotel, saying problems with a key affidavit doomed the company's case.

  • September 23, 2026

    Suit Over Mich. Teen's Campground Drowning Reinstated

    A Michigan recreational campground must face claims it breached a duty owed to a 15-year-old who drowned in a human-made swimming pond, a state appeals court has ruled, saying a jury must decide if the campground failed to warn swimmers of the deep, murky and dangerous conditions of the water.

  • September 23, 2026

    2nd Circ. Hints $7.25M Mansion Sale Stands In Guo's Ch. 11

    Second Circuit judges poked holes Wednesday in the claim that the wife of a bankrupt Chinese billionaire was in charge of a company that owned a contested $7.25 million Connecticut mansion, eliciting a concession from her attorney that there is evidence her husband was actually calling the shots.

  • September 23, 2026

    Vividion Investor Wants IP Suit Over $2B Bayer Deal Revived

    CHP III LP urged the Delaware Supreme Court on Wednesday to revive its suit over allegedly diverted intellectual property in Vividion Therapeutics Inc.'s $2 billion sale to Bayer Corp., while the defendants argued the investor is trying to turn a corporate injury into a direct stockholder claim that did not survive the merger.

  • September 23, 2026

    Del. Justices Weigh If Corporations Can Vote In Beach Town

    The ACLU of Delaware urged the state's high court Wednesday to revive its challenge to Fenwick Island's practice of allowing property-owning corporations and other artificial entities to vote in municipal elections, arguing the system unlawfully dilutes residents' votes.

  • September 23, 2026

    Fla. Panel Won't Hear City's Immunity Bid In Partnership Suit

    A Florida state appellate panel issued a split decision on Wednesday dismissing a bid by a city to overturn an order striking its motion to argue for immunity in a lawsuit over a public-private partnership to build a green waste facility near protected wetlands, saying it lacks jurisdiction. 

  • September 23, 2026

    3rd Circ. Bars Early Probation Termination Bids Before 1 Year

    In a precedential opinion Wednesday, the Third Circuit held that a defendant seeking early termination of supervised release must serve at least one year of the current supervised release term before petitioning the court.

  • September 23, 2026

    Ute Tribe Says Split-Estate Lands Remain Indian Country

    The Ute Indian Tribe has urged the Tenth Circuit to overturn a Utah federal judge's ruling that the surface of split-estate lands within its reservation's original boundaries is not Indian Country, arguing the appellate court settled the issue decades ago.

  • September 23, 2026

    'Hanging In There' Doesn't Ax Disability Claim, 9th Circ. Says

    "Hanging in there" and working through the pain of a worsening disability is not a reason to reject the testimony of someone seeking Social Security benefits, the Ninth Circuit ruled Wednesday.

  • September 23, 2026

    Board Eases Burden Over Migrant Drug Use Admission

    The Board of Immigration Appeals upheld an immigration judge's decision finding a Mexican national ineligible for status adjustment because he had admitted to possessing and using cocaine, finding no obligation to first inform him of the offense's particular legal elements.

  • September 23, 2026

    Legal Groups Back Firm In NC High Court Malpractice Appeal

    Legal advocacy groups are standing behind the law firm Hedrick Gardner Kincheloe & Garofalo LLP in asking North Carolina's highest court to find that the state's four-year statute of repose on legal malpractice claims creates an immovable end-date to liability.

  • September 23, 2026

    KCSR Appeals STB's BNSF Terminal Trackage Rights Ruling

    Canadian Pacific Kansas City subsidiary Kansas City Southern Railway is asking the D.C. Circuit to overturn a Surface Transportation Board ruling that set the price BNSF Railway will pay to use a nine-mile conduit for petroleum and chemical shipping in Louisiana, in an appeal filed this week.

Expert Analysis

  • Mapping 5 Fronts Of The Prediction Markets Regulatory Battle

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    The legal framework governing prediction markets is under simultaneous challenge in five independent areas, and the outcomes will determine not just who can operate prediction markets, but the compliance obligations of every participant in the ecosystem, says Ivor Wolk at Manatt.

  • Patent Ruling Highlights Risks Of Late Inventorship Fixes

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    The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Implicit v. Sonos demonstrates the risk of forfeiture with retroactive correction of inventorship in inter partes review proceedings, with a clear message to the patent community that potential inventorship issues should be considered at every stage of a patent's life cycle, say attorneys at BCLP.

  • Adjusting IPR Tactics As Google Fights 'Settled Expectations'

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    Google’s petition for the U.S. Supreme Court to scrutinize the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's so-called settled expectations practice underscores why accused infringers facing older asserted patents should treat discretionary denial as a case-dispositive risk from day one, says attorney Abdul Abdullahi.

  • 3 Misconceptions About Justices' FCC Fines Ruling

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's June 4 Federal Communications Commission v. AT&T decision rejecting AT&T’s and Verizon’s argument that the commission's forfeiture process violates the Seventh Amendment has yielded three common reactions that misunderstand the decision as a matter of law and how the FCC actually operates, says Samuel Feder at Jenner & Block.

  • SEC Disgorged Fund Distribution Is Next Query After Sripetch

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    Following the Supreme Court's Sripetch v. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission decision, investor harm isn't required for the SEC to obtain a disgorgement award, but future cases must resolve whether the commission will be freed from a requirement to distribute disgorged funds to the victims of alleged misconduct, says Daniel Walfish at Katsky Korins.

  • If Upheld, Wash. Millionaire Tax Could Upend State Law

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    The Washington Supreme Court could open the door to broader income, rental and corporate taxes if it defies precedent and the historically established desires of voters by redefining the state constitution's concepts of “income” and “property” to uphold a new tax on wages over $1 million, says Richard Birmingham at Davis Wright.

  • Trump Admin's Agency Records Purge Tests Judicial Notice

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    While courts commonly take judicial notice of data in government websites and reports, the Trump administration's recent modification or wholesale deletion of these sources means that litigants must look elsewhere to support trial admission of this information, says Jon Gryskiewicz at Lewis Baach.

  • Series

    Cow Horse Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Moving an unwilling 800-pound cow while riding a horse at high speed is exhilarating, a little unhinged and, at least for me, a surprisingly effective training ground for litigation — both demand focus, preparation over rigid planning and the willingness to act despite fear, says Ashley Zitrin at Glenn Agre.

  • Fla. Driver Ruling Shows Renewed Focus On Privacy Standing

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    A Florida federal court's recent dismissal of a class action alleging that private driving records had been improperly used in violation of the Driver's Privacy Protection Act suggests that companies defending against privacy class actions in Florida may reconsider Article III challenges at the dismissal stage, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Vax Ruling Offers Employer Tips For Handling Political Speech

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    A California appeals court's recent decision in Rademacher v. ABC, rejecting a "General Hospital" actor's suit alleging he was terminated for opposing a vaccine policy, demonstrates the importance of the employer's process, including neutral policies, documentation, and evidence of who knew what and when, say attorneys at Krevolin Horst.

  • O Brother, Where Art DAO? Jurisdiction Issues Abound

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    While there is a dearth of decisions examining a decentralized autonomous organization's citizenship for diversity jurisdiction purposes, Second Circuit case law has defined citizenship for other unincorporated entities, which may guide how courts evaluate an increasing number of cases involving DAOs, says Michael Mix at Morrison Cohen.

  • Protecting AI-Driven Innovation In Life Sciences IP

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    Recent developments, including the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's evolving inventorship standards, and the impact of artificial intelligence on the "person of ordinary skill in the art" standard demand that life sciences companies elevate AI patent strategy to a top priority, says Sandra Haberny at Quinn Emanuel.

  • 2nd Circ. Ruling Notably Limits Sentencing Courts' Discretion

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    The Second Circuit’s recent decision in U.S. v. Dralle clarifies the bounds of sentencing courts’ ability to consider uncharged or co-defendant conduct without tying it to statutory sentencing factors, and it may have broader implications for limiting loss attribution in white collar and other criminal cases, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • High Court's Hikma Decision Reshapes 'Skinny Label' Suits

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Hikma v. Amarin marks a significant victory for generic drug manufacturers, but rather than putting an end to so-called skinny label inducement claims, it narrows and refocuses them, say attorneys at Sterne Kessler.

  • Opinion

    At High Court, Oil Cos.' Suncor Preemption Claims Fall Short

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    In Suncor Energy v. Boulder County, pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, oil and gas companies argue that municipalities' climate deception claims are equivalent to emissions standards for their industry — but the suit is ultimately incapable of imposing such standards, say Thomas McGarity at the University of Texas School of Law and James Goodwin at the Center for Progressive Reform.

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