Appellate

  • July 27, 2026

    4th Circ. Says Inmate Can Represent Himself At Sentencing

    The Fourth Circuit held Monday that the Sixth Amendment rights of a South Carolina man were violated when a judge denied him the ability to represent himself during sentencing because he did not make the request prior to the start of his drug-trafficking trial.

  • July 27, 2026

    Mich. Justices Reject Federal Double Jeopardy Rule

    The Michigan Supreme Court has significantly expanded the state's constitutional protection against double jeopardy, finding prosecutors can be barred from retrying a criminal defendant following a mistrial, even if they did not specifically intend to provoke the defense into requesting one. 

  • July 27, 2026

    Conn. Panel Says Bad Atty Advice Warrants New Murder Trial

    A Connecticut appeals court granted a new trial to a man convicted of murder after finding that during initial plea negotiations, an attorney representing him gave him bad advice on whether his codefendant would testify in his case.

  • July 27, 2026

    11th Circ. Nixes Disinfectant-Spraying Worker's ADA Suit

    The Eleventh Circuit refused Monday to reopen a now-deceased Georgia county employee's lawsuit alleging she was fired for taking precautions to protect herself during the COVID-19 pandemic due to her health problems, concluding she was let go for spraying co-workers with disinfectant rather than her disabilities.

  • July 27, 2026

    Conn. Justices Clarify Guilt-Inference Jury Instructions

    The Connecticut Supreme Court placed new guardrails around consciousness-of-guilt jury charges in criminal trials, refusing Monday to rewrite model instructions or toss a conviction but cautioning trial judges to convey the positions of both prosecutors and defendants in a "neutral and balanced" manner.

  • July 27, 2026

    DC Circ. Overturns Its Own Holocaust Art Ruling

    The D.C. Circuit has substantially vacated its ruling ending long-running litigation brought by the descendants of a Hungarian Jewish art collector seeking the return of a priceless art collection looted by the Nazis, citing the passage of a new law.

  • July 27, 2026

    Google Can't Get 2nd Try At Eliminating Network-1 Patent

    A New York federal judge has denied Google's request for a second attempt at invalidating a patent asserted by a patent licensing company, rejecting its arguments that a Federal Circuit decision from last month made another try necessary.

  • July 27, 2026

    Fertilizer Biz Asks Justices To Reverse Idaho Tribal Land Swap

    An Idaho agribusiness is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to undo a Ninth Circuit decision that invalidated a U.S. Department of the Interior land transfer over tribal concerns of contamination from a planned fertilizer plant expansion, arguing the ruling undermines the country's food security, thousands of jobs and millions in economic activity.

  • July 27, 2026

    NJ Justices Set 3rd-Party Legal Fee Rules In Criminal Cases

    The New Jersey Supreme Court on Monday set forth parameters for third-party legal fee arrangements in criminal cases, upholding a murder conviction on the grounds that no conflict of interest resulted from a state witness paying his lawyer and finding that third‑party payments don't create per se conflicts of interest.

  • July 27, 2026

    Ga. Gov. Appoints Attys To Judgeship, DA Roles

    Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has appointed a Dodd & Burnham partner and the managing partner of Walker Hulbert Gray and Moore LLP to serve as Superior Court judges and two attorneys as district attorneys.

  • July 27, 2026

    10th Circ. Upholds Colo.'s $3-A-Day Rental Car Fee

    The Tenth Circuit upheld Colorado's up-to-$3-a-day congestion impact fee on short-term vehicle rentals Monday, ruling that the charge falls on consumers rather than airport rental car companies.

  • July 27, 2026

    Hemp Co. Says DEA Defied Farm Bill By Banning HHC

    A North Carolina hemp company challenging the legality of a recent U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration rule designating a psychoactive hemp-derived compound as a Schedule I substance has told the Fourth Circuit that the agency defied Congress when it issued the rule.

  • July 27, 2026

    Cannabis In The Courts: A Midyear Litigation Review

    In the first half of 2026, lawsuits taking aim at recent federal shifts in cannabis policy, a federal ban on marijuana users owning firearms and purported residency criteria in state cannabis licensure programs were argued in multiple courts across the country.

  • July 27, 2026

    Trump Admin Appeals Partial Block On Mail Ballot Order

    The Trump administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to step in after the First Circuit declined on Saturday to lift a lower court's order prohibiting the administration from enforcing restrictions on mail-in balloting in 23 states and the District of Columbia in this year's general election.

  • July 27, 2026

    Pa. Felony Murder Bill Deadline Expires With No New Rules

    The deadline for Pennsylvania lawmakers to pass new sentencing rules for second-degree murder has passed, after the state Supreme Court didn't act Friday on a request to extend the delay on their ruling that mandatory life sentences for second-degree murder are unconstitutional.

  • July 24, 2026

    2nd Circ. Partly Revives NYC Employee's Disability Case

    The Second Circuit Friday vacated a lower court's dismissal of a New York City employee's suit claiming the city failed to accommodate his disability, although it said the trial court was correct in tossing the employee's discrimination and retaliation claims.

  • July 24, 2026

    1st Circ. Won't Stay Decision Blocking $100K H-1B Visa Fee

    The First Circuit on Friday refused to stay a Massachusetts federal court's order throwing out President Donald Trump's $100,000 fee for certain skilled-worker visas while the administration appeals the ruling.

  • July 24, 2026

    Abbott Wins 7th Circ. Fight Over Baby Formula Warning

    The Seventh Circuit on Friday refused to revive a woman's claims that Abbott Laboratories failed to warn about the dangers of a Similac-brand infant formula her baby drank before dying of a serious gastrointestinal disease, saying she failed to show that her suggested alternative warning would have saved her baby.

  • July 24, 2026

    'False Innuendo': Sanctioned Davis Wright Atty Rips Fee Bid

    A Davis Wright Tremaine LLP partner sanctioned for subpoena tactics is fiercely contesting a plaintiffs firm's six-figure fee bid, telling a California federal court that the request misleadingly cites alleged misconduct in separate litigation, reflecting a "naked attempt to prejudice the court's view of counsel."

  • July 24, 2026

    5th Circ. Partly Upholds Block On Texas Content Filtering Law

    A Fifth Circuit panel on Friday affirmed in part a lower court's injunction blocking Texas' new law forcing companies to filter content for underage users, though it said other portions of the law, including an age-verification requirement, were permissible.

  • July 24, 2026

    Panel Asks Fla. Justices To Clarify Right-To-Counsel Rule

    A Florida appeals court has concluded that while a man's sexual battery conviction should remain in place, the state's highest court should determine whether the Florida Constitution allows attorney-client conversations during a recess when barred by a trial judge.

  • July 24, 2026

    4th Circ. Backs Parental Limits Under Juvenile Visa Program

    The Fourth Circuit affirmed Friday that the parents of immigrant children who receive visas through a special classification for kids who have been abused, neglected or abandoned cannot seek a path to legal residency through their children.

  • July 24, 2026

    Apple Beats Bid To Revive COVID App Antitrust Suit

    The D.C. Circuit on Friday refused to revive an antitrust lawsuit that accuses Apple of unlawfully tying its iPhone to its App Store and monopolizing access to COVID-19 tracing apps, saying an app developer that sued the tech giant failed to plausibly allege relevant product markets for its claims.

  • July 24, 2026

    9th Circ. Revives Ex-Kaiser Worker's Vaccine Bias Suit

    A Ninth Circuit panel Friday revived a former Kaiser Permanente employee's discrimination suit accusing The Permanente Medical Group Inc. of unlawfully firing her for refusing a mandatory COVID-19 vaccine, ruling that the worker adequately informed the company of the vaccine's conflict with her sincerely held religious beliefs.

  • July 24, 2026

    11th Circ. Revives Challenge To Ga. Gun Carry Age Limits

    The Eleventh Circuit revived a challenge to a Georgia statute that prohibits adults under the age of 21 from obtaining weapons carry licenses and carrying handguns in public on Friday, sending the case back to a lower court to consider it in light of recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Being A Magician Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The skills I've developed as a lifelong magician have translated directly into tangible benefits in the courtroom because performing magic and trying cases both live at the intersection of psychology, storytelling, timing and disciplined rehearsal, says Mark Dombroff at Fox Rothschild.

  • How Litigants Are Testing Conversion Therapy Ruling's Scope

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    Litigants are already using the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Chiles v. Salazar ruling, which applied strict scrutiny to Colorado’s conversion therapy ban, to challenge laws limiting algorithmic rental pricing, artificial intelligence-based discrimination and anti-union employer speech, and courts must soon decide Chiles’ First Amendment limits, say attorneys at O'Melveny.

  • How Justices' TPS Ruling Affects Workforce Planning

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent holding in Mullin v. Doe that courts lack jurisdiction to review temporary protected status determinations greenlights the end of TPS for thousands of Syrian and Haitian nationals, and means employers must reevaluate TPS-designees' employability while avoiding discriminatory document practices, says attorney Richard Herman.

  • How Pfizer Won Fed. Circ. Patent Dispute By 1 Carbon Atom

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    The Federal Circuit's recent refusal to revive a patent in Enanta Pharmaceuticals v. Pfizer over an alleged typo creating a one-atom difference in a COVID-19 treatment application hands defendants a template for potentially converting a triable fact question into an early dispositive ruling, say attorneys at Polsinelli.

  • What To Know Before Justices Rule In Title IX Employee Case

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    The U.S. Supreme Court is poised to decide whether Title IX protections extend to employees alleging sex discrimination in Crowther v. Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, which could have significant implications for higher education institutions and their employees, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • Fed. Circ. Ruling Highlights The Cost Of Incorrect Inventorship

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    The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Fortress Iron v. Digger Specialties, affirming that a fencing company's patents were invalid due to a missing co-inventor, is a reminder that confirming correct inventorship should be a critical part of every patent invalidity workup, say attorneys at Neal Gerber.

  • Future Of Fed Independence Shaky After Justices' Ruling

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Trump v. Cook preserved the Federal Reserve's formal independence but could invite the president to remove board members with just modest protections, leaving the central bank's autonomy uncertain and potentially setting up fresh clashes over other agencies, says Steven Schwinn at the University of Chicago.

  • Series

    Mich. Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q2

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    The second quarter brought several notable financial services law developments to Michigan, including a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on state tax foreclosures, progress on a money transmission modernization bill package, and continued legislative momentum on cryptocurrency and mortgage lending, say attorneys at Dykema.

  • Justices' Ruling Alters Playing Field For State Subpoena Suits

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Davenport will spark more federal court challenges to state subpoenas, but procedural defenses will block some merits decisions, so plaintiffs must carefully time and manage parallel federal and state proceedings, say attorneys at Troutman.

  • Looking At Drake's Diss Track Appeal Through An IP Lens

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    Though Drake's pending Second Circuit appeal over UMG's promotion of Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us" is formally about defamation, it shows that IP considerations can help identify records showing how a work traveled, which may guide courts when deciding context, says attorney Abdul Abdullahi.

  • Series

    Bass Fishing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Landing a trophy striped bass and closing a big deal both require cultivating the patience to finesse — not force — your way to desired outcomes, changing course when your old approach isn’t working and learning from the ones that got away, says Jon Ruiss at Alston & Bird.

  • Series

    NY Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q2

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    The year's second quarter brought several notable banking law developments to New York, including a proposal to align state stablecoin rules with the federal Genius Act, fresh fair lending and cybersecurity guidance from state regulators, and a significant Second Circuit holding on preemption, say attorneys at Ashurst Perkins Coie.

  • PacifiCorp Ruling Shows Limits Of Aggregate Wildfire Loss Models

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    An Oregon appeals court's recent decision in James v. PacifiCorp illustrates that in litigation involving multiple wildfires, materially different causation theories, and evidence tied to particular fires and locations, a single undifferentiated damages model is vulnerable to attack, say Paige Van Oosten and Jason Kim at Hunton and Kevin Cahill at FTI Consulting.

  • Roundup

    The Most Talked-About Supreme Court Decisions Of 2026

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    This term, 11 U.S. Supreme Court decisions quickly became hot topics among Law360's guest writers.

  • A New Defense For Medicaid Fraud Cases In Texas

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    The Texas Supreme Court decision in LabCorp v. Texas last month, finding that the state's False Claims Act requires proof that an omission is material, is among the first to establish that the government's lack of reaction to the defendant's disclosures rendered alleged omissions immaterial, say attorneys at Sheppard.

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