Appellate

  • September 03, 2026

    Oil Cos. Seek Quick Appeal To Nix Suit Over Heat Wave Death

    Exxon, Chevron, Shell and other oil giants say they plan to seek appellate review of a Washington judge's order refusing to dismiss a civil suit over a woman's 2021 death that alleged the defendants knew their products were intensifying extreme weather patterns but downplayed risks to maximize profit.  

  • September 03, 2026

    Dutch Software Co. Asks Justices To Halt TM Trial

    A Dutch software company has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to pause a rapidly approaching trial in a trademark dispute with an American rival while it petitions for review of an injunction and contempt order that it said threaten to taint the entire proceedings.

  • September 03, 2026

    Conn. Supreme Court Snapshot: $81M Telecom Row Tops Lineup

    A 16-year-old telecommunications contract dispute over interest rates that increased to an alleged $81 million tops the docket as the Connecticut Supreme Court kicks off the first term of its 2026-27 calendar year Tuesday.

  • September 03, 2026

    Pilot Plane Forfeiture Over 6-Pack Is Excessive, Justices Told

    An 83-year-old bush pilot has told the U.S. Supreme Court that Alaska flouted precedent and applied a grossly disproportionate standard by saddling him with the "ills of alcohol abuse statewide" in trying to forfeit his $95,000 plane for transporting a six-pack of beer to a dry village.

  • September 03, 2026

    Colo. Panel Revives Man's Post-Conviction DNA Testing Bid

    A Colorado appeals court has issued new rules for when and how postconviction relief for DNA testing should be conducted in the state, with the court establishing a three-part test to determine whether a relief petition should be granted.

  • September 03, 2026

    Boeing Investors Say 4th Circ. Ruling Imperils Class Actions

    Boeing investors have asked the full Fourth Circuit to rehear a panel's "extreme" decision overturning class certification in a suit against the aerospace company over its alleged concealment of safety issues with its 737 Max fleet, arguing that the panel decision will create a "vague and unworkable standard" in the circuit if left intact.

  • September 03, 2026

    Williams-Sonoma Urges 9th Circ. To Snip Thread-Count Class

    Williams-Sonoma told the Ninth Circuit on Thursday that a district judge overseeing a certified false advertising class action over bedsheet thread-count labels should have excluded certain class members who purportedly agreed to arbitrate, arguing that the court wrongly couched the arbitration decision in a ruling on the class' definition.

  • September 03, 2026

    Fla. Panel Revives State's Indemnity Suit In Diving Injury Case

    A Florida appellate court revived an agency's lawsuit seeking indemnification from Miami Beach in a decades-old complaint brought by a man who became a quadriplegic from a diving injury, ruling the judgment in favor of the city was premature because the underlying case hasn't concluded.

  • September 03, 2026

    Mass. Justices Say Town Can Take Northeastern U. Property

    Massachusetts' top appellate court granted a tiny Bay State town a win in an ongoing land battle with Northeastern University, finding that the community was within its rights to use eminent domain to take property the school had hoped to use to expand a research center.

  • September 03, 2026

    1st Circ. Orders Redo In Puerto Rico Hospital Loan Fight

    The First Circuit revived hospital Instituto Medico Del Norte's Chapter 11 lawsuit against a lender, remanding the case after it "struggled to make sense" of a Puerto Rico bankruptcy judge's decision to dismiss the litigation.

  • September 03, 2026

    5th Circ. Unsure Provision Allows Contractor To Get Atty Fees

    A Fifth Circuit panel wanted to know why a construction company should get to collect attorney fees without a prevailing party provision in its joint venture contract, saying Thursday that the language of the parties' contract seemed to require a breach of contract.

  • September 03, 2026

    8th Circ. Says Exclusion Bars Oil Well Blast Coverage

    The Eighth Circuit said Thursday that an AIG unit does not owe $25 million to an ExxonMobil subsidiary for injury claims stemming from a 2016 oil and gas well explosion, finding the energy company did not meet a notice requirement needed to sidestep a pollution exclusion.

  • September 03, 2026

    EPA Appeals Order To Determine Soot Standard Compliance

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it's appealing a California federal judge's decision ordering it to designate what parts of the country are meeting or not meeting new air quality standards for fine particulate matter by early February.

  • September 03, 2026

    Cities, Groups Ask Judge To Keep $3B EPA Grant Funding Alive

    Cities and groups challenging the Environmental Protection Agency's cancellation of nearly $3 billion in environmental climate justice grants asked a South Carolina federal judge, who ruled the termination unlawful, on Wednesday to preserve the funding while the agency appeals the decision.

  • September 03, 2026

    8th Circ. Won't Hear 'Withholding-Only' Removal Relief Case

    The Eighth Circuit said it couldn't review an immigration judge's decision denying a Mexican citizen the opportunity to seek protection under the Convention Against Torture and avoid deportation back to Mexico, since the decision didn't involve a final removal order.

  • September 03, 2026

    Kavanaugh Stays Out Of Mich. Voter ID Referendum Row

    U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh declined Thursday to wade into a dispute over Michigan election officials' refusal to put on ballots this November a proposed amendment to the state's constitution that would require voters to show proof of U.S. citizenship to participate in state and local elections.

  • September 03, 2026

    DC Circ. Won't Reconsider Argentina's $391M Arbitral Fight

    The D.C. Circuit on Thursday refused to reconsider its decision affirming the enforcement of a $391 million arbitral award issued against Argentina in a 17-year-old dispute over the renationalization of its state-owned airline and denied the country's petition for a rehearing. 

  • September 03, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Judge's Post-Decision Recusal Won't Lead To Redo

    U.S. Circuit Judge Richard G. Taranto's decision to recuse himself from a case based on newly inherited Amazon stock is not enough to justify reconsidering the opinion he'd already issued, the Federal Circuit has ruled.

  • September 03, 2026

    Mich. Court Keeps Ann Arbor Public Power Measure On Ballot

    A Michigan appellate panel has kept a proposal to create a municipal electric utility in Ann Arbor on the November ballot, ruling that the city clerk was not clearly required to reject supplemental petition signatures submitted after the proposal's initial filing. 

  • September 03, 2026

    Conn. Justices Uphold Guilty Verdict Despite Juror's Remorse

    The Connecticut Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a guilty verdict in an attempted murder case despite one juror's comment that the top charge left her feeling "a little guilty," with the justices characterizing the phrase as an indication of the juror's "strong and unsettling emotions," not her "uncertainty or equivocation."

  • September 03, 2026

    Phil Berger Jr. Won't Seek Reelection To NC High Court

    North Carolina Supreme Court Associate Justice Phil Berger Jr. said Thursday that he will not seek another term in 2028, meaning the Republican justice will leave the state's highest court after completing his current term.

  • September 03, 2026

    XPO Fights 'Drastic' Sanctions In Fatal Crash Suit

    XPO Logistics Freight Inc. told a North Carolina appeals court that a trial judge went too far by effectively deciding liability against the company in a wrongful death suit over a fatal 2023 tractor-trailer crash as a sanction for alleged discovery violations.

  • September 03, 2026

    Nippon Tells 9th Circ. Not To Revive US Steel Merger Case

    Nippon Steel urged the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday not to revive a consumer lawsuit challenging its now-completed purchase of U.S. Steel Corp., arguing the district court rightly found the plaintiffs too far removed from the steel market to allege higher prices when buying steel-containing products.

  • September 03, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Solidifies Vifor Win Over Iron Deficiency Patent

    The Federal Circuit on Thursday affirmed a lower court's decision that pharmaceutical company Vifor did not infringe a patent covering a method of making iron supplements asserted by rival Biofer.

  • September 03, 2026

    Judge Suggests Mail Ballot Rule Too Late For Midterms

    A Massachusetts federal judge appeared poised Thursday to extend her block on the U.S. Postal Service implementing new requirements that would allow the agency to refuse to deliver potentially thousands of mailed ballots this November, suggesting the midterm elections are too close to make such a sweeping change.

Expert Analysis

  • A Fed. Circ. Blueprint For Drafting Medical Device Patents

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    The Federal Circuit's decision in Constellation Designs v. LG last month, among other recent rulings, underscores the importance of emphasizing engineering, rather than clinical goals, when drafting patent claims for medical devices and software as a medical device, says Brandon Theiss at Volpe Koenig.

  • Decoding Arbitral Disputes: EU's Arb. Defense From Russia

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    The EU's latest package of restrictive measures against Russia marks a significant shift from merely resisting Russian jurisdictional tactics to proactively protecting arbitration and exclusive jurisdiction agreements, elevating the procedural importance of dispute resolution clauses, says Josep Galvez at 4-5 Gray's Inn Square.

  • Becoming The Biz-Savvy GC That Portfolio Companies Need

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    Candidates for general counsel roles at private equity-backed portfolio companies should prioritize proving their sector-specific experience, commercial judgment and ease with uncertainty — and attorneys hoping to be candidates in five to 10 years should start working on those skills now, says Dimitri Mastrocola at Major Lindsey.

  • Nielsen Appeal Tests Antitrust Limits Of Pricing And Bundling

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    In Cumulus v. Nielsen, the Second Circuit is considering a structural pattern in which a monopolist exploits upstream market power to foreclose downstream competition, which could potentially offer broad insight into how courts will assess exclusionary bundling and pricing defenses under antitrust law, says Luke Hasskamp at Bona Law.

  • Series

    Judges On AI: How Courts Can Survive The Tech Revolution

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    Colorado Supreme Court Justice Maria Berkenkotter and Colorado Court of Appeals Judge Lino Lipinsky de Orlov discuss how artificial intelligence has already fundamentally altered the legal system and offer tips for courts navigating deepfakes, hallucinations and a gap in access to AI tools.

  • 'Skinny Label' Arguments Spotlight Induced Infringement Risk

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    Recent oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in Hikma Pharmaceuticals v. Amarin Pharma highlight the uncertain boundary between lawful generic competition through so-called skinny labels and induced patent infringement, with potential implications for patent holders’ communication, enforcement and causation strategies across industries, says Anton Hopen at Trenam.

  • 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.

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