Appellate

  • October 01, 2026

    Fate Of Patent Awards Over $1B Shows Hurdles In Apple Case

    Taction Technology Inc. has secured the largest patent damages verdict in history with a $5.7 billion win against Apple Inc., but it may face an uphill battle to collect, since nearly every previous patent judgment over $1 billion was later reduced or overturned.

  • October 01, 2026

    5th Circ. Rejects Jewish Man's Bias Suit Against Franchise

    The Fifth Circuit ruled Wednesday that a Jewish man cannot become a franchisee of a Christian-only automotive franchise, saying the franchise does not discriminate against Jewish ethnicity and the law at issue does not bar religious discrimination.

  • October 01, 2026

    6th Circ. Backs Immunity In Search Of Empty Home

    Michigan state troopers who searched a vacationing couple's home while attempting to execute a bench warrant are protected by qualified immunity because existing case law has not established that such a search is a violation of constitutional rights, a Sixth Circuit panel said Wednesday.

  • October 01, 2026

    Mich. Panel Revives Child Sex Case Over Possible Entrapment

    The Michigan Court of Appeals has "conditionally reversed" a man's conviction for "child sexually abusive activity," with a panel finding that his counsel did not correctly challenge a police sting operation, causing him to be ineffectively represented at trial.

  • October 01, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Won't Rethink Vacating Contractor's $12.7M Award

    The Federal Circuit said Thursday it won't disturb a unanimous three-judge panel's decision vacating a roughly $12.7 million award a software developer won against the federal government over unauthorized software copies, denying a panel rehearing and rehearing en banc.

  • October 01, 2026

    7th Circ. Asks When Int'l Arbitration Pacts Are 'Null And Void'

    The Seventh Circuit for the first time is grappling with the grounds under which courts may determine if an international arbitration clause is null and void, with one judge questioning Thursday whether consumers should be forced to arbitrate their claims against online casino operators in Canada if Ontario law could ultimately invalidate any resulting award.

  • October 01, 2026

    $16B Ruling Faces High Court Sovereign Immunity Challenge

    The U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to review an "egregiously wrong" Second Circuit decision that overturned a New York judge's $16 billion judgment against Argentina that arose from its nationalization of YPF SA, the country's largest oil and gas exploration company.

  • October 01, 2026

    Water Utilities Say EPA Rule Defines Them Too Broadly

    The fate of a federal plan to eliminate the nation's lead drinking-water pipes may come down to a debate over the definition of a public water system.

  • October 01, 2026

    Hospital Can't Privately Contact Ex-Docs, Wash. Justices Rule

    Washington's Supreme Court split 6-3 Thursday in ruling that Virginia Mason Medical Center improperly engaged in private communications with a malpractice plaintiff's treating doctors by failing to go through formal discovery or establish the patient's knowledge or consent.

  • October 01, 2026

    NFL Concussion Claims Constitute Separate Occurrences

    A New York appeals court held Thursday that concussion-related injury claims brought by former professional football players should be treated as separate occurrences under the NFL's insurance policies, thus implicating coverage under a primary policy but not a fifth-layer excess policy.

  • October 01, 2026

    Trump Says Copyright Chief Can't Stay In Office Amid Appeal

    The Trump administration is urging the D.C. Circuit to let it remove U.S. Copyright Office leader Shira Perlmutter, arguing that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision protecting Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook for now does not entitle Perlmutter to remain in office while her firing challenge proceeds.

  • October 01, 2026

    Pa. Justices Keep But Decry $250K Damages Cap In $7M Case

    The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has opted to preserve the $250,000 limit on damages claims against state agencies, with the majority of justices rejecting a constitutional challenge to the cap because it doesn't impede a plaintiff's right to a jury trial, only the amount of recovery.

  • October 01, 2026

    Aya Health Tells 9th Circ. It Needn't Seek Suits Against Itself

    Aya Healthcare urged the Ninth Circuit on Thursday to undo an order pausing its wage-and-hour arbitration bid, arguing that requiring the travel nursing agency to first notify 400,000 workers of the collective action before deciding whether arbitration is appropriate violates the Federal Arbitration Act and essentially forces Aya to solicit lawsuits against itself.

  • October 01, 2026

    Blue States Fight EPA Rollback Of Power Plant Climate Rules

    A New York-led coalition of mostly Democratic states and municipalities lodged a petition on Thursday before the D.C. Circuit challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recent repeal of Biden-era limits on greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants.

  • October 01, 2026

    Colo. Judicial Branch Announces Death Of Former Justice

    The Colorado Judicial Branch late Thursday afternoon announced the death of former Justice Melissa Hart, who retired from the Colorado Supreme Court in December. 

  • October 01, 2026

    11th Circ. Told Maduro Owes $217M, Not Venezuelan Oil Co.

    Venezuela's state oil company told the Eleventh Circuit that it shouldn't be forced to pay a $217 million judgment owed to the family of a political opposition leader who was tortured and killed by his government, arguing Thursday that it was never an agent of former dictator Nicolás Maduro. 

  • October 01, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Backs Galderma In Injection Training IP Case

    The Federal Circuit on Thursday affirmed an order clearing Galderma SA of a medical training startup's accusations that it misappropriated trade secrets related to an injection training system and derailed what could have been a lucrative deal with Allergan PLC.

  • October 01, 2026

    7th Circ. Won't Rehear Enbridge's Wis. Tribal Trespass Fight

    The Seventh Circuit has refused to rehear Enbridge Energy's petition seeking to overturn a decision that its Line 5 pipeline is trespassing on Wisconsin tribal lands, but also sent back to a lower court a $5.2 million restitution order for a portion of the pipeline's removal.

  • October 01, 2026

    Kalshi Looks To Shield Sports Offerings At 2nd Circ.

    Prediction market giant Kalshi has asked the Second Circuit to shield its sports offerings from Connecticut gaming enforcers, drilling down on its position that those offerings ought to be immune from state scrutiny.

  • October 01, 2026

    High Court Will Hear Kentucky Religious Land Use Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday partially granted a review petition filed by a Roman Catholic nonprofit that's embroiled in a legal dispute with two Kentucky neighbors who don't want the nonprofit to build a Virgin Mary shrine on land that's next to the organization's church.

  • October 01, 2026

    Samsung Win Affirmed Over 'Scientifically Impossible' Patent

    The Federal Circuit on Thursday found that wireless communications patent claims asserted against Samsung were invalid because they did not enable a skilled person to make and use the invention, ruling that "the claims explicitly cover a scientific impossibility that cannot be made or used by a skilled artisan."

  • October 01, 2026

    Developer Bound By Emailed Settlement Offer, Court Says

    A three-sentence email with the subject line "settlement communication," which proposed a meeting followed by dismissal of a lawsuit over a real estate development, was a binding agreement to end the case, Massachusetts' intermediate-level appellate court said Thursday.

  • October 01, 2026

    Pa. Justices Back Transit Prosecutor Law Challenged By DA

    The Pennsylvania Legislature's creation of a "special prosecutor" to address Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner's allegedly unsatisfactory handling of crime in the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority does not run afoul of the state constitution because of the city's special status, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

  • October 01, 2026

    Justices To Review Ex-Spouse Military Pay Suit

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to review a woman's attempt to enforce a divorce settlement under which she said she was entitled to a share of her ex-husband's military retirement pay, even if he waived it to receive disability benefits.

  • October 01, 2026

    Trump Announces Judicial Noms For 5th Circ., NC

    President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he's nominating Todd Butler, a managing partner at Phelps Dunbar LLP, to serve as a judge on the Fifth Circuit. 

Expert Analysis

  • The Patent Circuit: Marking Duties For Licensed Tech

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    The Federal Circuit's decision in VDPP v. Volkswagen provides clarity on how the patent statute's marking provision applies to licensed technology, but expressly leaves open the question of how exactly patentees can make reasonable efforts to ensure licensees' marking compliance, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.

  • NY Art Ruling Creates Fault Line In Cultural Property Cases

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    A recent New York state appellate decision, blocking a Holocaust victim’s heirs from using a criminal turnover order to reclaim a work the Art Institute of Chicago says it acquired legally, makes establishing ownership a newly central question in cultural property disputes, says Duncan Levin at Levin & Associates.

  • What Anthropic Security Ruling Means For Gov't Contractors

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    In light of the D.C. Circuit ruling backing the U.S. Department of Defense's decision to remove Anthropic's Claude artificial intelligence models from its supply chain, there are a few steps contractors can take in response, including assessing whether to eliminate use of Anthropic products entirely, say attorneys at Blank Rome.

  • DC Circ. Ruling Highlights Limits Of DOE Grid Orders

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    The D.C. Circuit's recent decision in Michigan v. U.S. Department of Energy, vacating a DOE order to keep a coal-burning power plant open, gives utilities more insight into the durability of federal orders premised on protecting grid security, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • Testing AI's Promise For Large-Scale Document Review

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    Our document-review comparison of attorneys' responsiveness and issue coding decisions versus predictions generated by artificial intelligence across 1,600 documents suggests that these tools can offer a reasonable and reliable basis for improved discovery workflows, provided lawyers understand where guardrails are needed, say attorneys at Redgrave.

  • Opinion

    Colo. Climate Suit Defies Limits Of State Power

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    In Suncor Energy v. Boulder County, the U.S. Supreme Court must not allow a single Colorado county to penalize pollution occurring across the country and around the globe, because the U.S. Constitution forbids states from exercising power beyond their borders, says Michael McGinley at Dechert.

  • What's Next For Prediction Markets If States Win At High Court

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    While the Supreme Court hasn't taken up a prediction market case yet, a high court win for the states in their quest to regulate the exchanges would likely mean a wave of state legislature bills and regulatory guidance arriving on different timelines, rather than a single uniform transition, says Howard Herndon at Bradley Arant.

  • 3rd Circ. Ruling Shows ADA Limits Amid Worker Misconduct

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    In Hileman v. West Penn Allegheny Health System, the Third Circuit recently rejected a wrongful termination claim under the Americans with Disabilities Act, illustrating that disability and leave laws don't automatically insulate employees from the consequences of prior workplace misconduct, say attorneys at Bond Schoeneck.

  • AI Meeting Recaps Pose New Discovery And Privilege Risks

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    The New York City Bar Association’s recent ethics opinion, cautioning attorneys not to record nonclient conversations with artificial intelligence tools, reflects an emerging view that AI meeting recaps are now a distinct business record category, meaning counsel should set meeting-level controls and apply framework-level updates, says William Wright at Faegre Drinker.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: September Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses six recent rulings involving pecuniary loss in false price comparison advertising, privity in an insurance fee class, antitrust standing, immigration class representatives, retirement beneficiary class commonality, and Rule 23(f) appeals in Fair Labor Standards Act claims.

  • Florida Condo Ruling Offers Tips For Contractor Lien Disputes

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    A recent Florida appellate decision, holding condo owners may challenge liens placed on their units, despite not being party to the underlying disputed agreement their association struck with contractors, offers lessons on lien enforcement to both contractors and condo owners, say attorneys at Adams & Reese.

  • BIA Ruling Could Make Immigration Bond A Catch-22

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    A recent Board of Immigration Appeals decision refining the way immigration judges assess flight risk, when read broadly, could create a circular rule under which a noncitizen can be treated as a flight risk because they have too few ties to the U.S., but also because they have too many, says Georgianna Pisano Goetz at the National Immigrant Justice Center.

  • 8th Circ. Ruling Raises Bar For Seeking Disability Benefits

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    The Eighth Circuit's recent ruling in Post v. Bisignano signals that claimants seeking Social Security disability benefits may need to offer convincing proof of functional restrictions beyond their treating doctors' opinions and illustrates that the court's proclaimant jurisprudence no longer prevails, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Law.

  • Series

    Playing Bid Whist Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    As a child, I viewed bid whist as a family tradition and a source of friendly card game competition, but as a lawyer, I see it as a tool that has helped me cultivate skills like communication, teamwork, risk assessment and composure, says Keyonn Pope at Riley Safer.

  • Teva, Wyeth Show How Claimed Advances Shape Enablement

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    Two recent Federal Circuit decisions involving method-of-treatment claims — Teva v. Eli Lilly and Wyeth v. AstraZeneca — reached opposite enablement outcomes from strikingly similar procedural postures, but a closer comparison of the cases reveals a three-step framework for understanding the court's reasoning, says Kendall Gurule at Polsinelli.

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