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Appellate
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May 29, 2024
2nd Circ. Unsure If Error Kept Murder Exonerees' Case Alive
A Second Circuit judge expressed doubt Wednesday that a lower court erred in declining to grant qualified immunity to two Connecticut police officers whose actions allegedly contributed to the wrongful convictions of two men for a 1985 murder, noting that a key piece of evidence challenging prosecutors' theory remains shrouded in mystery.
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May 29, 2024
11th Circ. Backs SEC Win In Trader's Challenge To 'Dealer' Tag
An Eleventh Circuit panel on Wednesday affirmed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's win in a suit accusing a microcap stock trader of earning $21.5 million while operating as an unregistered dealer, further solidifying the regulator's argument that so-called toxic lenders are considered unregistered dealers.
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May 29, 2024
9th Circ. Revives Bulk Of Walmart Worker's Disability Bias Suit
The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday reversed most of a district court's ruling in favor of Walmart on claims by a vision-impaired employee that the retail giant didn't let him return to work after a medical leave of absence, saying the employee presented evidence suggesting Walmart lied about the reasons why he couldn't return.
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May 29, 2024
Split 3rd Circ. Affirms Court's Revision To $10M SEC Deal
A split Third Circuit panel has affirmed a district court's decision to revise a nearly $10 million consent judgment between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and a man it accused of misappropriating millions from a private equity fund after he was found in contempt of the judgment.
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May 29, 2024
ND Lawmakers Oppose High Court Review In Subpoena Row
Two North Dakota tribes' effort to toss an Eighth Circuit ruling voiding subpoenas on state lawmakers as part of Voting Rights Act litigation isn't worthy of U.S. Supreme Court review, the North Dakota State Legislative Assembly said Wednesday in urging the high court not to take up the case.
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May 29, 2024
NC State Is Blocking Probe Of PCBs In Building, Court Told
North Carolina State University is trying to exploit the judicial process in order to destroy evidence of building contamination, a cancer-stricken professor told a state appeals court Tuesday in a bid to advance plans for a carcinogen inspection.
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May 29, 2024
Microsoft's Post-Merger Layoffs Cited In I-Told-You-So Appeal
A private group of gamers is pointing to Microsoft's recent layoffs of 1,900 Activision and XBox employees as evidence of market harms stemming from Microsoft Corp.'s acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc., as the group seeks to revive a private antitrust suit challenging the merger in the Ninth Circuit.
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May 29, 2024
MGM Gambler's Missing $3M Heads To Mich. Supreme Court
The Michigan Supreme Court said Wednesday it will consider whether a state law governing online gambling preempts a woman's lawsuit claiming MGM's online betting arm refused to pay her $3.2 million in winnings from online roulette, after the casino said the payout was a mistake.
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May 29, 2024
Feds, Dreamers Tell 5th Circ. That Fight For DACA Isn't Over
The Biden administration and recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program urged the Fifth Circuit to reverse an order that held the program unlawful, saying the program has a chance of surviving in light of recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings.
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May 29, 2024
News Orgs. Say State 'Eclipsing' Honesty In Uvalde Doc Row
A coalition of news outlets led by the Texas Tribune told an appeals court Tuesday that the state's request to seal its appellate brief in a long-running dispute over records related to the 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde is an attempt by law enforcement to "eclipse" transparency into the tragedy.
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May 29, 2024
NY Attys Back Bid For Justices To Hear Double-Patenting Row
A petition looking to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to wade into a double-patenting dispute has received support from a trade group of New York patent lawyers.
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May 29, 2024
TikTok Ban Gets Expedited Sept. Hearing Date At DC Circ.
The D.C. Circuit on Tuesday agreed to expedite the briefing schedule for a constitutional challenge against a federal law banning TikTok from the United States unless it severs its ties with its Chinese parent company, ByteDance Ltd., with oral arguments set to be heard this fall.
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May 29, 2024
PJM Watchdog Challenges FERC's Meeting Roadblock
Monitoring Analytics, the independent market monitor for regional transmission organization PJM Interconnection, is asking the D.C. Circuit to review a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission order from March allowing PJM to keep the monitor out of its liaison committee meetings.
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May 29, 2024
Teacher's Contract Renewal Claim Spiked By Ga. Justices
The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled Wednesday that a teacher can't sue his former district for denying him a contract renewal after he missed its due date, finding that the lack of a definitive salary figure in the offer doesn't conflict with state law.
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May 29, 2024
Fed. Circ. Backs Claim Invalidity In Express Mobile Web Patent
The Federal Circuit has backed a Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision that a single claim of an Express Mobile website generation patent was invalid as obvious based on earlier inventions.
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May 29, 2024
Wash. Panel Ends Quest Diagnostics' COVID Coverage Quest
Quest Diagnostics' insurers don't owe the medical testing lab COVID-19-related business loss coverage, a Washington appeals court said, ruling the company failed to show that the presence of the virus resulted in physical loss or damage to its property.
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May 29, 2024
9th Circ. Rejects Objections To $23M Monsanto Roundup Deal
The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday affirmed a district court's approval of a $23 million MDL settlement to resolve claims that Monsanto failed to warn buyers of the carcinogens in its Roundup weed killer, finding there was no indication of collusion as argued by Missouri-based objectors.
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May 29, 2024
Google Rips Sonos Bid To Revive $32M Patent Verdict
Google is urging the Federal Circuit to reject Sonos' claim that a California federal court endangered thousands of patents when it threw out a jury's $32.5 million infringement verdict in the smart speaker maker's favor, with the tech giant arguing that Sonos is not entitled to patent protection for audio features that the company waited years to disclose.
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May 29, 2024
4th Circ. Rejects Atty Fee Bid In Fight Over Ted Nugent Photo
The Fourth Circuit has denied a photographer's application for attorney fees after Bricker Graydon LLP helped him secure a favorable ruling in his legal battle over a news website's allegedly unauthorized use of a Ted Nugent photo he took in an article titled, "15 Signs Your Daddy Was A Conservative."
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May 29, 2024
Non-Atty Advice To Debtors Is Unprotected, 2nd Circ. Told
New York urged the Second Circuit on Wednesday to find that stopping a nonprofit focused on bankruptcy education and the South Bronx pastor it's working with from advising low-income debtors represents a content-neutral regulation on who can practice law that does not violate the First Amendment.
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May 29, 2024
8th Circ. Backs Ark. Landowners' Jury Win In Flooding Suit
The Eighth Circuit has upheld a group of Arkansas landowners' nearly $350,000 jury win in their lawsuit accusing Lawrence County of building a bridge that caused flooding that damaged their crops.
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May 29, 2024
CNN Tells 11th Circ. Trump Defamation Claims Fall Flat
CNN called on the Eleventh Circuit to reject former President Donald Trump's attempt to revive his $475 million defamation suit against the network, arguing that its use of the phrase "big lie" to describe his claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen "does not convey Trump is Hitler."
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May 29, 2024
9th Circ. Affirms Dismissal Of Doctor's Military Bias Suit
An Arizona hospital defeated a doctor's discrimination lawsuit for the second time, with the Ninth Circuit upholding an Arizona federal judge's decision to toss the doctor's claims that the hospital showed bias against his military status by not renewing his contract after he deployed.
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May 29, 2024
Contractor Talking To Juror Warrants Contempt, NC Panel Told
A general contractor interfered with the court when he spoke to a juror during a civil trial involving his company, state prosecutors told a North Carolina appellate court in seeking to have the contractor's contempt conviction upheld.
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May 29, 2024
5th Circ. Stays Transfer Of Suit Over CFPB's Late Fee Rule
The Fifth Circuit on Wednesday halted the transfer of a banking industry lawsuit against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's $8 credit card late fee rule, again intervening in the case less than a day after a Texas federal judge ordered it sent to Washington, D.C., for a second time.
Expert Analysis
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Del. Ruling Highlights M&A Deal Adviser Conflict Disclosures
The Delaware Supreme Court recently reversed the Court of Chancery's dismissal of challenges to Nordic Capital's acquisition of Inovalon, demonstrating the importance of full disclosure of financial adviser conflicts when a going-private merger seeks business judgment rule review, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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Key Antitrust Class Certification Questions Remain Unclear
The U.S. Supreme Court, by recently rejecting certiorari in Visa v. National ATM, turned down the opportunity to clarify how to analyze disputed evidence bearing on the certification of antitrust class actions, leaving the applicable standards unclear instead of resolving this split of authority, says Jonathan Berman at Jones Day.
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E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Text Message Data
Electronically stored information on cellphones, and in particular text messages, can present unique litigation challenges, and recent court decisions demonstrate that counsel must carefully balance what data should be preserved, collected, reviewed and produced, say attorneys at Sidley.
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What's Notable In JAMS' New Mass Arbitration Rules
The Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services’ recently released guidelines, coming on the heels of similar American Arbitration Association amendments, suggests that mass arbitrations will remain an efficient means for consumers to vindicate their rights against companies, say Jonathan Waisnor and Brandon Heitmann at Labaton Keller.
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Fostering Employee Retention Amid Shaky DEI Landscape
Ongoing challenges to the legality of corporate diversity, equity and inclusion programs are complicating efforts to use DEI as an employee retention tool, but with the right strategic approach employers can continue to recruit and retain diverse talent — even after the FTC’s ban on noncompetes, says Ally Coll at the Purple Method.
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'Fat Leonard' Case Shows High Bar For Rescinding Guilty Plea
Prosecutors’ recent move in the “Fat Leonard” bribery case, supporting several defendants’ motions to withdraw their guilty pleas, is extremely unusual – and its contrast with other prosecutions demonstrates that the procedural safeguards at plea hearings are far from enough, says Sara Kropf at Kropf Moseley.
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Justices Clarify FAA But Leave Behind Important Questions
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision last month in Bissonnette v. LePage firmly shuts the door on any argument that the Federal Arbitration Act's Section 1 exemption is limited to transportation workers whose employers transport goods on behalf of others, but two major issues remain unresolved, say Joshua Wesneski and Crystal Weeks at Weil.
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Is The Digital Accessibility Storm Almost Over?
Though private businesses have faced a decadelong deluge of digital accessibility complaints in the absence of clear regulations or uniformity among the courts, attorneys at Epstein Becker address how recent federal courts’ pushback against serial Americans with Disabilities Act plaintiffs and the U.S. Department of Justice’s proposed government accessibility standards may presage a break in the downpour.
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Rebuttal
Double-Patenting Ruling Shows Terminal Disclaimers' Value
While a recent Law360 guest article seems to argue that the Federal Circuit’s Cellect decision last year robs patent owners of lawful patent term, the ruling actually identifies how terminal disclaimers are the solution to the problem of obviousness-type double patenting, say Jane Love and Robert Trenchard at Gibson Dunn.
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Series
Swimming Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Years of participation in swimming events, especially in the open water, have proven to be ideal preparation for appellate arguments in court — just as you must put your trust in the ocean when competing in a swim event, you must do the same with the judicial process, says John Kulewicz at Vorys.
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How Courts Are Interpreting Fed. Circ. IPR Estoppel Ruling
In the year since the Federal Circuit’s Ironburg ruling, which clarified the scope of inter partes and post-grant review estoppel, district court decisions show that application of IPR or PGR estoppel may become a resource-intensive inquiry, say Whitney Meier Howard and Michelle Lavrichenko at Venable.
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Mid-2024 FCA Enforcement And Litigation Trends To Watch
Reviewing notable False Claims Act trends and enforcement efforts in the last year and a half reveals that healthcare is a key enforcement priority for the U.S. Department of Justice, and the road ahead may bring clarification on Anti-Kickback Statute causation and willfulness standards, along with increased focus on private equity, cybersecurity and self-disclosure, say attorneys at Epstein Becker.
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2nd Circ. Eminent Domain Ruling Empowers Municipalities
The Second Circuit's recent decision in Brinkmann v. Town of Southold, finding that a pretextual taking does not violate the Fifth Amendment's takings clause, gives municipalities a powerful tool with which to block unwanted development projects, even in bad faith, say James O'Connor and Benjamin Sugarman at Phillips Lytle.
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Opinion
SEC Doesn't Have Legal Authority For Climate Disclosure Rule
Instead of making the required legal argument to establish its authority, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate-related disclosure rule hides behind more than 1,000 references to materiality to give the appearance that its rule is legally defensible, says Bernard Sharfman at RealClearFoundation.
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Breaking Down 4th Circ. Pendent Appellate Jurisdiction Ruling
As illustrated by the Fourth Circuit's recent decision in Elegant Massage v. State Farm, denying class certification and granting a motion to dismiss, federal appellate courts continue to struggle with defining the scope of pendent appellate jurisdiction — or jurisdiction over nonfinal orders below, says Joan Steinman at the Chicago-Kent College of Law.