Appellate

  • October 10, 2025

    Zantac MDL Suits Were Impropely Tossed, 11th Circ. Told

    Consumers urged the Eleventh Circuit on Friday to revive their claims in a multidistrict litigation alleging that the main ingredient in the heartburn medication Zantac causes cancer, saying the court overseeing the case improperly sided with drugmakers' experts and preempted more claims from coming forward.

  • October 10, 2025

    4th Circ. Denies Shutdown-Based Stay In DOGE Access Case

    A Fourth Circuit panel has refused to grant the government more time to respond to several major unions' petition for an en banc rehearing regarding the panel's split August decision granting the Department of Government Efficiency access to personal data that is held by several federal agencies.

  • October 10, 2025

    SG Tells Justices Courts Should Defer To BIA On Persecution

    Solicitor General D. John Sauer has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to find that courts should defer to Board of Immigration Appeals' determinations on whether asylum seekers suffered persecution or the threat of persecution back home, arguing that it's a factual analysis that appellate courts are "ill-equipped to handle."

  • October 10, 2025

    5th Circ.'s FDIC Ruling 'Cries Out' For Review, Ex-CEO Says

    A former Texas bank CEO has asked the full Fifth Circuit to revive his constitutional challenge to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s in-house enforcement process, arguing that a recent panel decision to reject his case as premature "cries out" for review.

  • October 10, 2025

    AI Company Wants Justices' Input On 'Interested Party' Ruling

    Percipient.ai urged the U.S. Supreme Court to review an en banc Federal Circuit ruling limiting who qualifies as an interested party eligible to protest an alleged statutory violation committed by the government in connection with a procurement at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. 

  • October 10, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Not Sure IPR Estoppel Binds Patent Office

    A panel of Federal Circuit judges seemed wary Friday that language from the America Invents Act barring private parties from raising multiple patent challenges also applies to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

  • October 10, 2025

    Chancery Resolves Caribevision TV's Control, Management

    A series of rulings by a Delaware vice chancellor on Friday resolved for now disputes over control of Caribevision TV Network LLC, the self-described media "eyes and ears of the Caribbean" that recently saw police called in to block an attempt to replace the company's CEO.

  • October 10, 2025

    $20M Gas Plant Verdict At Texas High Court Gets Settled

    Arrow Field Services LLC settled with Linde Engineering North America Inc. after the latter secured a $20 million verdict, ending an appeal of the decision at the Texas Supreme Court Friday.

  • October 10, 2025

    Wyden Urges Justices To Revive UBS Retaliation Case Again

    Sen. Ron Wyden and several whistleblower organizations have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to revive for a second time a fired UBS worker's whistleblower retaliation lawsuit, pointing to a "deep and direct conflict" the Second Circuit has created with its latest decision in the case.

  • October 10, 2025

    DUI Defendant Can't Blame Atty For Gun License Suspension

    A lawyer's failure to alert his client that a drunken-driving conviction would cost him his license to carry a gun is not ineffective assistance of counsel, a Massachusetts intermediate-level appeals court panel concluded.

  • October 10, 2025

    Up Next At High Court: Voting Rights & Warrantless Entries

    The U.S. Supreme Court will return Tuesday to hear oral arguments in four cases, including a dispute over the constitutionality of the last remaining provision of the Voting Rights Act and whether federal prisoners seeking postconviction relief are subject to the same rules as state inmates.

  • October 10, 2025

    Calif. Panel Says City's Affordable Housing Map Is Flawed

    A California appellate court has revived a lawsuit brought by developers challenging Redondo Beach's plans to develop lower- and moderate-income housing, ruling on Friday the city's map for the plans violates state law.

  • October 10, 2025

    GOP Reps Back Legality Of Trump Birthright Citizenship Order

    Eighteen Republican lawmakers on Friday told the U.S. Supreme Court the Trump administration is right to assert that the 14th Amendment was never meant to confer birthright citizenship to the children of parents who are in the country without legal authorization.

  • October 10, 2025

    High Court To Eye Limits On Appeal Waivers In Plea Deals

    The U.S. Supreme Court will consider which exceptions might apply to criminal appeal waivers, which are common in plea deals, the court announced Friday.

  • October 10, 2025

    $8B EV Trade Secrets Case Best Left To Israel, 5th Circ. Says

    The Fifth Circuit agreed with a district judge Friday that an $8 billion trade secrets case between two electric vehicle companies was better suited to be litigated in Israel, saying the party that wants to keep the dispute stateside had not adequately explained why that would be better.

  • October 10, 2025

    Justices Told SEC 'Dead Wrong' On Activist Investor Suits

    An activist investor has told the U.S. Supreme Court that a series of investment funds, with the backing of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, are "dead wrong" to say it has no right to sue over their decision to dilute the investor's voting shares.

  • October 10, 2025

    Supreme Court Asked To Consider Appeal Over AI-Created Art

    A computer scientist who was denied a copyright for artwork created by an artificial intelligence system he built has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review his appeal challenging the U.S. Copyright Office's decision.

  • October 10, 2025

    11th Circ. Says Denied Sentence Relief Not Double Jeopardy

    The Eleventh Circuit has ruled that a man sentenced to 10 years in prison was not double-charged when he was deemed ineligible to receive a sentence reduction under a federal safety-valve mechanism, as his sentence for drug dealing included a firearms enhancement, and he was separately charged for that firearms offense.

  • October 10, 2025

    11th Circ. Says Insurer Must Defend Atty Malpractice Suit

    A law firm's professional liability insurer has a duty to defend it and one of its attorneys in an underlying malpractice lawsuit stemming from their representation of defendants that faced civil forfeiture claims, the Eleventh Circuit ruled Friday, finding that a "misappropriation exclusion" did not wholly foreclose coverage.

  • October 10, 2025

    7th Circ. Won't Pause Block Of National Guard Deployment

    The Seventh Circuit on Saturday refused to grant the Trump administration's emergency order to stay an Illinois federal judge's ruling blocking the deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago while the appeals court considers the matter, but did pause the ruling as it pertains to the federalization of the National Guard in Illinois.

  • October 10, 2025

    9th Circ. Upholds Tossing Dietary Supplement False Ad Suit

    The Ninth Circuit has upheld the dismissal of a proposed class action alleging Golo LLC falsely marketed its supplements as weight loss aids, ruling the claims are barred by federal law.

  • October 10, 2025

    6th Circ. Affirms Class Status In Totaled Car Payout Dispute

    A panel of Sixth Circuit judges upheld the class certification of a suit alleging State Farm systematically undervalues totaled vehicles, saying that a class of Tennessee insureds were linked by a common alleged harm of breach of contract. 

  • October 10, 2025

    Back Where We Started: Life After FTC's Noncompete Ban

    Now that the Federal Trade Commission has abandoned efforts for a nationwide ban on noncompete clauses, the employment provisions remain subject to a constellation of changing state laws and can sometimes still violate federal law in certain situations.

  • October 10, 2025

    Mich. Panel Says Detroit Flouted Surveillance Tech Notice Law

    Detroit failed to comply with procedural requirements before inking contracts for gunshot detecting technology, a Michigan appellate panel said Thursday, leaving it to a lower court to determine if the contracts should be canceled due to the violations.

  • October 10, 2025

    Nonprofit Asks 9th Circ. To Rethink Vegas Price-Fixing Case

    A nonprofit that focuses on antitrust issues urged entire Ninth Circuit to rehear a price-fixing case accusing several Las Vegas casino-hotel operators of using the same algorithm to set prices for hotel rooms.

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    Section 1983 Has Promise After End Of Nationwide Injunctions

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    After the U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down the practice of nationwide injunctions in Trump v. Casa, Section 1983 civil rights suits can provide a better pathway to hold the government accountable — but this will require reforms to qualified immunity, says Marc Levin at the Council on Criminal Justice.

  • Reel Justice: 'Oh, Hi!' Teaches Attys To Return To The Statute

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    The new dark comedy film “Oh, Hi!” — depicting a romantic vacation that turns into an inadvertent kidnapping — should remind criminal practitioners to always reread the statute to avoid assumptions, meet their ethical duties and finesse their trial strategy, says Veronica Finkelstein at Wilmington University School of Law.

  • Patent Ambiguity Persists After Justices Nix Eligibility Appeal

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    The Supreme Court recently declined to revisit the contentious framework governing patent eligibility by denying certiorari in Audio Evolution Diagnostics v. U.S., suggesting a necessary recalibration of both patent application and litigation strategies, say attorneys at Skadden.

  • Justices' Decision Axing Retiree's ADA Claim Offers Clarity

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's holding in Stanley v. City of Sanford that protections under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act don't extend to retirees potentially limits liability by giving employers additional support to challenge complaints, and highlights the need for proactive policy management to mitigate risk, say attorneys at Jackson Lewis.

  • Fed. Circ. In June: Transitional Phrases In Patent Claims

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    The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Eye Therapies v. Slayback Pharma takes on the rarely addressed topic of transitional phrases in patent claims, providing some useful lessons regarding restating claim language and broadly distinguishing prior art, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.

  • Series

    Playing Soccer Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Soccer has become a key contributor to how I approach my work, and the lessons I’ve learned on the pitch about leadership, adaptability, resilience and communication make me better at what I do every day in my legal career, says Whitney O’Byrne at MoFo.

  • What To Do When Congress And DOJ Both Come Knocking

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    As recently seen in the news, clients may find themselves facing parallel U.S. Department of Justice and congressional investigations, requiring a comprehensive response that considers the different challenges posed by each, say attorneys at Friedman Kaplan.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Learning From Failure

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    While law school often focuses on the importance of precision, correctness and perfection, mistakes are inevitable in real-world practice — but failure is not the opposite of progress, and real talent comes from the ability to recover, rethink and reshape, says Brooke Pauley at Tucker Ellis.

  • Eye Drop Ruling Clarifies Importance Of Patent Phrasing

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    The Federal Circuit's recent ruling in Eye Therapies v. Slayback, rejecting the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's interpretation of "consisting essentially of," highlights the importance of using clear and consistent terms throughout a patent's filing history to shield it against future challenges, says Liliana Di Nola-Baron at Panitch Schwarze.

  • Midyear Rewind: How Courts Are Reshaping VPPA Standards

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    The first half of 2025 saw a series of cases interpreting the Video Privacy Protection Act as applied to website tracking technologies, including three appellate rulings deepening circuit splits on what qualifies as personally identifiable information and who qualifies as a consumer under the statute, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.

  • How Justices' Ruling On NEPA Reviews Is Playing Out

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    Since the U.S. Supreme Court's May decision in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, narrowing the scope of agencies' required reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act, the effects of the ruling are starting to become visible in the actions of lower courts and the agencies themselves, say attorneys at Saul Ewing.

  • Series

    Adapting To Private Practice: From ATF Director To BigLaw

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    As a two-time boomerang partner, returning to BigLaw after stints as a U.S. attorney and the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, people ask me how I know when to move on, but there’s no single answer — just clearly set your priorities, says Steven Dettelbach at BakerHostetler.

  • Reverse Bias Rulings Offer Warning About DEI Quotas

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    Several recent holdings confirm that targeted or quota-based diversity programs can substantiate reverse discrimination claims, especially when coupled with an adverse action, so employers should exercise caution before implementing such policies in order to mitigate litigation risk, says Noah Bunzl at Tarter Krinsky.

  • 4th Circ. Favors Plain Meaning In Bump-Up D&O Ruling

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    The Fourth Circuit's latest denial of indemnity coverage in Towers Watson v. National Union Fire Insurance and its previous ruling in this case lay out a pragmatic approach to bump-up provisions that avoids hypertechnical constructions to limit the effect of a policy's plain meaning, say attorneys at Kennedys.

  • A Look At Key 5th Circ. White Collar Rulings So Far This Year

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    In the first half of 2025, the Fifth Circuit has decided numerous cases of particular import to white collar practitioners, which collectively underscore the critical importance of meticulous recordbuilding, procedural compliance and strategic litigation choices at every stage of a case, says Joe Magliolo at Jackson Walker.

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