Appellate

  • October 14, 2025

    Split 3rd Circ. Won't Redo Order To Count Undated Ballots

    The Third Circuit on Tuesday narrowly rejected a request to take another look at its ruling that Pennsylvania's counties can not discard mail-in ballots with misdated or absent dates on their outer envelopes, with six of the 14 circuit judges, including new-Trump appointee Judge Emil Bove, voting to reconsider its ruling in light of emerging election law in the state.

  • October 14, 2025

    10th Circ. Allows Charges For Gun Spotted By Peeping Cop

    A man sentenced to 25 years in prison on weapons charges after an officer peering through a one-inch gap in motel room curtains spied him pantsless and holding a gun wasn't subject to an unlawful search, the Tenth Circuit said Tuesday, denying his appeal.

  • October 14, 2025

    BP Urges 5th Circ. To Overturn Retirees' Pension Suit Win

    BP urged the Fifth Circuit to overturn a Texas court's ruling that found the oil giant liable to company retirees for miscommunicating their pension benefits' value following a plan conversion, arguing the lower court judge erred in certifying a retiree class and handing the class judgment.

  • October 14, 2025

    Colo. Justices Say New Deepfake Law Can't Save Old Charges

    The Colorado Supreme Court has ruled that child pornography charges should be dropped against a juvenile who manipulated real photographs of girls in his high school class using an artificial intelligence-powered software to make it appear as if they were nude.

  • October 14, 2025

    3rd Circ. Vacates Injunction Over Erie Indemnity Fee Claims

    A Pennsylvania federal court erred in preliminarily halting a state court action challenging Erie Indemnity Co.'s collection of a management fee, the Third Circuit ruled Tuesday, rejecting Erie Indemnity's position that two similar, now-dismissed lawsuits precluded the state court action from proceeding.

  • October 14, 2025

    Voting Rights Case Could Further Chief's 'Central Project'

    As a 20-something special assistant in President Ronald Reagan's Department of Justice, John G. Roberts Jr. argued a test focused on the discriminatory effects of legislative redistricting on minority voters would be unconstitutional. Now, four decades later and as chief justice of the United States, he has a chance to make that view the law of the land.

  • October 14, 2025

    DC Circ. Questions Nonprofits' Standing In Funding Cuts Case

    A D.C. Circuit panel expressed skepticism Tuesday that nonprofits challenging the Justice Department's termination of immigration court assistance funding could simultaneously have standing to bring their case while also keeping it out of the Court of Federal Claims, where a district judge effectively sent it in July. 

  • October 14, 2025

    Justices Lean Toward Ruling Mandatory Restitution Is Punitive

    A majority of the U.S. Supreme Court justices appeared to embrace arguments Tuesday that forcing convicted defendants to pay restitution with compounding interest years after conviction is a criminal punishment and therefore subject to the Constitution's ban on increasing punishment retroactively.

  • October 14, 2025

    4th Circ. Says Data Leak Info On Dark Web Is Grounds To Sue

    The Fourth Circuit on Tuesday partially revived a data breach class action against an insurance company, finding a subset of the proposed class has standing to sue because they allege their stolen driver's license numbers have since shown up on the dark web.

  • October 14, 2025

    Calif. Panel Keeps State's Win In Uber, Lyft Classification Row

    Uber and Lyft cannot bypass administrative proceedings by filing suits challenging the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health's authority to issue them citations and asking a trial court to find their drivers are independent contractors, a state panel ruled Tuesday.

  • October 14, 2025

    Attempts To Revive Stroke Treatment Patents Fail At Fed. Circ.

    The Federal Circuit on Tuesday tossed without analysis a challenge to Patent Trial and Appeal Board rulings that invalidated patents covering a stroke treatment system, letting stand one of the decisions deemed precedential by a former U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director.

  • October 14, 2025

    Justices Won't Take Up Bid To Ax Spousal Work Permits

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to review a D.C. Circuit decision holding that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security had authority to grant work permits to some spouses of highly skilled foreign workers.

  • October 14, 2025

    DuPont Pollution Suit To Advance Amid NC Top Court Appeal

    North Carolina Attorney General Jeffrey Jackson's forever chemicals suit against two DuPont spinoffs will surge ahead while the companies pursue an appeal in the state's top court challenging Jackson's power to bring contamination claims, a state Business Court judge has ruled.

  • October 14, 2025

    Has The 9th Circ.'s Rightward Shift Ended Bids To Split It?

    Republican lawmakers have long dreamed of breaking up the nation's largest appellate court. But that fervor has diminished as the Ninth Circuit's balance of Democratic and Republican appointees has evened out in recent years, upending the circuit's status as a culture war lightning rod.

  • October 14, 2025

    NY State Court Sanctions Atty For Doubling Down On AI

    A New York state court said a New Jersey-based attorney must face sanctions for both submitting filings with inaccurate and outright made-up case details written in part by artificial intelligence and for subsequently doubling down by submitting more "AI-hallucinated" material to defend his conduct.

  • October 14, 2025

    Justices Seek SG Input In 'Lightning Rod' Health Ministry Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday asked for the U.S. solicitor general to weigh in on a "lightning rod" of a case involving the regulation of nonprofit healthcare-sharing ministries that provide cheap, Christian-friendly health insurance options but aren't legally bound to pay for medical care.

  • October 14, 2025

    Judges Back Ga. County's Use Of Outside Attys In Opioid Suit

    The Georgia Court of Appeals has backed the dismissal of a lawsuit by Publix Supermarkets claiming a metro Atlanta county unconstitutionally hired outside counsel to pursue opioid litigation against the grocery chain, ruling Publix had "done nothing to assuage" the court's reasons for throwing out an almost identical suit earlier this year.

  • October 14, 2025

    Florida Supreme Court Rejects Bid For Bondi Ethics Probe

    The Supreme Court of Florida has ended an attorney's attempt to force the Florida Bar to investigate U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi for alleged unethical conduct after finding that he failed to show a clear legal right to do so.

  • October 14, 2025

    Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

    Last week at the Delaware Chancery Court, Vice Chancellor Lori W. Will ruled that Carlos Vasallo remains the CEO of Caribevision TV Network LLC, finding that majority investors' attempt to remove him under a defective 2019 agreement was invalid for lack of proper notice.

  • October 14, 2025

    High Court Says Blackfeet Members Can't Join Tariff Dispute

    The U.S. Supreme Court denied a bid by members of the Blackfeet Nation to join its review of suits challenging the legality of President Donald Trump's emergency tariffs, who had argued that their inclusion in the dispute is crucial to protect Indigenous rights under federal law.

  • October 14, 2025

    Madigan Ally, Ex-ComEd CEO Can't Delay Prison For Appeal

    An Illinois federal judge on Tuesday rejected requests by the former CEO of Exelon subsidiary Commonwealth Edison and a former lobbyist to remain out of prison while they appeal their convictions for engaging in a scheme to illegally influence ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, saying what's left on appeal are not substantial questions and they aren't likely to overturn their guilty verdicts.

  • October 14, 2025

    Self-Defense May Excuse Unintended Death, Mass. Court Says

    A defendant charged in a homicide can ask jurors to consider self-defense to excuse or at least mitigate charges in the killing of an innocent bystander, Massachusetts' highest court concluded on Tuesday.

  • October 14, 2025

    Top Court Won't Hear Michigan 'False Elector' Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to review a Sixth Circuit decision affirming a district court's refusal to interfere with a state court case in which Michigan's attorney general accused a former Republican presidential elector candidate of plotting to submit false electoral votes after the 2020 election.

  • October 14, 2025

    9th Circ. Weighs Antrix's Bid To Nix Approval Of $1.3B Award

    Antrix Corp. Ltd. is urging the Ninth Circuit to once again refuse to enforce a decade-old $1.3 billion arbitral award issued to a satellite communications company, arguing that the award has been set aside in India and that, in any case, jurisdictional obstacles stand in the litigation's way.

  • October 14, 2025

    2nd Circ. Weighs Taking 'Novel' ICE Detainee Labor Appeal

    A Second Circuit panel mulled Tuesday if it should consider on an interlocutory basis if the New York Labor Law covers a class of detainees who allege they were underpaid by a for-profit company that manages a Buffalo-area immigration detention facility.

Expert Analysis

  • Ruling Offers Insurers A Path To Settle Sans Insured Consent

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    A recent North Carolina federal court ruling, Martin Marietta Materials v. Ace, joins other states in holding that an insurer may consider its own interests in settlement negotiations, outlining a strong strategy for insurers faced with an uncooperative insured and the threat of a large verdict, say attorneys at Phelps Dunbar.

  • Lessons From 7th Circ.'s Deleted Chat Sanctions Ruling

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    The Seventh Circuit’s recent decision in Pable v. Chicago Transit Authority, affirming the dismissal of an ex-employee’s retaliation claims, highlights the importance of properly handling the preservation of ephemeral messages and clarifies key sanctions issues, says Philip Favro at Favro Law.

  • Adapting To USPTO's Tighter Inter Partes Review Rules

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    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's recent pivot regarding how it will address general knowledge in inter partes review petitions presents immediate strategic implications for petitioners, patent owners and litigants watching the contours of Patent Trial and Appeal Board practice, say attorneys at Winston & Strawn.

  • Series

    Quilting Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Turning intricate patterns of fabric and thread into quilts has taught me that craftsmanship, creative problem-solving and dedication to incremental progress are essential to creating something lasting that will help another person — just like in law, says Veronica McMillan at Kramon & Graham.

  • 3rd Circ. FMLA Suit Revival Offers Notice Rule Lessons

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    In Walker v. SEPTA, the Third Circuit reinstated a former Philadelphia bus driver's Family and Medical Leave Act lawsuit, finding the notice standard is not particularly onerous, which underscores employers' responsibilities to recognize and document leave requests, and to avoid penalizing workers for protected absences, say Fiona Ong and Leah Shepherd at Ogletree.

  • Utility Agency Suits May Rise As Calif. Justices Nix Deference

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    A recent California Supreme Court ruling rejecting the uniquely deferential standard of review accorded to California Public Utilities Commission decisions interpreting the Public Utilities Code will incentivize more litigation against the agency, as long as litigants can show their challenges meet certain requirements, says Thaila Sundaresan at Davis Wright.

  • 2 Appellate Rulings Offer Clickwrap Enforcement Road Map

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    Two recent decisions from the Fourth and Eleventh Circuits in cases involving Experian signal that federal appellate courts are recognizing clickwrap agreements' power in spite of their simplicity, and offer practical advice on how companies can sufficiently demonstrate notice and assent when attempting to enforce contractual terms, says Brian Willett at Saul Ewing.

  • Fleeing Or Just Leaving Quickly? 2nd Circ. Says It Depends

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    The Second Circuit’s recent U.S. v. Bardakova decision adopted a new approach for determining whether a defendant who commits a crime in the U.S., and then leaves and remains abroad, intends to avoid prosecution — making it more difficult to argue against the fugitive disentitlement doctrine in most cases, say attorneys at MoloLamken.

  • What 2 Profs Noticed As Transactional Law Students Used AI

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    After a semester using generative artificial intelligence tools with students in an entrepreneurship law clinic, we came away with numerous observations about the opportunities and challenges such tools present to new transactional lawyers, say professors at Cornell Law School.

  • What Patent Claim 'Invalidity' Means In Different Forums

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    A recent Federal Circuit order allowing a patent suit to proceed despite similar claims being invalidated in an inter partes review underscores how fractured the patent litigation landscape has become, leading to critical nuances in how district courts, the U.S. International Trade Commission and Patent Trial and Appeal Board treat invalidity, says Jason Hoffman at BakerHostetler.

  • Reel Justice: 'Eddington' Spotlights Social Media Evidence

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    In the neo-Western black comedy “Eddington” released last month, social media is a character unto itself, highlighting how the boundaries between digital and real-world conduct can become blurred, thereby posing evidentiary challenges in criminal prosecutions, says Veronica Finkelstein at Wilmington University School of Law.

  • 8th Circ. Rulings Show Employer ADA Risks In Fitness Tests

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    Two recent Eighth Circuit decisions reviving lawsuits brought by former Union Pacific employees offer guidance for navigating compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, serving as a cautionary tale for employers that use broad fitness-for-duty screening programs and highlighting the importance of individualized assessments, says Masood Ali at Segal McCambridge.

  • Rebuttal

    BigLaw Settlements Should Not Spur Ethics Deregulation

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    A recent Law360 op-ed argued that loosening law firm funding restrictions would make BigLaw firms less inclined to settle with the Trump administration, but deregulating legal financing ethics may well prove to be not merely ineffective, but counterproductive, says Laurel Kilgour at the American Economic Liberties Project.

  • 9th Circ. Leaves Scope Of CIPA Applicability Unclear

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    Three recent Ninth Circuit decisions declined to directly address whether all of the California Invasion of Privacy Act's provisions actually apply to internet activity, and given this uncertainty, companies should heed five recommendations when seeking to minimize CIPA litigation risk, say attorneys at Skadden.

  • 5 Ways Lawyers Can Earn Back The Public's Trust

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    Amid salacious headlines about lawyers behaving badly and recent polls showing the public’s increasingly unfavorable view of attorneys, we must make meaningful changes to our culture to rebuild trust in the legal system, says Carl Taylor at Carl Taylor Law.

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