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Appellate
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June 12, 2024
11th Circ. Could Revive Venezuela Chemical Co. Seizure Suit
An Eleventh Circuit panel appeared open to reviving a lawsuit accusing Venezuela of unlawfully seizing a chemical company amid allegedly trumped-up criminal drug charges, as the judges spent much of a hearing on Wednesday questioning why a critical witness was barred from testifying.
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June 12, 2024
Texas Anesthesia Co. Appealing To Duck FTC Suit To 5th Circ.
U.S. Anesthesia Partners Inc. gave notice Wednesday that it will ask the Fifth Circuit to review a Texas federal judge's mid-May decision refusing to toss Federal Trade Commission allegations of a monopolistic "roll-up" of Lone Star State anesthesia practices.
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June 12, 2024
5th Circ. Won't Halt SpaceX Appeal In Case Challenging NLRB
The Fifth Circuit said Wednesday that it will continue weighing whether a Texas federal judge must pause an administrative suit against SpaceX from proceeding before the National Labor Relations Board, amid the company's constitutional challenge to the agency's structure.
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June 12, 2024
EPA Tells DC Circ. Emissions Rules Should Stay In Place
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has fired back at attempts to pause two final rules establishing greenhouse gas emissions standards for power plants and expanded methane emissions control requirements for oil and gas infrastructure, urging the D.C. Circuit to keep the rules in place amid myriad legal challenges.
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June 12, 2024
11th Circ. Won't Rehear Ruling In Pratt & Whitney Cancer Case
The full Eleventh Circuit won't review a panel's affirmation of a jury verdict win for defense contractor Pratt & Whitney that found it had failed to exercise reasonable care when disposing of radioactive materials but also freed it from liability for the pediatric cancer cases that emerged in a Florida neighborhood.
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June 12, 2024
9th Circ. Questions Arbitration Carveout For AmEx Workers
A Ninth Circuit panel seemed inclined Wednesday to force four white former American Express employees to arbitrate their proposed class action claims alleging race bias.
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June 12, 2024
32 AGs Urge Justices Take Up Okla. PBM Law Fight
Thirty-two attorneys general urged the U.S. Supreme Court to take up Oklahoma's petition for review of a Tenth Circuit decision holding that federal law preempted portions of a state law regulating pharmacy benefit managers, arguing the justices needed to intervene to resolve a circuit split.
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June 12, 2024
Energy Co. Says Specialist Can't Get Arbitration Exemption
A Houston natural gas company told a Texas appellate court Wednesday that an environmental specialist injured in a pipeline explosion isn't covered by an exemption for interstate commerce work in the Federal Arbitration Act, arguing that allowing him to claim the exemption would be akin to allowing a janitor to do the same.
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June 12, 2024
FTC Asks 4th Circ. To Pause Novant Hospital Purchase
The Federal Trade Commission has asked the Fourth Circuit to pause Novant Health's purchase of a North Carolina hospital while enforcers appeal an order from the lower court that refused to put the deal on hold for the commission's in-house merger challenge.
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June 12, 2024
Loan Co. Owners Say SEC Improperly Expanded Receivership
A couple accused of scamming 1,200 investors out of nearly half a billion dollars asked the Eleventh Circuit on Wednesday to reverse an order expanding a receivership of their merchant loan business, arguing their due process rights were violated when their personal assets were added to the receivership.
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June 12, 2024
Conn. Justices Nix Health Dept. Worker's Whistleblower Claim
The Connecticut Supreme Court has trounced a public health official's claim that she was fired for blowing the whistle on appointees who lacked mandatory credentials, upholding her termination but also backing her simultaneous pursuit of a union grievance and an administrative complaint.
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June 12, 2024
6th Circ. Says Worker's Anti-Vax Bias Suit Prematurely Tossed
A trial court was too tough on a Christian job seeker when it threw out her religious bias lawsuit against an in-home healthcare provider that she alleged turned her away for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine, the Sixth Circuit ruled Wednesday.
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June 12, 2024
Feds Urge 5th Circ. Against Fast-Tracking Parole Suit
The Biden administration rebuked a Texas-led coalition's efforts to fast-track its challenge to an immigration program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, telling the Fifth Circuit the states won't suffer financial injury from the program while the case is underway.
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June 12, 2024
Atty Fights For Reinstatement In NC After Conviction
Disbarred attorney Gregory Bartko pressed the North Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday to give him a shot at reinstatement, arguing that his 2010 conviction for fraud and money laundering doesn't allow the state bar organization to outright reject his request for being licensed again.
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June 12, 2024
Ga. Appeals Seat Winner Accused Of Fraud Over Residency
An unsuccessful candidate for a Georgia Court of Appeals seat has launched a bid challenging the victory of a former state bar leader, arguing that he committed election fraud when he lied about living in Atlanta when he qualified as a candidate.
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June 12, 2024
Dershowitz Wants Jury To Decide Defamation Suit Against CNN
An attorney for law scholar Alan Dershowitz told an Eleventh Circuit panel Wednesday the court should revive a $300 million defamation lawsuit against CNN, arguing that a jury should decide whether the news network is liable for intentionally omitting Dershowitz's statements in broadcasts over former President Donald Trump's 2020 impeachment trial.
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June 12, 2024
Pleading Flaw Sinks $1.5M Malpractice Award In Miami
A Miami appeals court on Wednesday vacated a $1.5 million legal malpractice arbitration award against The Ferraro Law Firm, finding the arbitrator had not followed pleading guidelines fairly in awarding the seven-figure award to the firm's ex-client, Royal Merchant Holdings LLC.
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June 12, 2024
Kelly Hart Atty, North Texas Judge Picked For Biz Court Seats
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced four more appointments to the statewide business court on Wednesday, a day after announcing his first picks for the state's newest appellate courts.
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June 12, 2024
Massachusetts Pot Shop To Take Union Fight To 1st Circ.
A Massachusetts cannabis retailer found to have engaged in union busting is appealing a district court order that directed it to bargain with a United Food and Commercial Workers local and to offer to rehire two fired union supporters.
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June 12, 2024
Bannon Looks To Avoid Prison Amid Contempt Appeals
Donald Trump ally Stephen Bannon wants the D.C. Circuit to put off his four-month prison sentence for contempt of Congress while he continues to challenge the conviction, contending that the case is likely to pique the interest of the U.S. Supreme Court.
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June 12, 2024
EPA Urges DC Circ. To Uphold Chemical Rule Deadline
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday asked the D.C. Circuit to reject a Louisiana-based neoprene manufacturer's bid to immediately block the EPA from enforcing a chemical emissions rule that will directly affect the company.
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June 12, 2024
2nd Circ. Partially Nixes Injunction Over Amazon Firing
The Second Circuit vacated on Wednesday a New York federal judge's order barring Amazon from firing workers for engaging in union activity, saying the judge did not explain why she imposed the broad prohibition while at the same time finding the company did not have to rehire a fired union activist.
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June 12, 2024
Biden Names Prosecutors, Judge For 3 District Courts
President Joe Biden announced nominees Wednesday for district courts in Minnesota, California and Pennsylvania.
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June 11, 2024
Psychiatrist Can't Ax Verdict Over ADHD Drug Death
A Missouri appeals court on Tuesday refused to let a psychiatrist off the hook for a $5 million jury verdict — later reduced to less than $1 million — that found that he had negligently prescribed amphetamines to a patient with a history of abusing them, ultimately resulting in a brain hemorrhage that killed her.
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June 11, 2024
Ohio Justices Will Review Bid To Toss Neck Injury Suit
The Ohio Supreme Court said on Tuesday it would review an appellate court decision that pulled Mid-Ohio Physicians LLP and one of its doctors back into a medical malpractice lawsuit after they had escaped liability by leaning on the statute of limitations.
Expert Analysis
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9th Circ. Ruling Puts Teeth Into Mental Health Parity Claims
In its recent finding that UnitedHealth applied an excessively strict review process for substance use disorder treatment claims, the Ninth Circuit provided guidance on how to plead a Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act violation and took a step toward achieving mental health parity in healthcare, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Law.
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Using Rule 23(f) To Review Class Certification Orders
Since plaintiffs on average are prevailing in certifying a class more often than not, the best-positioned class action defendants are those prepared to pursue relief under Rule 23(f) well before the district court issues its certification decision, say attorneys at K&L Gates.
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Perspectives
Justices' Forfeiture Ruling Resolves Nonexistent Split
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in McIntosh v. U.S., holding that a trial court’s failure to enter a preliminary criminal forfeiture order prior to sentencing doesn’t bar its entry later, is unusual in that it settles an issue on which the lower courts were not divided — but it may apply in certain forfeiture disputes, says Stefan Cassella at Asset Forfeiture Law.
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Opinion
SC's Courts Have It Wrong On Amazon Marketplace Sales Tax
The South Carolina Supreme Court should step in and correct the misguided change in tax law effectuated by lower court rulings that found Amazon owes state sales tax for marketplace sales made prior to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Wayfair v. South Dakota decision in 2018, says Hayes Holderness at the University of Richmond.
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What Have We Learned In The Year Since Warhol?
In the almost year since the U.S. Supreme Court decided Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith, which was widely seen as potentially chilling to creative endeavors, seven subsequent decisions — while illuminating to some extent — do not indicate any trend toward a radical departure from prior precedents in fair use cases, says Jose Sariego at Bilzin Sumberg.
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The Practical Effects Of Justices' Arbitration Exemption Ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Bissonnette v. LePage Bakeries, that a transportation worker need not work in the transportation industry to be exempt from the Federal Arbitration Act, may negatively affect employers' efforts to mitigate class action risk via arbitration agreement enforcement, say Charles Schoenwetter and Eric Olson at Bowman and Brooke.
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Binance Ruling Spotlights Muddled Post-Morrison Landscape
The Second Circuit's recent decision in Williams v. Binance highlights the judiciary's struggle to apply the U.S. Supreme Court's Morrison v. National Australia Bank ruling to digital assets, and illustrates how Morrison's territorial limits on the federal securities laws have become convoluted, say Andrew Rhys Davies and Jessica Lewis at WilmerHale.
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Practical Pointers After Fed. Circ. Double-Patenting Decision
With the Federal Circuit recently denying a full court review of In re: Cellect, a decision regarding obviousness-type double-patenting, affected patent family holders should evaluate their rights through both patent prosecution and future litigation lenses to minimize risks, say Austin Lorch and Jeff Wolfson at Haynes Boone.
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Sorting Circuit Split On Foreign Arbitration Treaty's Authority
A circuit court split over whether the New York Convention supersedes state law barring arbitration in certain disputes — a frequent issue in insurance matters — has left lower courts to rely on conflicting decisions, but the doctrine of self-executing treaties makes it clear that the convention overrules state law, says Gary Shaw at Pillsbury.
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Corp. Transparency Act Could Survive 11th Circ. Several Ways
If the Eleventh Circuit upholds an Alabama federal court’s injunction against the Corporate Transparency Act, the anti-money laundering law could persist as a narrower version that could moot some constitutional challenges, but these remedies would likely generate additional regulatory or statutory ambiguities that would result in further litigation, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.
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Del. Match.com Ruling Maintains Precedent In Time Of Change
Despite speculation that the Delaware Supreme Court could drive away corporations if it lowered the bar for business judgment review in its Match.com stockholder ruling, the court broke its recent run of controversial precedent-busting decisions by upholding, and arguably strengthening, minority stockholder protections against controller coercion, say Renee Zaytsev and Marc Ayala at Boies Schiller.
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The Future Of BIPA Insurance Litigation After Visual Pak
A recent Illinois appellate court decision, National Fire Insurance v. Visual Pak, may have altered the future of insurance litigation under the state's Biometric Information Privacy Act by diametrically opposing a prominent Seventh Circuit ruling that found insurance coverage for violations of the act, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.
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Macquarie Ruling Raises The Bar For Securities Fraud Claims
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision last week in Macquarie Infrastructure v. Moab Partners — holding that a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rule does not forbid omissions in company disclosures unless they render other statements false — is a major setback for plaintiffs pursuing securities fraud claims against corporations, say attorneys at Skadden.
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Patent Lessons From 8 Federal Circuit Reversals In March
A number of Federal Circuit patent decisions last month reversed or vacated underlying rulings, providing guidance regarding the definiteness of a claim that include multiple limitations of different scopes, the importance of adequate jury instruction, the proper scope of the precedent, and more, say Denise De Mory and Li Guo at Bunsow De Mory.
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NC Rulings Show Bankruptcy Isn't Only For Insolvent Debtors
Two recent rulings from a North Carolina bankruptcy court show that lack of financial distress is not a requirement for bankruptcy protection, particularly in the Fourth Circuit, but these types of cases can still be dismissed for other reasons, say Stuart Gordon and Alexandria Vath at Rivkin Radler.