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Circuit-By-Circuit Guide As Justices Confront Class Cert. Split
The U.S. Supreme Court is set for climactic arguments over class certification standards that have cleaved circuits from coast to coast for much of the past two decades, teeing up a make-or-break ruling for many class actions and a transformative event for legal practice in the swelling litigation realm.
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May 28, 2025
Va. Ruling Undercuts Railroads' Broadband Suit, 4th Circ. Told
Virginia's attorney general is looking to turn a state court loss into a federal court win, telling the Fourth Circuit that a recent Virginia Supreme Court decision curbing a new law that eases access for broadband providers on railroad property actually diminishes a railroad industry association's standing.
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May 28, 2025
Share Control Key To Archegos Suits, 2nd Circ. Suggests
Whether a raft of lawsuits can be restored against Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC may depend in part on how the law defines and treats a controlling shareholder, a panel of the Second Circuit suggested Wednesday as a group of investors tried to save their securities fraud claims arising from the collapse of Archegos Capital Management LP.
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May 28, 2025
Feds Won't Appeal Offshore Fish Farming Permit Decision
The federal government will not appeal a decision to set aside a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' permit intended to speed up industrial aquaculture in public ocean waters, ending the dispute and any future use of the structures off the country's eastern and western coasts.
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May 28, 2025
Fed. Circ. Lets Stewart Revise Longhorn Sanctions Order
The Federal Circuit on Wednesday granted a bid by the acting head of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to allow her to revise the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's decision to cancel 183 of Longhorn Vaccines & Diagnostics' patent claims as a punishment for "egregious abuse of the PTAB process."
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May 28, 2025
3rd Circ. Pauses J&J Unit Appeal In Talc Study Libel Case
The Third Circuit on Wednesday granted a bid by Johnson & Johnson's talc liability unit to stay briefing in its appeal seeking to revive a libel case over a scientific article linking talcum power to mesothelioma.
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May 28, 2025
Cannabis Cos. Eye High Court Review After 1st Circ. Decision
The First Circuit's decision upholding the dismissal of a splashy federal case challenging the national ban on marijuana was all but inevitable given the controlling case law on the issue, which can only be resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court, legal experts and cannabis attorneys told Law360.
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May 28, 2025
ND Tribes Seek 8th Circ. Rehearing In Voting Rights Row
Two North Dakota tribes are asking the Eighth Circuit to reconsider its decision that provisions of the Voting Rights Act don't give private citizens the right to sue over dilution claims, saying the ruling defies Congress, multiple Supreme Court decisions and the practice of every other circuit in the country.
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May 28, 2025
7th Circ. Skeptical That NCAA Eligibility Rules Restrain Trade
The Seventh Circuit on Wednesday appeared to raise doubts over a lower court's decision granting a University of Wisconsin football player another year of eligibility, questioning his claim that the National Collegiate Athletic Association's five-year rule restrains competition in violation of federal antitrust laws.
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May 28, 2025
Distiller Denied New Shot At Wash. State Alcohol Sales Regs
A federal judge in Washington state gave short shrift to a bid for reconsideration from a New York distillery and two Washington whiskey drinkers who lost their challenge to the Washington state liquor board's rules requiring a physical in-state presence to sell online.
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May 28, 2025
Justices Seek SG's Take On Falun Gong Case Against Cisco
The U.S. Supreme Court has asked the solicitor general to weigh in on an Alien Tort Statute suit revived by the Ninth Circuit and lodged by a class of Falun Gong practitioners alleging that Cisco Systems aided in the Chinese government's crackdown on the religious movement.
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May 28, 2025
3rd Circ. Says Pot Smell Needs Link To Suspect For Search
A Third Circuit panel on Wednesday found that the smell of cannabis alone is not enough to establish probable cause to arrest or search a person unless it can be linked by the arresting officer to the suspect.
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May 28, 2025
DOL Tells 5th Circ. It Will Craft New ESG Rule For 401Ks
The U.S. Department of Labor told the Fifth Circuit on Wednesday that it will launch new rulemaking and move "as expeditiously as possible" to replace Biden administration regulations on whether fiduciaries can consider issues like climate change and social justice when choosing retirement plan investments.
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May 28, 2025
Feds Urge Supreme Court To Let 10th Circ. PBM Ruling Stand
The federal government urged the U.S. Supreme Court not to take up the state of Oklahoma's challenge to a Tenth Circuit decision that found parts of a law regulating pharmacy benefit managers were preempted by federal benefits and healthcare laws, arguing the case doesn't warrant further review from the justices.
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May 28, 2025
DOJ Tells Justices American Airlines Can't Renew JetBlue Pact
The federal government told the U.S. Supreme Court that the First Circuit correctly determined that American Airlines failed to prove at trial that its codeshare agreement with JetBlue in Boston and New York had procompetitive benefits, and the carrier's attempt to revive the alliance is moot anyway.
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May 28, 2025
Fed. Circ. Restores Floor Tiling Patent Case
The Federal Circuit on Wednesday revived a lawsuit accusing a pair of flooring companies of infringing patents related to devices used in tile leveling and spacing, taking issue with how a lower court interpreted key claim terms.
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May 28, 2025
4th Circ. Backs 5-Year Sentence In $9.3M Ponzi Scheme
The Fourth Circuit stood by a lower court's decision to imprison a North Carolina man for 63 months after he pled guilty to wire fraud and "use of manipulative and deceptive devices," concluding that the sentence is not unreasonable and was ordered after proper consideration of the public interest.
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May 28, 2025
2nd Circ. Backs Credit One Win In FCRA Investigation Suit
The Second Circuit on Wednesday declined to revive a New York woman's lawsuit against Credit One Bank for allegedly failing to investigate identity theft claims against her mother, with a panel agreeing with the lower court that no reasonable investigation required under federal law conducted by the bank would have yielded different results.
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May 28, 2025
Smartmatic Says Fox Trying to 'Bury Proof' In Defamation Row
Voting technology company Smartmatic has asked a New York state court to lift the "veil of secrecy" on evidence it alleges Fox News is trying to keep hidden from the public as it faces allegations of defamation related to conspiracy theories it aired about a stolen election in 2020.
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May 28, 2025
4th Circ. Finds Towers Watson's Merger Deals Not Covered
Towers Watson's insurers have no obligation to pay out their remaining directors and officers coverage to help fund settlements resolving shareholder litigation over the company's merger with Willis, the Fourth Circuit affirmed Wednesday, saying the deals fall plainly within the scope of a so-called bump-up exclusion.
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May 28, 2025
Alex Jones Is 'Defending Journalists,' Texas Court Hears
A Texas appeals court seemed taken aback after counsel for conspiracist Alex Jones claimed a $45 million default judgment relating to Jones' defamatory Sandy Hook statements should be thrown out, suggesting during oral arguments Jones was "thumbing [his] nose" at the trial court.
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May 28, 2025
Harvard To Give Slave Photos To Museum, Ending Legal Battle
Harvard University on Wednesday settled a suit over the ownership of photographs of enslaved people taken for a racist 1850 study, agreeing to transfer the images to a museum and to pay an undisclosed sum to a woman who says she is a descendant of the subjects.
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May 28, 2025
DC Circ. Denies Steve Bannon's Bid For En Banc Rehearing
Right-wing media figure Steve Bannon, who was a chief strategist during the first Trump administration, has been rebuffed in his bid for an en banc rehearing at the D.C. Circuit on his contempt of Congress conviction, a move his legal team deemed "overriding politicalization."
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May 28, 2025
Ga. Bank Wins Appellate Review Of Claim Against Law Firm
The Georgia Court of Appeals has agreed to review a dismissed portion of a bank's suit against law firm Stanley Esrey & Buckley LLP, after the bank argued it had sufficiently explained that it loaned millions of dollars to a woman who was later convicted of fraud based on the firm's "false assurances."
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May 28, 2025
Ex-Benghazi Investigator Sworn In As Interim NorCal US Atty
A longtime Los Angeles attorney and former investigator into the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans was appointed on Tuesday as interim U.S. attorney in California's Northern District, where he'll be allowed to serve up to 120 days pending Senate confirmation.
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May 28, 2025
Ga. Lawyer Disbarred After Contract Forgery Probe
A Georgia attorney was disbarred Wednesday for altering a contract at the heart of a commercial dispute in a failed attempt to deceive a trial court, as the state supreme court rejected his defenses for his "dishonesty, fraud, and deceit."
Editor's Picks
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A Look At Trump's Pick For The 6th Circuit
President Donald Trump's first judicial nominee, Whitney Hermandorfer, who's been tapped for a seat Democrats tried to fill while Joe Biden was in the White House, has been part of litigation on several politically charged issues due to her job with the Tennessee Attorney General's office.
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12 Lawyers Who Are The Future Of The Supreme Court Bar
One attorney hasn't lost a single U.S. Supreme Court case she's argued, or even a single justice's vote. One attorney is perhaps "the preeminent SCOTUS advocate." And one may soon become U.S. solicitor general, despite acknowledging there are "judges out there who don't like me." All three are among a dozen lawyers in the vanguard of the Supreme Court bar's next generation, poised to follow in the footsteps of the bar's current icons.
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How Reshaped Circuit Courts Are Faring At The High Court
Seminal rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court's latest term will reshape many facets of American society in the coming years. Already, however, the rulings offer glimpses of how the justices view specific circuit courts, which have themselves been reshaped by an abundance of new judges.
Expert Analysis
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Birthright Ruling Could Alter Consumer Financial Litigation
The U.S. Supreme Court’s upcoming decision about the validity of the nationwide injunctions in the birthright citizenship cases, argued on May 15, could make it much harder for trade associations to obtain nationwide relief from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's enforcement of invalid regulations, says Alan Kaplinsky at Ballard Spahr.
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Fed. Circ. In April: Introducing New Evidence During IPR
The Federal Circuit's decision in Sage Products v. Stewart last month upheld the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's decision to allow a petitioner to rely on case-dispositive evidence beyond prior art references, affording petitioners in inter partes review proceedings greater latitude in the timing of evidence presentation, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.
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1st Circ. Ruling Widens Split Over Sentencing Enhancements
In U.S. v. Salvador-Gutierrez, the First Circuit recently switched sides in a circuit split by holding that certain sentencing enhancements apply only where the defendant used a minor in the commission of the crime, deepening a divide over the scope of role adjustments, says Sarah Sulkowski at Gelber & Santillo.
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A Cautionary Fed. Circ. Tale On Design Patents
The Federal Circuit's decision last month in Floyd highlights a risk in design patent prosecution — attempting to claim priority to a utility application, says John Hemmer at Morgan Lewis.
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Series
Power To The Paralegals: An Untapped Source For Biz Roles
Law firms looking to recruit legal business talent should consider turning to paralegals, who practice several key skills every day that prepare them to thrive in marketing and client development roles, says Vanessa Torres at Lowenstein Sandler.
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Google Case Amicus Briefs Reveal Patent Damage Fault Lines
The 21 amicus briefs filed before the en banc rehearing of EcoFactor v. Google offer opposing viewpoints on important patent damages issues that extend beyond the specific question the Federal Circuit eventually ruled on, helping practitioners anticipate and address likely objections to future damages opinions, say attorneys at Stout.
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Using Federal Forum Provisions To Nix State Securities Cases
A California appeals court's recent decision in Bullock v. Rivian clarifies that underwriters may enforce federal forum provisions to escape state court Securities Act claims, marking progress in restoring such lawsuits to federal court and reducing the litigation costs arising from duplicative state court litigation, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.
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30 Years Later: 2nd Circ.'s Road To Arbitral Preemption
The Second Circuit's recent decision in Lloyds of London v. 3131 Veterans Blvd. overturns its own 1995 precedent and squares its position with decades of circuit court jurisprudence holding that international arbitration agreements must take primacy over state anti-arbitration insurance laws, say attorneys at Linklaters.
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Series
Playing Poker Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Poker is a master class in psychology, risk management and strategic thinking, and I’m a better attorney because it has taught me to read my opponents, adapt when I’m dealt the unexpected and stay patient until I'm ready to reveal my hand, says Casey Kingsley at McCreadyLaw.
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Series
Law School's Missed Lessons: Becoming A Firmwide MVP
Though lawyers don't have a neat metric like baseball players for measuring the value they contribute to their organizations, the sooner new attorneys learn skills frequently skipped in law school — like networking, marketing, client development and case evaluation — the more valuable, and less replaceable, they will be, says Alex Barnett at DiCello Levitt.
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9th Circ. Ruling Clarifies Derivative Suit Representation Test
The Ninth Circuit's recent ruling in Bigfoot Ventures v. Knighton clarifies the test used to assess the adequacy of a plaintiff's representation in a shareholder derivative action, and will likely prove useful to litigants by ensuring that courts can fully examine all relevant circumstances, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.
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Patenting AI And Machine Learning In The Wake Of Recentive
Though the Federal Circuit's recent decision in Recentive Analytics v. Fox Corp. initially appears to doom patents related to artificial intelligence and machine learning, a closer look shows that strategies for successfully drafting and prosecuting such patents offer hope despite increased pushback from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, say attorneys at Banner Witcoff.
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Age Bias Suit Against Aircraft Co. Offers Lessons For Layoffs
In Raymond v. Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, an aircraft maker's former employees recently dismissed their remaining claims after the Tenth Circuit rejected their nearly decade-old collective action alleging age discrimination stemming from a 2013 reduction in force, reminding employers about the importance of carefully planning and documenting mass layoffs, say attorneys at Cooley.
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Trade Secrets Would Likely See Court Protection From GenAI
The advent of generative artificial intelligence has given rise to debate about how this technology will affect intellectual property rights and trade secret protections in particular, but courts to date have protected owners when technological advances have facilitated new means for trade secret theft, say attorneys at Kilpatrick Townsend.
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How Mass Arbitration Defense Strategies Have Fared In Court
As businesses face consumers who leverage arbitration agreements to compel mass arbitration, companies are trying defense strategies like batching arbitration cases to reduce costs, and escaping specific mass arbitrations without rejecting the process completely, with varying results in the courtroom, say attorneys at Montgomery McCracken.