Appellate

  • September 10, 2026

    Patent Declaratory Judgment Actions Are Back In Vogue

    Companies facing threats of patent infringement lawsuits are increasingly embracing declaratory judgment actions, a trend attorneys attribute to two pro-patent-owner shifts: the low institution rate of Patent Trial and Appeal Board challenges and the growth of Amazon's internal patent dispute process.

  • September 10, 2026

    6th Circ. Shields Detroit Cops In Vacated-Conviction Suit

    The Sixth Circuit has ruled that qualified immunity applied to four Detroit police officers sued by a man who had spent 22 years in prison before his convictions for sexual assault and breaking and entering were thrown out, finding probable cause supported his prosecution even though dog-tracking evidence in the case was eventually discredited.

  • September 10, 2026

    9th Circ. Calls Foul On Judge's NCAA Five-Year Rule Injunction

    The NCAA's five-year eligibility limit may be a commercial rule subject to antitrust scrutiny, but a Nevada federal judge improperly blocked it to let a college baseball player keep playing with little evidence it constrained competition, the Ninth Circuit has said.

  • September 10, 2026

    DOJ Urges High Court To Revisit 9th Circ.'s Bar Of Nev. US Atty

    The Justice Department has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit a recent Ninth Circuit ruling disqualifying the Trump administration's top federal prosecutor in Nevada, calling it a decision that imposes "ongoing confusion" in the executive branch.

  • September 10, 2026

    Blank Rome Atty Ouster Can't Be Appealed, Conn. Panel Rules

    The former executive director of a Connecticut public housing authority cannot challenge a judge's revocation of his Blank Rome LLP lawyer's case-specific appearance in a $16.2 million loan dispute, a state appeals court has ruled, finding a trial court decision sidelining the attorney was not a final judgment.

  • September 10, 2026

    6th Circ. Says Fatal Child Hold Excluded From Coverage

    Insurers do not have to indemnify a management services company for a child welfare agency in a lawsuit over the death of a 7-year-old who died after being restrained by workers, the Sixth Circuit said, finding the hold on the child, while improperly used, was considered an excluded professional service.

  • September 10, 2026

    1st Circ. Keeps USPS Ballot Mail Rule Blocked For Midterms

    The First Circuit on Thursday rejected a request from the U.S. Postal Service to lift a Massachusetts federal judge's order blocking new mail ballot requirements that the appellate court said would create "chaos and widespread disenfranchisement" just weeks before the November midterm elections.

  • September 10, 2026

    Indiana Justices Probe Timing Of Religious Abortion Suit

    Indiana justices sharply questioned both sides Thursday as they wrestled with whether the state's religious freedom law can be used to protect the abortion rights of Jewish women, repeatedly asking whether the case had developed enough to warrant a ruling.

  • September 10, 2026

    Mass. Panel Says Liquor Board Can Tailor Licensing Penalty

    A Massachusetts appellate court held Thursday that revoking a wholesale alcohol supplier's license for violating common ownership rules was not mandatory, finding that state law gives regulators leeway to impose a lesser punishment. 

  • September 10, 2026

    Mass. Judge Sanctioned Over Handling Of ICE At Courthouse

    Massachusetts' highest court on Thursday sanctioned a judge over her handling of a case involving a defendant wanted by immigration agents in 2018, an incident that led to federal charges that were dismissed after the judge agreed to a disciplinary process.

  • September 10, 2026

    US Asks 1st Circ. To Back $3.3M Tax Bill For 'Survivor' Winner

    A Rhode Island federal court correctly entered a $3.3 million tax judgment against the first "Survivor" winner, the government told the First Circuit, saying the former contestant failed to refute the tax assessments and had agreed to a U.S. Tax Court decision that determined his liability and penalties.

  • September 10, 2026

    5th Circ. Upholds NAR Exit From Membership Rules Case

    The Fifth Circuit found a Texas real estate broker failed to show enough evidence in a third amended complaint to bring antitrust claims challenging rules from the National Association of Realtors that mandate trade group membership to gain access to home listings.

  • September 10, 2026

    Mich. Panel Keeps 2 Detroit-Area Candidates Off The Ballot

    A Michigan appeals court has upheld an order removing two employees of a city outside Detroit from the ballot in the November election, rejecting the city's argument that a charter provision requiring municipal employees to resign before running for elected office violates the First Amendment. 

  • September 10, 2026

    FCC Ordered To Answer Petition In Discounted Ads Fight

    The Fourth Circuit has ordered the Federal Communications Commission to answer a petition from a group of Democratic candidates seeking to block an agency action that extended discounted television and radio advertising rates to committees that buy spots in coordination with political candidates.

  • September 10, 2026

    6th Circ. Says GE Asbestos Suit Belongs In Kentucky Court

    The Sixth Circuit sent a woman's suit against General Electric Co. over her husband's asbestos-related mesothelioma back to Kentucky state court, rejecting the company's argument that the man's military service warranted removal to federal court.

  • September 10, 2026

    DuPont, Spinoffs Ink Historic $590M PFAS Deal In NC

    DuPont and its spinoffs will pay $590 million to resolve claims they contaminated North Carolina's environment with forever chemicals, marking the largest total environmental damages recovery in the state's history, Attorney General Jeff Jackson and The Chemours Co. announced Thursday.

  • September 10, 2026

    High Court Bars Mo. From Using GOP Map In Midterms

    Missouri cannot use a newly drawn congressional map that favors Republicans in the midterms, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday when it stayed a federal judge's order that would've required state election officials to use the challenged map despite the Missouri Supreme Court deeming it invalid without voter approval.

  • September 09, 2026

    Kalshi Seeks Rehearing After 9th Circ. Loss

    Kalshi on Wednesday asked the Ninth Circuit to rehear its dispute with Nevada regulators, arguing the appeals court miscast its sports event contracts as sports bets in an August opinion that cleared the way for the state's gaming regulators to pursue the prediction market platform.

  • September 09, 2026

    Wash. Officials Immune To Energy Code Suit, 9th Circ. Says

    The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday refused to revive a building industry coalition's lawsuit challenging Washington state regulations that discourage natural gas appliances in new construction, holding in a published opinion that the government officials the coalition sued are "shielded by sovereign immunity."

  • September 09, 2026

    9th Circ. Deems NCAA's 5-Year Rule Injunction Appeals Moot

    A Ninth Circuit panel on Wednesday tossed the NCAA's appeals of court orders barring it from enforcing its five-year rule to sideline two football players from the 2025 season, finding the cases are moot because the "clock has run out" on the season and the athletes' collegiate careers have wrapped.

  • September 09, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Eyes PTAB Cases That May Sink $445M Netlist Win

    A $445 million verdict against Micron Technology Inc. for infringing two Netlist Inc. computer memory patents hung in the balance Wednesday, as a Federal Circuit panel questioned Netlist's arguments that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board wrongly found claims in both patents invalid.

  • September 09, 2026

    11th Circ. Orders Resentence After Hobbs Act Guideline Shift

    The Eleventh Circuit has ruled that a Florida man must be resentenced in his robbery and firearm brandishing case because a federal court used a newer version of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines than was in effect when the offense was committed.

  • September 09, 2026

    DC Circ. Denies Bid To Force FCC Action On News Policy

    A D.C. Circuit panel declined Wednesday to compel the Federal Communications Commission to respond to a petition seeking a repeal of its news distortion policy, saying the petitioners failed to establish that they have no other adequate means to seek relief.

  • September 09, 2026

    Texas Court Finds Most Of O'Rourke Fundraising Appeal Moot

    A Texas appellate court in a split decision found that onetime presidential hopeful Beto O'Rourke's challenge to a court order blocking fundraising for state Democrats is moot and separately ruled that a Tarrant County, Texas, court has jurisdiction over the case.

  • September 09, 2026

    Mo. Voters Ask High Court To Sort Out 'Irreconcilable' Rulings

    Voters opposed to Missouri's newly drawn congressional map that favors Republicans in the midterms asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to lift a federal judge's order requiring state election officials to use the challenged map, which the Missouri Supreme Court deemed invalid without voter approval.

Expert Analysis

  • Future Of Fed Independence Shaky After Justices' Ruling

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Trump v. Cook preserved the Federal Reserve's formal independence but could invite the president to remove board members with just modest protections, leaving the central bank's autonomy uncertain and potentially setting up fresh clashes over other agencies, says Steven Schwinn at the University of Chicago.

  • Series

    Mich. Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q2

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    The second quarter brought several notable financial services law developments to Michigan, including a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on state tax foreclosures, progress on a money transmission modernization bill package, and continued legislative momentum on cryptocurrency and mortgage lending, say attorneys at Dykema.

  • Justices' Ruling Alters Playing Field For State Subpoena Suits

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Davenport will spark more federal court challenges to state subpoenas, but procedural defenses will block some merits decisions, so plaintiffs must carefully time and manage parallel federal and state proceedings, say attorneys at Troutman.

  • Looking At Drake's Diss Track Appeal Through An IP Lens

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    Though Drake's pending Second Circuit appeal over UMG's promotion of Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us" is formally about defamation, it shows that IP considerations can help identify records showing how a work traveled, which may guide courts when deciding context, says attorney Abdul Abdullahi.

  • Series

    Bass Fishing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Landing a trophy striped bass and closing a big deal both require cultivating the patience to finesse — not force — your way to desired outcomes, changing course when your old approach isn’t working and learning from the ones that got away, says Jon Ruiss at Alston & Bird.

  • Series

    NY Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q2

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    The year's second quarter brought several notable banking law developments to New York, including a proposal to align state stablecoin rules with the federal Genius Act, fresh fair lending and cybersecurity guidance from state regulators, and a significant Second Circuit holding on preemption, say attorneys at Ashurst Perkins Coie.

  • PacifiCorp Ruling Shows Limits Of Aggregate Wildfire Loss Models

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    An Oregon appeals court's recent decision in James v. PacifiCorp illustrates that in litigation involving multiple wildfires, materially different causation theories, and evidence tied to particular fires and locations, a single undifferentiated damages model is vulnerable to attack, say Paige Van Oosten and Jason Kim at Hunton and Kevin Cahill at FTI Consulting.

  • Roundup

    The Most Talked-About Supreme Court Decisions Of 2026

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    This term, 11 U.S. Supreme Court decisions quickly became hot topics among Law360's guest writers.

  • A New Defense For Medicaid Fraud Cases In Texas

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    The Texas Supreme Court decision in LabCorp v. Texas last month, finding that the state's False Claims Act requires proof that an omission is material, is among the first to establish that the government's lack of reaction to the defendant's disclosures rendered alleged omissions immaterial, say attorneys at Sheppard.

  • Fighting The Evidentiary Risks Of Deepfakes In Court

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    Though courts and federal rules are only slowly developing frameworks for assessing digital evidence that could have been created or generated by artificial intelligence, litigators should understand what steps they'll likely need to take to successfully challenge potentially deepfaked exhibits — and fight questions about the authenticity of their own, say attorneys at MoFo.

  • Justices' Cuba Ruling Narrowly Recasts Sovereign Immunity

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    The U.S. Supreme Court recently allowed Exxon Mobil's bid for $1 billion in damages for Cuban-seized property to proceed, but the ruling's doctrinal significance is in treating the Helms-Burton Act as a later, specific and self-contained statutory displacement of the default jurisdictional immunity regime, says Josep Galvez at 4-5 Gray's Inn.

  • 'Tiger King' Funeral Clip Ruling Offers Fair Use Road Map

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    The Tenth Circuit's decision in Whyte Monkee v. Netflix that the streaming service's use of another party's funeral footage in the docuseries "Tiger King" constituted fair use lays out a framework for producers to apply the four statutory fair use factors to their own projects, says Frank D’Angelo at Loeb & Loeb.

  • Justices Stand On Statutory Specifics In Cisco And Landor

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    With its June 23 decisions in Cisco Systems Inc. v. Doe and Landor v. Louisiana Department of Corrections and Public Safety, the U.S. Supreme Court doubled down on the critical point that the statute invoked in a federal claim must authorize a private lawsuit and the remedy sought, says Patrick Judd at Phelps Dunbar.

  • Justices' Concurrences Foretell Fault Line On Appeal Waivers

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    The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled 8-1 in Hunter v. U.S. that appeal waivers that produce a miscarriage of justice are unenforceable, but the decision's concurrences indicate future divisions over whether this exception will be used as a rare safety valve or to police ordinary but troubling plea errors, say attorneys at RJO.

  • How Montgomery Ruling Will Affect Cos. Across Supply Chain

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    Since the U.S. Supreme Court's May 14 decision in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, the immediate focus has been on freight brokers and negligent carrier-selection claims, but the ripple effects may extend to shippers, logistics providers, insurers, transportation managers and other participants in the supply chain, say attorneys at Quintairos Prieto.

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