Appellate

  • August 04, 2025

    New Conn. Assault Trial Ordered Over Crucial Tattoo Evidence

    A Connecticut appeals court has ordered a new trial for a man sentenced to over five years in prison for an assault at a Denny's, finding that his constitutional rights were violated when a trial court refused to allow potentially exculpatory evidence showing that, unlike the perpetrator, he had no tattoos.

  • August 04, 2025

    Judge Newman Contests Suspension Renewal At DC Circ.

    The Federal Circuit's recent recommendation to continue U.S. Circuit Judge Pauline Newman's suspension makes clear her colleagues are looking to permanently remove her, the judge's attorney told the D.C. Circuit Monday.

  • August 04, 2025

    Trial Called Off After Judge Partly Clears Apple In Fintiv Row

    Western District of Texas Judge Alan Albright called off a trial scheduled for Monday in Fintiv Inc.'s long-running mobile wallet patent case against Apple Inc., after he cleared Apple of infringing some claims and Fintiv opted to appeal rather than putting the remaining claims before a jury.

  • August 04, 2025

    DC Circ. Lets Trump Border Asylum Ban Continue, With Limits

    The D.C. Circuit has allowed the Trump administration to continue enforcing a policy that largely bars asylum at the southern border for now, but said it can't deport noncitizens without honoring legal protections for those who fear torture or persecution.

  • August 04, 2025

    Subcontractor Can't Get Fees In Seattle Sewer Pipeline Saga

    A Washington state appeals court panel will not let a subcontractor recoup roughly $500,000 in legal fees and costs tied to a construction firm's passthrough claims over a county-commissioned sewer pipeline project in Seattle, ruling on Monday the subcontractor was never dubbed the winner in the dispute.

  • August 04, 2025

    DC Circ. Backs FBI Agent's Bribery Sentence

    The D.C. Circuit Court has affirmed a former FBI special agent's two-year sentence for taking a bribe in connection with a property-buying scheme, finding that he accepted at least $6,500 from a real estate developer in exchange for illegally sharing information from a protected database to which the FBI subscribed.

  • August 04, 2025

    4th Circ. Backs SBA In Denying COVID Loan Relief To Va. Biz

    A global consultancy and risk management company lost its bid Monday to revive its loan repayment suit against the U.S. Small Business Administration, as the Fourth Circuit found that the SBA fairly concluded the $5 million loan was ineligible for COVID-19 debt relief.

  • August 04, 2025

    9th Circ. Rejects Most Of Sodexo's ERISA Arbitration Push

    The Ninth Circuit said Monday that employers can't unilaterally change Employee Retirement Income Security Act-governed plans to require arbitration, backing the bulk of a trial court ruling that refused to throw out of court a nicotine fee lawsuit against food service company Sodexo.

  • August 04, 2025

    10th Circ. Ends Age Bias Suit After High Court Remand

    The Tenth Circuit refused to let an ex-Halliburton employee continue fighting an age discrimination case that led the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that voluntarily dismissed suits can be reopened, ruling he hadn't shown there were extraordinary circumstances that warranted pulling his claims from arbitration.

  • August 04, 2025

    Fla. High Court Vacates Drug Charges Over Speedy Trial Rules

    A Florida appeals court has permanently tossed a drug case against a man after a counting error led to him being held for over 180 days without a trial after being extradited from another state in violation of his right to a speedy trial.

  • August 04, 2025

    Chemical Group Says Fluoride Judge Got It Wrong

    The American Chemistry Council told the Ninth Circuit that a California federal judge who ruled that current limits on fluoride in drinking water aren't protective enough misinterpreted the Toxic Substances Control Act and urged reversal of his decision.

  • August 04, 2025

    DOJ Defends IRS-ICE Data Sharing Pact In DC Circ.

    The D.C. Circuit should reject four immigrant advocacy groups' push to prevent the IRS from disclosing confidential tax return information to immigration enforcement authorities, the government said Monday, arguing there's no concrete evidence that the information sharing will harm the groups' members.

  • August 04, 2025

    Circuit Split On Geofence Warrants 'Intolerable,' Justices Told

    A Fourth Circuit panel skirted the issue when it was deciding the appeal of a man who was convicted on robbery charges using a geofence warrant to pinpoint his location, but now that man wants the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether such warrants are constitutional.

  • August 04, 2025

    Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

    Last week at the Delaware Court of Chancery, insurance brokerage and risk management giant Marsh & McLennan Cos. sought injunctive relief in a new suit accusing U.S. affiliates of London-based Howden Holdings Ltd. of a poaching scheme that involved over 100 M&M employees resigning on July 21. 

  • August 04, 2025

    DC Circ. Upholds FCC's Foreign Sponsorship Rule

    The D.C. Circuit upheld the Federal Communications Commission's 2024 foreign sponsorship disclosure rule for broadcasters Friday, rejecting arguments that the rule violated First Amendment speech protections and even reprimanding the premature leaking of nonpublic rulemaking details to broadcasters, calling the process a "new low" of industry capture.

  • August 04, 2025

    Anthropic Asks 9th Circ. To Review Authors' Class Cert.

    Anthropic PBC has asked the Ninth Circuit to review a California federal judge's class certification of a group of authors suing over use of their books to train artificial intelligence, saying the judge had rushed to approve a class of nearly seven million potential claimants.

  • August 04, 2025

    Conn. Justices Block Rehab Center's Bid To Halt Rival Permit

    A northwestern Connecticut drug rehabilitation facility lacks standing to challenge the state Department of Public Health's approval of a small-town rival's permit, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Monday, holding that a statute does not require regulators to consider effects on local competition when OK'ing new healthcare facilities.

  • August 04, 2025

    3rd Circ. Denies Tribal Lender Immunity In Payday Loan Suit

    The Third Circuit ruled Monday that tribal immunity doesn't shield GreatPlains Finance LLC from class claims over payday loan interest rates, reasoning that a judgment wouldn't affect the tribe's revenue.

  • August 04, 2025

    4th Circ. Says Lead Paint Suit Rightly Returned To State Court

    The Fourth Circuit has affirmed the remand of a proposed class action alleging a television tower owner and a painting company blasted lead-based paint off the tower and into surrounding neighborhoods, finding the case fits within the "local controversy" exception in the Class Action Fairness Act.

  • August 04, 2025

    Connecticut Justices Say Atty Due Extra $300K For ID Theft

    The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled on Monday that an attorney whose identity was stolen by scammers can receive punitive damages under the state's unfair trade practices statute in addition to a separate award of treble damages under a different law, holding that a lower court misjudged the allowable recovery.

  • August 04, 2025

    7th Circ. Won't Put Chicago Climate Change Suit On Hold

    The Seventh Circuit will not pause the execution of a lower court order remanding Chicago's climate change lawsuit against fossil fuel companies to state court, a decision the companies have asked the circuit court to review.

  • August 04, 2025

    Mich. High Court Says Cellphone Search Was Too Sweeping

    A split Michigan Supreme Court has refused to toss a number of charges for larceny, receiving stolen property and safe-breaking, ruling that the defendant did not receive ineffective counsel when his attorney failed to challenge an overly broad warrant issued to search his phone.

  • August 04, 2025

    Condo Can't Boot Unit Owner After Assault, Mass. Court Says

    A Massachusetts condominium association cannot force a unit owner charged with assaulting another resident to vacate his property, an intermediate state appellate court said Monday.

  • August 02, 2025

    9th Circ. Backs Limits On ICE Immigration Sweeps In LA

    The Ninth Circuit preserved most of a district court's temporary block on the Trump administration making immigration arrests in the Los Angeles area without probable cause, rejecting the government's request for a stay during its appeal.

  • August 01, 2025

    9th Circ. Lifts Order Halting Trump From Curbing Fed Unions

    The Ninth Circuit on Friday granted the Trump administration's bid to halt an injunction blocking enforcement of President Donald Trump's executive order axing labor contracts covering agencies with "national security" aims, saying in a published opinion that the government was likely to succeed against six unions' First Amendment retaliation claim.

Expert Analysis

  • 9th Circ. Customs Ruling A Limited Win For FCA Plaintiffs

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    While the decision last month in Island Industries v. Sigma may be welcome news for False Claims Act relators, under binding precedent courts within the Ninth Circuit still do not have jurisdiction to adjudicate customs-based FCA claims pursued by the government, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Opinion

    4 Former Justices Would Likely Frown On Litigation Funding

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    As courts increasingly confront cases involving hidden litigation finance contracts, the jurisprudence of four former U.S. Supreme Court justices establishes a constitutional framework that risks erosion by undisclosed financial interests, says Roland Eisenhuth at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association.

  • Quantifying Trading-Based Damages Using Price Impact

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will likely increasingly rely on price impact analyses to demonstrate pecuniary harm from trading-related misconduct, meaning measuring price impact will be helpful in challenging SEC disgorgement, determining appropriate remedies, and assessing loss causation and damages in private litigation, says Vyacheslav Fos at Boston College and Erin Smith at Compass Lexecon.

  • How Attys Can Use AI To Surface Narratives In E-Discovery

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    E-discovery has reached a turning point where document review is no longer just about procedural tasks like identifying relevance and redacting privilege — rather, generative artificial intelligence tools now allow attorneys to draw connections, extract meaning and tell a coherent story, says Rose Jones at Hilgers Graben.

  • How McKesson Ruling Will Inform Interpretations Of The TCPA

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    Amid the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson, we can expect to see both plaintiffs and defendants utilizing the decision to revisit the Federal Communications Commission's past Telephone Consumer Protection Act interpretations and decisions they did not like, says Jason McElroy at Saul Ewing.

  • Justices Rethink Minimum Contacts For Foreign Entities

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    Two recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, Devas v. Antrix and Fuld v. Palestine Liberation Organization, suggest that federal statutes may confer personal jurisdiction over foreign entities that have little to no contact with the U.S. — a significant departure from traditional due process principles, says Gary Shaw at Pillsbury.

  • Opinion

    High Court Must Overrule Outdated Patent Eligibility Doctrine

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    A certiorari petition should directly ask the U.S. Supreme Court to correct its 1972 patent decision in Gottschalk v. Benson, the critical point where patent eligibility law veered from the statutory text toward judicial policymaking, says Robert Greenspoon at Dunlap Bennett.

  • Examining TCPA Jurisprudence A Year After Loper Bright

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    One year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Chevron deference in Loper Bright v. Raimondo, lower court decisions demonstrate that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act will continue to evolve as long-standing interpretations of the act are analyzed with a fresh lens, says Aaron Gallardo at Kilpatrick.

  • Gauging The Risky Business Of Business Risk Disclosures

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    With the recent rise of securities fraud actions based on external events — like a data breach or environmental disaster — that drive down stock prices, risk disclosures have become more of a sword for the plaintiffs bar than a shield for public companies, now the subject of a growing circuit split, say attorneys at A&O Shearman.

  • How Justices' Ruling Limits Options To Challenge DHS Orders

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    In Riley v. Bondi, the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that a 30-day deadline for challenging deportation orders begins when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issues a final administrative review order, opening the door for the government to effectively bar circuit court review in future similar cases, says Kevin Gregg at Kurzban Kurzban.

  • Series

    Playing The Violin Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Playing violin in a string quartet reminds me that flexibility, ambition, strong listening skills, thoughtful leadership and intentional collaboration are all keys to a successful legal practice, says Julie Park at MoFo.

  • Purdue Case Could Transform Patent Obviousness Analyses

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    If accepted for review by the U.S. Supreme Court, Purdue Pharma v. Accord Healthcare — concerning whether Purdue's abuse-deterrent opioid formulation patents were invalid as obvious — could significantly shift how courts weigh secondary considerations in patent obviousness analyses, say attorneys at Lathrop.

  • NM Cyber Ruling Will Spur Litigation As Coverage Remedy

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    In Kane v. Beazley, the New Mexico Court of Appeals recently found that a cyber liability provision insuring security breaches included coverage for funds transfer fraud, implicitly and incorrectly motivating policyholders to commence litigation to avoid contractual limitations on cyber coverages, say attorneys at Zelle.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Practicing Self-Care

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    Law schools don’t teach the mental, physical and emotional health maintenance tools necessary to deal with the profession's many demands, but practicing self-care is an important key to success that can help to improve focus, manage stress and reduce burnout, says Rachel Leonard​​​​​​​ at MG+M.

  • Texas' Cactus Ruling Clarifies 'Produced Water' Rules

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    The Texas Supreme Court's decision in Cactus Water Services v. COG Operating, holding that mineral interest lessees have the rights to water extracted alongside oil and gas, should benefit industry players by clarifying the rules — but it leaves important questions about royalties unresolved, say attorneys at Yetter Coleman.

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