Appellate

  • June 07, 2024

    LIHTC Developer Asks 11th Circ. To Undo Investor Takeover

    A developer told the Eleventh Circuit on Friday it is a victim of a scheme by investors using a lower court ruling to complete a takeover of two Tampa, Florida, senior housing complexes developed with federal low-income housing tax credits.

  • June 07, 2024

    CFPB Urges 5th Circ. To Holster 'Weapon' In Late Fee Fight

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has urged the Fifth Circuit to refrain from using one of its "most potent weapons" to shoot down a Texas federal judge's order sending an industry challenge to the agency's credit card late fee rule to Washington, D.C.

  • June 07, 2024

    Split 5th Circ. Panel Calls Texas County 'True Library Police'

    A Texas public library will have to reshelve several books that deal with issues such as racism and sexuality after a contentious majority ruling by a Fifth Circuit panel called the public officials and residents behind the book bans "the true library police."

  • June 07, 2024

    DC Circ. Undoes Library Of Congress Win In Fair Use Fight

    The D.C. Circuit on Friday reversed a lower court's decision that had rejected two industry groups' challenge to a final rule that categorized medical device diagnostic procedures and repairs as fair use exemptions to U.S. copyright law.

  • June 07, 2024

    11th Circ. Urged To Undo Exclusion Of $80M Asset Valuation

    A trustee for creditors of ATIF Inc. told the Eleventh Circuit on Friday that a trial judge erred in excluding an expert's $80 million valuation of the bankrupt title insurance underwriter's 2015 transfer of assets to Old Republic National Title Insurance Co.

  • June 07, 2024

    3rd Circ. Backs NJ In Pipeline Co.'s Business Tax Fight

    The Third Circuit ruled Friday that New Jersey's partnership filing fee is a state affair that can't be challenged in federal court, dealing a blow to a pipeline company seeking to shed the cost because it does very little business in the state.

  • June 07, 2024

    'Why Are You Even Here?' Judge Prods Big Tobacco

    A Washington state appellate panel on Friday criticized Philip Morris USA Inc. and other tobacco companies for attempting to pay the state less under a 1998 master settlement agreement, with one judge asking a Big Tobacco attorney why they were in court in the first place.

  • June 07, 2024

    'Success Kid' Ruling Shines Light On Post-Warhol Fair Use

    The Eighth Circuit ruled Friday that last year's U.S. Supreme Court's Warhol decision dooms a fair use defense from a former Republican congressman whose failed reelection campaign was hit with a successful copyright lawsuit by the mother of the widely memed "Success Kid."

  • June 07, 2024

    6th Circ. Revives Investors' Suit Over Leech Tishman Advice

    A Sixth Circuit panel has revived a group of investors' claims that Pittsburgh-based Leech Tishman Fuscaldo & Lampl's lawyers gave fraudulent and negligent advice about clean energy investments that turned out to be a Ponzi scheme, reasoning that a one-year statute of limitations had been tolled for some claims and didn't apply to others.

  • June 07, 2024

    Fed Circ. Says No Task Order Bar For Commercial Co. Protest

    The Federal Circuit has revived an artificial intelligence company's protest over its exclusion from consideration to supply computer vision technology under a $376.4 million National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency procurement, ruling Friday that a statutory restriction on task order disputes did not bar the case.

  • June 07, 2024

    Contractor Claims No Bad Intentions In Talking To Juror

    A general contractor has doubled down on his bid to throw out a contempt conviction for talking to a juror before his suit was officially settled, telling a North Carolina appeals court he genuinely believed the case was over and didn't intend to disrupt the court or violate any order.

  • June 07, 2024

    High Court's 'Narrow' Jack Daniel's Opinion Having Big Impact

    When the U.S. Supreme Court decided a year ago that the maker of a squeaky dog toy that looks like a Jack Daniel’s whiskey bottle had no free speech protections against trademark infringement claims, the justices described their holding as narrow, but lawyers and academics are now suggesting the opinion is having broader implications.

  • June 07, 2024

    Judge Doubts Ethnicity Questions Deserve Jury Bias Probe

    A Washington appellate judge pushed back Friday against a Filipino family who claimed a hospital's questions about their ethnicity at trial required a bias inquiry, noting race is "something that can't be ignored" in any courtroom filled with people who look different from one another.

  • June 07, 2024

    FCC Asks 6th Circ. To Transfer Net Neutrality Cases To DC

    The Federal Communications Commission on Friday urged the Sixth Circuit to transfer a set of challenges to the FCC's recently passed net neutrality rules to the D.C. Circuit, where similar suits have previously played out.

  • June 07, 2024

    11th Circ. Passes On Atlanta Court Officer's Bias Battle

    The Eleventh Circuit won't revive a discrimination suit filed by a former security officer in Atlanta's federal courthouse who says he faced homophobic harassment and was assaulted by another officer while on the job, a three-judge panel said Thursday.

  • June 07, 2024

    Cherokee Man Asks High Court To Undo Tribal Tag Charges

    A Cherokee Nation man is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a Michigan Supreme Court order that denied him the chance to appeal his traffic stop convictions, arguing that the state must be barred from broadening the definition of "registration plate" in regard to tribal-licensed tags.

  • June 07, 2024

    Texas Top Court Denies Roofer's Challenge To Adjuster Laws

    The Supreme Court of Texas tossed on Friday a roofing company's challenge to the state's public adjuster licensing laws, saying that requiring a license or preventing certain conduct didn't violate the roofer's free speech rights.

  • June 07, 2024

    DC Circ. Won't Let Gov't Toss Sped-Up Timeline For Ally Visas

    The D.C. Circuit on Friday refused to terminate a plan requiring the U.S. Department of State to speed up visa processing for Iraqi and Afghan nationals, ruling that some judicial involvement is still necessary to address delays.

  • June 07, 2024

    'Deceit On Deceit': 7th Circ. OKs Atty's Asset-Hiding Sentence

    The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Chicago-area lawyer's three-year sentence for hiding over $350,000 in her brother's bankruptcy, finding two sentence enhancements were properly applied since she "layered deceit upon deceit" to try to conceal assets and cover her tracks.

  • June 07, 2024

    Ex-NFL Pro's Appeal Calls League's Benefit System Defective

    A former NFL player whose benefits suit was tossed by a Texas federal judge after eight doctors said he could work has appealed to the Fifth Circuit, arguing that the evaluation system used by the NFL is flawed and "morally repugnant."

  • June 07, 2024

    States Urge DC Circ. To Smoke EPA Particulate Matter Rule

    A coalition of 25 Republican-led states and eight industry groups have urged the D.C. Circuit to strike down the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's final rule tightening federal standards for fine particulate matter pollution in separate opening briefs.

  • June 07, 2024

    Justices Report Old Trips, Beyoncé Tickets And Royalties

    U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas disclosed Friday two trips he took in 2019 paid for by a Republican billionaire donor that were the subject of bombshell reporting last year, while his colleagues divulged more than $1.5 million in book-related income and several gifts, including Beyoncé tickets, in their annual financial reports.

  • June 07, 2024

    Battle Lines Drawn As Major Del. Corporate Law Tweak Looms

    On Tuesday morning, seven Delaware state senators are set to open the first public round of debates on a fast-tracked Delaware General Corporation Law amendment package that would allow boards to cede some governance rights to big stockholders and Delaware Court oversight for some corporate actions to other jurisdictions.

  • June 07, 2024

    Sony Gets PTAB To Knock Out Video Chip Patent On Remand

    Following a Federal Circuit remand, patent board judges have changed their position on arguments from Sony to wipe out a patent covering ideas developed by a defunct Silicon Valley chipmaker that would eventually be asserted in a suit almost two decades later targeting a PlayStation video game streaming service.

  • June 07, 2024

    Ga. Appeals Seat Win Certified Amid Residency Challenge

    A former state bar leader who won a Georgia Court of Appeals seat escaped a challenge alleging he lied about living in Atlanta, with a state judge finding that the challenge was moot on Friday because the election had already occurred and the results were certified.

Expert Analysis

  • 4 Ways To Refresh Your Law Firm's Marketing Strategy

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    With many BigLaw firms relying on an increasingly obsolete marketing approach that prioritizes stiff professionalism over authentic connection, adopting a few key communications strategies to better connect with today's clients and prospects can make all the difference, say Eric Pacifici and Kevin Henderson at SMB Law.

  • What 3rd Circ. Trust Ruling Means For Securitization Market

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    Mercedes Tunstall and Michael Gambro at Cadwalader break down the Third Circuit's March decision in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. National Collegiate Master Student Loan Trust, as well as predict next steps in the litigation and the implications of the decision for servicers and the securitization industry as a whole.

  • 9th Circ. Ruling Puts Teeth Into Mental Health Parity Claims

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    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.

  • Using Rule 23(f) To Review Class Certification Orders

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    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.

  • Perspectives

    Justices' Forfeiture Ruling Resolves Nonexistent Split

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    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.

  • Opinion

    SC's Courts Have It Wrong On Amazon Marketplace Sales Tax

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    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.

  • What Have We Learned In The Year Since Warhol?

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    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.

  • The Practical Effects Of Justices' Arbitration Exemption Ruling

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    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.

  • Binance Ruling Spotlights Muddled Post-Morrison Landscape

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    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.

  • Practical Pointers After Fed. Circ. Double-Patenting Decision

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    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.

  • Sorting Circuit Split On Foreign Arbitration Treaty's Authority

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    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.

  • Corp. Transparency Act Could Survive 11th Circ. Several Ways

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    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.

  • Del. Match.com Ruling Maintains Precedent In Time Of Change

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    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.

  • The Future Of BIPA Insurance Litigation After Visual Pak

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    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.

  • Macquarie Ruling Raises The Bar For Securities Fraud Claims

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    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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