Justices Wary Of 'Odd' Arbitration Jurisdiction Theory

By Caroline Simson

A lawyer urging the U.S. Supreme Court to find that federal courts that have sent a dispute to arbitration do not automatically have jurisdiction to confirm or vacate a subsequent award faced heavy skepticism Monday from the justices, who called his argument during oral arguments "odd" and "peculiar."

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Justices To Review Nix Of Fired Atlanta DA Aide's Bias Suit

By Patrick Hoff

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear a challenge to the dismissal of a bias suit from a former aide to Atlanta's district attorney, an appeal that turns on whether the district attorney's office should've been allowed to argue that her position was exempt from anti-discrimination law.

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Sotomayor Says Court Let Wrongful Murder Conviction Stand

By Elizabeth Daley

A man serving life in prison for a 1998 Louisiana murder was unfairly denied a writ of certiorari by the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, despite the fact that his co-defendant had his conviction vacated when bringing up the same favorable evidence, dissenting justices said.

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Terror Victims' $656M Judgment Reinstated By 2nd Circ.

By Craig Clough

The Second Circuit on Monday granted a renewed motion by victims injured in some terrorist attacks in Israel and their families to reinstate their $644 million jury judgment from 2015 over the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority, finding a 2019 law applies retroactively and creates jurisdiction for the trial court.

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FINRA Sanctions Upheld At 6th Circ. Against Unregistered CEO

By Emilie Ruscoe

The Sixth Circuit won't reverse Financial Industry Regulatory Authority sanctions against the owner of a consulting company who argued he'd been unfairly ruled against by a self-regulatory organization he never joined, though the judges stopped short of weighing the petitioner's constitutional challenges to the FINRA findings.

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Justices Reject TM Appeal Tied To 'Use In Commerce'

By Ivan Moreno

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up an appeal challenging a Ninth Circuit ruling that upheld a multimillion-dollar default judgment based largely on statements defendants made in trademark applications.

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Justices Reject 'Tiger King' Appeal Over Witness Recantations

By Cara Salvatore

The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to review Joseph "Tiger King" Maldonado's murder-for-hire conviction on the basis of the Netflix documentary star's claim that a judge failed to properly examine several witnesses' post-trial recantations.

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High Court Won't Undo Washington Tribal Immunity Order

By Crystal Owens

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up a Washington cattle ranch's petition that challenged the immovable property rule's application to tribal sovereign immunity in an effort to revive its dispute over rights to land along the Stillaguamish River.

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Justices Won't Weigh Limits On Review Of Green Card Denial

By Britain Eakin

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review a Ninth Circuit decision that a district court lacked authority to second-guess U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service's denial of a U visa holder's bid to become a lawful permanent resident.

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Justices Pass On FCA Suit Alleging Quest Diagnostics Fraud

By Chart Riggall

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected on Monday a former Quest Diagnostics Inc. compliance officer's bid for review of the dismissal of a long-running False Claims Act suit against the medical testing company.

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Justices Won't Examine Mich. Immunity In Pipeline Row

By Keith Goldberg

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to review a Sixth Circuit decision that greenlighted Enbridge Energy LP's lawsuit challenging Michigan's decision to revoke an easement for the company's controversial Line 5 oil and gas pipeline.

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High Court Turns Away CRISPR Patent Validity Dispute

By Dani Kass

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected Agilent Technologies' bid to revive patents on the gene-editing tool CRISPR, which centers on the burden of proof in establishing prior art.

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Justices Won't Review Juror Conduct In Ohio Rape Trial

By Parker Quinlan

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday said it would not take up the case of an Ohio man seeking to have his rape conviction overturned because a juror admitted to potentially being biased but was still allowed to serve during his trial.

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Justices Turn Away Case Over SEC Receivership Powers

By Jessica Corso

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a plea by a Dallas real estate developer to hear a challenge to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's ability to seize the assets of alleged fraudsters before a trial can take place.

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Justices Doubt Gov't Venue Theory In Twitter Employee Case

By Marco Poggio

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday appeared sharply skeptical that a former Twitter employee convicted of emailing a falsified document to FBI agents from his Seattle home could be prosecuted in San Francisco, with several justices questioning the federal government's justification for bringing the case where none of the charged conduct occurred.

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FCA Qui Tams Are Unconstitutional, Eli Lilly Tells Justices

By Mark Payne

The False Claims Act's whistleblower provisions are unconstitutional, drugmaker Eli Lilly has told the U.S. Supreme Court, asking it to overturn a Seventh Circuit decision upholding a $183 million trial win for a whistleblower who claimed the drug company hid how much it charged for Medicaid-covered drugs. 

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Justices Told Fed. Circ. Wrongly Axed Car ID Patent Claims

By Adam Lidgett

A vehicle identification system patent owner wants the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Federal Circuit's reversal of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's decision allowing the company to amend claims in two patents challenged by rideshare giant Lyft.

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Don't Set Special IP Rules For 'Skinny Labels,' Justices Told

By Ryan Davis

Drugmakers, industry groups, hospitals and scholars have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold a decision letting a patent suit proceed over a generic drug using a so-called skinny label, saying the generics company is seeking unwarranted special protections that would upend patent law.

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Brief

Justices Won't Touch Ex-CTA Worker's Deleted Text Sanction

By Nadia Dreid

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up the appeal of a former Chicago Transit Authority employee whose retaliation lawsuit was dismissed by the Seventh Circuit as a sanction for spoiling evidence.

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Digital Equity Suit May Be Delayed During Climate Case

By Christopher Cole

A D.C. federal judge will consider delaying arguments in a suit against the Trump administration for gutting the Digital Equity Act while a D.C. Circuit challenge to cuts to environmental grant programs plays out.

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X Gets Backup In Fed. Circ. Fight Against $175M Patent Loss

By Adam Lidgett

Patent quality advocacy group Askeladden LLC has backed X Corp.'s Federal Circuit challenge to a loss of more than $175 million that it saw in a patent infringement suit, saying the patented claims at issue should have been found invalid to begin with.

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Burford Considers Arbitration After 2nd Circ. Tosses $16B Win

By Nadia Dreid

Burford Capital Ltd. says it is contemplating taking its $16 billion fight with Argentina into international arbitration after the Second Circuit wiped out a judgment the litigation funding firm had won against the nation in New York federal court, sending its stock prices tumbling.

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'Most Wanted' Whistleblower Says DOJ Can't Nix FCA Suit

By Craig Clough

A man incarcerated for defrauding the U.S. Department of Defense who was also once featured on "America's Most Wanted" urged the Fourth Circuit on Friday to revive his whistleblower complaint accusing major defense contractors of price gouging, saying the government cannot drop the suit just because it intervened as a plaintiff.

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Army Contractor Tells 4th Circ. Linguists' FCA Suit Rightly Cut

By Madeline Lyskawa

Linguists' suit accusing Global Linguist Solutions of violating the False Claims Act by performing work under U.S. Army contracts meant for small business subcontractors consists of recycled allegations that have been public for years, the joint venture told the Fourth Circuit.

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X Corp. Invokes Cox Ruling To Challenge Music Copyright Suit

By Elliot Weld

X Corp. has argued that a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court last week that an internet service provider couldn't be held liable for its customers pirating music should allow it to escape copyright infringement claims in Tennessee federal court from a group of music publishers.

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5th Circ. Hesitant To Revive CrowdStrike Class Action

By Spencer Brewer

A panel of the Fifth Circuit wanted counsel for a group of passengers who sued cybersecurity company CrowdStrike Inc. after their flights were delayed or canceled during a crippling IT outage to explain who else could get sued under their liability theory, weighing Monday whether the Airline Deregulation Act bars the claims.

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5th Circ. Calls Pharmacy GLP-1 Args 'Tough Pills To Swallow'

By Spencer Brewer

A Fifth Circuit panel pushed multiple compounding pharmacies to explain why they should get to compound lucrative drugs used for weight loss, including Ozempic, saying Monday that its options if it sides with the pharmacies are "tough pills to swallow."

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5th Circ. Seems Open To Reviving Eyemart Class Action

By Spencer Brewer

A Fifth Circuit panel seemed open to reviving a class action accusing glasses retailer Eyemart Express LLC of selling sensitive personal health information to social media giant Meta, asking Monday why dismissal was appropriate given the complexity of the case.

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Eye Doctor Appeals Microcaptive Tax Payments At 5th Circ.

By Kat Lucero

An eye doctor and his wife asked the Fifth Circuit to overturn a U.S. Tax Court decision from last year that affirmed Internal Revenue Service penalties and payments associated with their ophthalmology practice's microcaptive insurance arrangements.

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Feds Urge 9th Circ. To Pause Immigration Bond Ruling

By Dorothy Atkins

The Trump administration Monday urged the Ninth Circuit to pause a lower court's declaration that immigration judges have the authority to hear detained immigrants' bond requests, slamming the ruling as a "frontal assault" on the government's authority to detain immigrants and arguing it's creating "judicial chaos" across the country.

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BNSF Says 9th Circ. Opinion Nixes Montana Asbestos Case

By Mike Curley

BNSF Railway Co. asked a Montana federal court Monday to throw out a lawsuit alleging it let dust from asbestos-containing vermiculite accumulate at its rail yard in Libby, Montana, arguing that a recent Ninth Circuit case showed the claims are preempted by federal law and blocked by the common carrier exception.

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Brief

Kratom Addictiveness 9th Circ. Appeal Dropped

By Emily Field

A group of consumers told the Ninth Circuit on Friday that they were dropping the appeal of a dismissal of their suit over kratom products that they said were as addictive as opioids.

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Airbus Engineer Couldn't Prove Bias In Firing, 11th Circ. Says

By Bonnie Eslinger

The Eleventh Circuit backed the dismissal of a lawsuit accusing Airbus America of bias and retaliation from a Black former manufacturing engineer, saying that even though he established a "prima facie case of race discrimination and retaliation," he didn't show the company lacked a legitimate reason for his termination.

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Full 11th Circ. Asked To Review SEC's $1M Penny Stock Award

By Katryna Perera

Spartan Securities and other defendants sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over an alleged penny stock fraud petitioned the Eleventh Circuit Monday for a full court rehearing of a panel decision affirming a $1 million judgment in favor of the SEC.

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Pretrial Inmates' Forced Labor Claims Too Individual For Class

By Irene Spezzamonte

A group of detainees who performed kitchen work in California county jail can't snag class certification in their suit accusing the county and a correctional services company of forcing them to work without pay, a federal judge ruled on Monday.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court's docket this past week featured disputes involving globally recognized companies, high-dollar contract fights, revived claims from the state's high court and the resolution of a closely watched de-SPAC case.

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Trade Group Backs Insurers In Tanger's COVID Coverage Row

By Abigail Harrison

The trade organization American Property Casualty Insurance Association is urging North Carolina's justices to reverse an order adverse to a pair of insurers in a $50 million COVID-19 coverage fight, arguing in an amicus brief that the order permits the "absurd" result of one of the state's statutes and its case law applying nationwide.

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Mich. Justices To Review Child Sex Abuse Expert Testimony

By Parker Quinlan

The Michigan Supreme Court has agreed to review a case next term to determine whether a prosecutor's use of an expert to mitigate inconsistent testimony from a child victim of sexual assault crosses a line to propping up the child's credibility in front of a jury.

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Mich. High Court Takes Up Legislators' Fight Over Stalled Bills

By Carolyn Muyskens

The Michigan Supreme Court has agreed to review an internal tussle between chambers of the state Legislature over nine bills that were passed in 2024 but have not made it to the governor's desk.

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Colo. High Court Takes Up Netflix's Sales Tax Challenge

By Sanjay Talwani

The Colorado Supreme Court will determine whether Netflix's streaming video services are tangible personal property subject to sales tax, the justices said Monday, agreeing to review a state appeals court ruling in favor of the state Department of Revenue.

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Colo. Justices Order Disclosure Of Child Abuse Hotline Data

By Rachel Konieczny

The Colorado Department of Human Services must disclose aggregate child-abuse hotline statistics from each of three residential child care facilities over a three-year period to two news organizations that requested the information, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled Monday.

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Judicial Error Warrants New Murder Trial, Mass. Justices Say

By Elizabeth Daley

Massachusetts' highest court found Monday that a man convicted of murdering one man and trying to kill another should have his convictions vacated because the trial court improperly prevented the jury from hearing statements from the surviving victim.

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Minn. Panel Says Med Mal Experts Wrongly Axed, Revives Suit

By Jonathan Capriel

A Minneapolis hospital system must face claims that an obstetrician violated her standard of care during delivery causing permanent impairment to a child's right arm and hand, a Minnesota appeals court ruled on Monday, saying the trial court improperly disqualified the parents' expert witnesses.

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How A High Court Music Piracy Ruling Shrinks ISP Liability

The U.S. Supreme Court's recent opinion in Cox Communications Inc. v. Sony Music Entertainment, which concerned the boundaries of contributory copyright infringement for internet service providers, dramatically lessens both the risk that an ISP will be held contributorily liable and, relatedly, the incentives an ISP may have to help combat online copyright infringement, say attorneys at Debevoise.

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Del. Blackbaud Ruling Signals A New Era For Cyberinsurance

The recent Delaware Supreme Court ruling in Travelers v. Blackbaud shows that cyberinsurance is moving into a second maturity phase, in which insurers will increasingly attempt to recover their payments from vendors and insureds will face new pressure to justify cyber incident reimbursements, say Steven Teppler at Mandelbaum Barrett and Jade Davis at Shumaker.

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Considering The Risks That Arise When IP Outlives Its Owner

Federal and state court decisions show that the statutory regime for each category of intellectual property promises continuity after the owner's death, but the law does not provide a succession framework for how those rights are to be exercised, says Erin Daly at Daly Law & Strategy.

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Opinion

AI Presents A Make-Or-Break Moment For Outside Counsel

The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence by corporate legal departments is forcing a long-overdue reset of the relationship between inside and outside counsel, and introducing a significant opportunity to shed frustrating inefficiencies and strengthen collaboration for firms willing to embrace the shift, says Intel Chief Legal Officer April Miller Boise.

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Lack Of Harm Dooms Ex-Estate Firm Partner's Bid For Notices

By Abigail Harrison

The founding partner of a trusts and estates law firm lost his bid to have the North Carolina Business Court order the firm to notify thousands of clients of his departure and hand over their contact information, with the judge ruling the lawyer failed to show he suffered irreparable harm.

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Senate Dems Probe Musk's Alleged Role In CTA Retreat

By Sarah Jarvis

Three Democratic senators have asked U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to provide information on Elon Musk's possible involvement in the rollback of the Corporate Transparency Act, saying the department's moves allow entities tied to the billionaire to operate in obscurity.

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Brief

Moye White, Ex-Landlord Settle $4M Denver Lease Dispute

By Zach Dupont

Days before the start of a bench trial between a Denver landlord and defunct law firm Moye White LLP in state court, the two parties reached a settlement, ending the litigation where the landlord accused the firm of owing almost $4 million.

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Blumenthal Presses DHS Chief To Scrap ICE Warrant Memo

By Courtney Bublé

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, is looking for assurances from the newly installed secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, that he will honor his apparent pledge to rescind a policy that allows immigration agents to enter private property without a judicial warrant.

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NC Attys Oppose DOJ Interference In State Ethics Complaints

By Hayley Fowler

A group of North Carolina lawyers is opposing the U.S. Department of Justice's proposed rule allowing the attorney general to review state-level ethics complaints against the department's attorneys, saying such a change would undercut the Tar Heel State's ability to regulate government lawyers.

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Nixon Peabody Hires Hometown Litigator In Rhode Island

By Tracey Read

Nixon Peabody LLP has added a civil and criminal business litigation and trial attorney from Godfrey & Kahn SC to its complex disputes practice as a partner in Providence, Rhode Island.

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Beasley Allen Seeks Stay Of DQ In Federal J&J Talc MDL

By Jake Maher

The Beasley Allen Law Firm asked a New Jersey federal court on Monday to hold off on disqualifying it from talc litigation against Johnson & Johnson while it appeals the disqualification order which it called "unprecedented and incorrect."

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70+ Republicans Ask Justices To Review NY Gun Liability Law

By Courtney Bublé

More than 70 Republican lawmakers from both the House and Senate have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to review an appellate court decision that upheld New York state's public nuisance statute, which allows lawsuits against gun manufacturers that cause public harm.

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Michigan Judge OKs Lawyers' Exit From Atty's Retaliation Suit

By Carolyn Muyskens

A Michigan federal judge has allowed a trio of lawyers to withdraw from representing an attorney accusing her former mentor of sexual harassment and her former law firm of retaliation.

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