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Appellate
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October 23, 2024
Ga. Justices Say Open Records Suit Against DA Can Proceed
The Supreme Court of Georgia said a district attorney for the Peach State's Western Judicial Circuit must face an Open Records Act suit claiming she withheld records, and that one of her arguments to escape the suit "fundamentally misunderstands Georgia's separation-of-powers doctrine."
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October 23, 2024
Court Doubts Tax Program Is A Subsidy, Remands Steel Duty
The U.S. Court of International Trade remanded a countervailing tariff on Turkish steel rebar for the U.S. Department of Commerce to explain why it treated a broadly available tax exemption as a subsidy conferring an unfair trade advantage.
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October 23, 2024
2nd Circ. Backs Early Wells Fargo Win In $100M RMBS Case
The Second Circuit on Wednesday approved an early win for Wells Fargo in a lawsuit brought by Commerzbank AG alleging it lost $100 million investing in residential mortgage-backed securities, saying the German lender didn't have standing to sue.
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October 22, 2024
Texas Firm 'Tortured' Barratry Case, Appeals Court Hears
A Texas law firm accused of ambulance chasing told a state appeals court that the opposition had "tortured" the case, saying during oral arguments Tuesday that Bandas Law Firm PC pursued the case merely as an extortion racket.
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October 22, 2024
Ex-Yale Student Wants Full Acquittal Record Sent To DHS
An expelled Yale University student on Tuesday urged the Second Circuit to quickly vacate orders barring him from giving the U.S. Department of Homeland Security an unredacted transcript that resulted in his acquittal of sex crimes, saying a delay could seal his deportation and thus his execution by the Taliban.
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October 22, 2024
'Dewberry' Ruling Doesn't Threaten Corporate Veil, Justices Told
An engineering company that won millions of dollars in a trademark case against a real estate developer that tried to use the "Dewberry" name for a hotel told the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday to let that ruling stand, arguing that the Fourth Circuit ruling in its favor doesn't undermine the corporate veil.
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October 22, 2024
Colo. Justices Suggest Remanding 'Half-Baked' Privilege Case
Colorado Supreme Court justices appeared reluctant Tuesday to do more than remand a case over whether attorney-client privilege protects communications by an insurance company's lawyers with engineers hired for processing a claim, with two justices calling the appeal "half-baked" since the trial judge admitted she used the wrong standard.
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October 22, 2024
Calif. Panel Says Panera Must Face PAGA Claims
A California state appeals court on Monday reversed a state trial court's ruling compelling a Panera restaurant employee to arbitrate Private Attorneys General Act claims against the bakery and café chain, saying an arbitration agreement the worker had entered explicitly excluded PAGA claims.
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October 22, 2024
Copper Mining Co. Asks High Court To Toss Sacred Site Suit
A copper mining company that wants to build operations in a tribally sacred part of the Tonto National Forest has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to toss a challenge to a Ninth Circuit ruling that allows for the transfer of nearly 2,500 acres of land.
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October 22, 2024
Colo. Justices Doubt Geico Agreed With Man's Crash Claims
Justices of Colorado's highest court appeared skeptical Tuesday of a man's claim that his noneconomic damages for injuries from a car accident were uncontested by his insurance carrier, with one justice citing the policyholder's rejection of settlement offers as evidence of a dispute.
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October 22, 2024
Media, Small Biz Orgs. Fight FTC's 'Click To Cancel' Rule
The Michigan Press Association and the National Federation of Independent Businesses lodged a challenge Tuesday to the Federal Trade Commission's new "click to cancel" rule requiring that companies allow customers to ditch their subscriptions with a single click, telling the Sixth Circuit the commission has overstepped its authority.
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October 22, 2024
IP Atty Group Wants Fed. Circ. To Back Fintiv But Scold USPTO
A group that advocates for intellectual property lawyers and patent owners has urged the Federal Circuit to uphold Patent Trial and Appeal Board precedent allowing its judges the discretion to deny patent reviews based on how proposed reviews overlap with related litigation in other forums.
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October 22, 2024
11th Circ. Signals Fla. Gun Ban Turns On 'Age Of Majority'
Whether the full Eleventh Circuit will strike down or uphold Florida's firearms sales ban to anyone under 21 appeared to hinge Tuesday on whether the court adopts modern notions of when adulthood begins or prior beliefs understood as "18-year-old Johnny on his way to the militia," circa 1789.
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October 22, 2024
Supervisor Could've Prevented Electrician's Death, Widow Says
The widow of a man who was electrocuted told a Texas appeals court during oral arguments Tuesday that it wouldn't matter if there was a supervisor looking over the deceased man's shoulder, claiming the question never came up because there wasn't a qualified supervisor on site.
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October 22, 2024
PTAB Axes Some Provisur Food Slicer Patent Claims
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has found Weber Inc. was able to show most of the claims in a pair of food slicer patents owned by rival Provisur Technologies were invalid as obvious, the latest in a fight that made its way to both the Federal Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court.
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October 22, 2024
10th Circ. Rebuffs GEO's Early Appeal In Forced-Labor Suit
The Tenth Circuit said Tuesday that GEO Group Inc. jumped the gun by appealing a Colorado federal judge's ruling that the private prison operator can't be shielded by derivative sovereign immunity from human-trafficking claims brought by immigrant detainees.
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October 22, 2024
10th Circ. Affirms Energera Broke Deal By Filing Patent Suits
The Tenth Circuit has ruled that both basic logic and "ordinary grammar" support the finding that a covenant not to file any further patent infringement lawsuits was broken by Colorado oil field equipment supplier Energera when it continued to sue Fuel Automation's future customers over "related" patents.
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October 22, 2024
Texas DOT Ruled Immune In $1M Bike Accident Suit
A Texas appeals court has thrown out a $1 million verdict against the state's Department of Transportation over a doctor's bicycle accident, saying there was no evidence to support a finding of gross negligence, and, as such, the state agency has sovereign immunity.
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October 22, 2024
Ivy League Athletes Plan To Appeal Antitrust Suit's Dismissal
A group of college athletes challenging the Ivy League's practice of prohibiting athletic scholarships told a Connecticut federal judge they plan to appeal the dismissal of their antitrust suit against Harvard and other top-tier universities.
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October 22, 2024
Ark. Supreme Court Voids Nov. Effort To Expand Medical Pot
The Arkansas Supreme Court has determined that voters will not get to decide November 5 whether to expand the state's medical marijuana program via a ballot initiative after finding that the title and summary of the proposed constitutional amendment were misleading.
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October 22, 2024
Fla. Union Says License Application Was Wrongfully Denied
A public sector union told a Florida appeals court Tuesday that the state's Public Employees Relations Commission erred in holding the union to newly passed higher standards for re-registration before the law went into effect and upholding this decision would allow administrative agencies to simply ignore effective dates.
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October 22, 2024
Organic Food Group Asks 9th Circ. To Upend GMO Label Rule
An organic food industry advocacy group urged the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday to reverse a district judge decision that largely left a Trump-era organic food labeling rule intact, saying the U.S. Department of Agriculture's implementation of a nationwide labeling law for genetically modified foods has been "arbitrary and capricious."
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October 22, 2024
Ga. Justices Reject GOP Effort To Restore New Election Rules
Georgia's justices Tuesday unanimously rejected the state and national Republican parties' attempt to reinstate a slate of controversial new rules before Election Day that would require every ballot in the state to be hand-counted on election night and for officials to conduct "reasonable inquiries" into irregularities before certification.
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October 22, 2024
Split DC Circ. Backs Trespassing Charge In Jan. 6 Case
A divided D.C. Circuit panel on Tuesday backed the conviction of a defendant charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, preserving a staple trespassing charge leveled against the majority of accused rioters.
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October 22, 2024
Halkbank Not Immune In Sanctions Case, 2nd Circ. Says
The Second Circuit ruled Tuesday that Turkish state-owned bank Halkbank doesn't have common-law foreign sovereign immunity from charges that it laundered about $1 billion in sanctioned Iranian oil proceeds if the U.S. government's executive branch says it doesn't.
Expert Analysis
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Differences In Enforcing Oral Settlements In NJ And Pa.
New Jersey mediations should incorporate new best practices for settlement agreements after a recent state appellate court ruling eliminated the enforceability of oral-only settlements, setting New Jersey at odds with Pennsylvania’s established willingness to enforce unwritten agreements that were clearly intended to be binding, say Thomas Wilkinson and Thomas DePaola at Cozen O'Connor.
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Reading Between The Lines Of Justices' Moore Ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent Moore v. U.S. decision, that the Internal Revenue Code Section 965 did not violate the 16th Amendment, was narrowly tailored to minimally disrupt existing tax regimes, but the justices' various opinions leave the door open to future tax challenges and provide clues for what the battles may look like, say Caroline Ngo and Le Chen at McDermott.
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Series
After Chevron: A Sea Change For Maritime Sector
The shipping industry has often looked to the courts for key agency decisions affecting maritime interests, but after the U.S. Supreme Court's Loper Bright ruling, stakeholders may revisit important industry questions and coordinate to bring appropriate challenges and shape rulemaking, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.
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Opinion
Post-Chevron, Good Riddance To The Sentencing Guidelines
The U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of the Chevron doctrine may signal the end of the U.S. sentencing guidelines, which is good news given that they have accomplished the opposite of Congress’ original intent to bring certainty, proportionality and uniformity to sentencing, say attorneys Mark Allenbaugh, Doug Passon and Alan Ellis.
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Series
After Chevron: Impact On CFPB May Be Limited
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo is likely to have a limited impact on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's regulatory activities, and for those who value due process, consistency and predictability in consumer financial services regulation, this may be a good thing, says John Coleman at Orrick.
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A Midyear Forecast: Tailwinds Expected For Atty Hourly Rates
Hourly rates for partners, associates and support staff continued to rise in the first half of this year, and this growth shows no signs of slowing for the rest of 2024 and into next year, driven in part by the return of mergers and acquisitions and the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence, says Chuck Chandler at Valeo Partners.
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Series
After Chevron: 7 FERC Takeaways From Loper Bright
Following the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of the Chevron doctrine, it's likely that the majority of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's orders will not be affected, but the commission has nonetheless lost an important fallback argument and will have to approach rulemaking more cautiously, says Norman Bay at Willkie Farr.
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Series
After Chevron: USDA Rules May Be Up In The Air
The Supreme Court's end of Chevron deference may cause more lawsuits against U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations, like the one redefining "unfair trade practices" under the Packers and Stockyards Act, or a new policy classifying salmonella as an adulterant in certain poultry products, says Bob Hibbert at Wiley.
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7th Circ Joins Trend Of No CGL Coverage For Structural Flaws
The Seventh Circuit, which recently held potential structural instability did not count as property damage under a construction company's commercial general liability policy, joins a growing consensus that faulty work does not implicate coverage without tangible and present damage to the project, say Sarah Abrams at Baleen Specialty, and Elan Kandel and James Talbert at Bailey Cavalieri.
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Series
In The CFPB Playbook: Making Good On Bold Promises
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision upholding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding structure in the second quarter cleared the way for the bureau to resume a number of high-priority initiatives, and it appears poised to charge ahead in working toward its aggressive preelection agenda, say Andrew Arculin and Paula Vigo Marqués at Blank Rome.
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Series
After Chevron: Creating New Hurdles For ESG Rulemaking
The U.S. Supreme Court's Loper Bright decision, limiting court deference to agencies' statutory interpretations, could have significant impacts on the future of ESG regulation, creating new hurdles for agency rulemaking around these emerging issues, and calling into question current administrative actions, says Leah Malone at Simpson Thacher.
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Accidental Death Ruling Shows ERISA Review Standard's Pull
The Eleventh Circuit’s recent accidental death insurance ruling in Goldfarb v. Reliance Standard Life Insurance illustrates how an arbitrary and capricious standard of review in Employee Retirement Income Security Act denial-of-benefits cases creates a steep uphill battle for benefit claimants, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Law.
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Critical Questions Remain After High Court's Abortion Rulings
The U.S. Supreme Court's decisions in two major abortion-related cases this term largely preserve the status quo for now, but leave federal preemption, the Comstock Act and in vitro fertilization in limbo, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.
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California Adds A Novel Twist To State Suits Against Big Oil
California’s suit against Exxon Mobil Corp., one of several state suits that seek to hold oil and gas companies accountable for climate-related harms, is unique both in the magnitude of the alleged claims and its use of a consumer protection statute to seek disgorgement of industry profits, says Julia Stein at UCLA School of Law.
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Opinion
States Should Loosen Law Firm Ownership Restrictions
Despite growing buzz, normalized nonlawyer ownership of law firms is a distant prospect, so the legal community should focus first on liberalizing state restrictions on attorney and firm purchases of practices, which would bolster succession planning and improve access to justice, says Michael Di Gennaro at The Law Practice Exchange.