Appellate

  • June 23, 2026

    Justices Clear Path For Exxon Damages Claim In Cuba Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court found Tuesday that a federal law allowing U.S. victims of property seizures by the Cuban government to seek damages automatically abrogates the sovereign immunity of state-owned entities targeted in such cases, clearing a path for Exxon Mobil Corp.'s bid for some $1 billion in damages.

  • June 22, 2026

    7th Circ. Won't Unblock Fla. Gender Care Suit Amid Appeal

    A split Seventh Circuit on Monday refused to pause an Illinois federal judge's preliminary injunction blocking the lawsuit from Florida's attorney general targeting medical groups' policies on youth gender-affirming care while the Sunshine State official appeals.

  • June 22, 2026

    Uber Must Produce Docs In Cal/OSHA Probe Of Driver's Death

    A California appeals court has ordered Uber to comply with a state workplace safety agency's request for information regarding an Uber Eats driver's fatal fall, ruling the agency was acting within its authority and can demand records regarding whether the worker could be considered an employee.

  • June 22, 2026

    Can Unread Emails Trigger Arbitration? 9th Circ. Airs Doubts

    Medical supplies giant Thermo Fisher Scientific pressed a Ninth Circuit panel Monday to agree that the company's repeated emails about litigation waivers should send an ex-employee's proposed class action to arbitration, but the judges repeatedly questioned why no one simply asked if the worker saw the emails.

  • June 22, 2026

    Jury Instruction Undercut Self-Defense Claim, Fla. Court Says

    A Florida appeals court has overturned a man's convictions and sentence for third-degree murder and attempted felony murder, finding that a jury instruction made it impossible for him to successfully mount a self-defense argument after he killed a man during a botched drug deal.

  • June 22, 2026

    Md. Voters Can't Weigh In On Data Center Zone, Judge Rules

    Voters in Frederick County, Maryland, will not be able to have a say on a data center development zone, a state judge ruled in an order docketed Monday, agreeing with developers that under the county's charter, an ordinance is not a law subject to referendum.

  • June 22, 2026

    Texas Asks Justices To Keep App Store Law In Force

    The Texas attorney general urged the U.S. Supreme Court to allow a state law requiring app stores to block minors from downloading apps without parental consent to remain in effect, arguing Monday that a lower court "committed several errors" in pausing the measure.

  • June 22, 2026

    NJ Appeals Court Affirms U-Haul Win In Atty Slip-And-Fall Suit

    An attorney who slipped while exiting a moving truck, falling on his face and breaking bone and teeth, cannot undo a jury verdict for U-Haul, a New Jersey appeals court ruled Monday, saying the lower court properly rejected his bid for a pretrial win.

  • June 22, 2026

    4th Circ. Says Allied Need Not Cover 'Beer Olympics' Injury

    A man who claims that he was paralyzed in an auto crash caused by alcohol provided to guests at a "Beer Olympics" party cannot recover from the host homeowners' insurance provider, the Fourth Circuit ruled on Monday, saying the policy's motor vehicle exclusion bars coverage.

  • June 22, 2026

    Mich. Appeals Court Affirms $3M Award In Equity Dispute

    The Michigan Court of Appeals upheld a $3 million award to a former employee of a wealth management company, saying Monday that enough evidence supported a jury's finding that CIG Capital Advisors deliberately misled the plaintiff about his ownership status and diverted revenue to hide profits.

  • June 22, 2026

    FCC Turns Away Effort To Repeal News Distortion Rules

    After dismissing an advocacy group's petition asking the Federal Communications Commission to reconsider how it enforces its rules against news distortion, agency staff told the D.C. Circuit Monday that it should not grant the advocates' request to force the agency's hand.

  • June 22, 2026

    7th Circ. Clears Hartford In Wire Fraud Coverage Fight

    An Illinois agency that administers financially distressed insurers' estates was correctly denied coverage of its own insurance claim stemming from fraudulent emails that caused employees to wire nearly $7 million away from the agency purportedly at the financial chief's direction, the Seventh Circuit ruled.

  • June 22, 2026

    Sodexo Can't Wipe Out Worker's Nicotine Fee Suit

    A California federal judge refused to toss a Sodexo worker's proposed class action alleging the global food services company wrongly charged nicotine-using employees $1,200 more a year for health insurance, opening discovery on allegations that a wellness program implementing the surcharge didn't meet all federal requirements.

  • June 22, 2026

    Full DC Circ. To Rehear Halt Of Alien Enemies Contempt Probe

    The full D.C. Circuit on Monday vacated a split panel ruling halting U.S. District Judge James Boasberg's criminal contempt inquiry into the Trump administration's Alien Enemies Act removals last year, agreeing to rehear the matter.

  • June 22, 2026

    9th Circ. Doubts California City's Ban On Off-Site Pot Ads

    A Ninth Circuit panel expressed doubts Monday about an ordinance in Perris, California, banning off-site advertising by cannabis dispensaries, noting that the city collects taxes on cannabis sales and questioning the city's assertion that cannabis use is illegal under federal law.

  • June 22, 2026

    Xinuos Says Judge Wrongly Recast IBM Copyright Fight

    A software company told a Second Circuit panel Monday that a New York federal judge had wrongly used her own arguments to recharacterize its copyright infringement claim against IBM into a time-barred ownership claim and give IBM a win.

  • June 22, 2026

    Atty's Bid To Void Wrongful Firing Award Revived

    A Florida appellate court revived an attorney's attempt to invalidate a nearly $353,000 award handed to a former employee in her wrongful termination case, ruling that the lawyer was entitled to challenge the judgment without satisfying the stay requirements under the state's Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act. 

  • June 22, 2026

    Mich. Court OKs Conviction Of Man Who Filmed Traffic Stop

    A self-described First Amendment auditor who filmed a traffic stop has had his obstruction conviction upheld by a Michigan appeals court, which ruled that the right to record police did not allow him to ignore officers' lawful commands to keep a safe distance.

  • June 22, 2026

    Board Says Asylum Was Properly Denied In Light Of DUIs

    The Board of Immigration Appeals said an immigration judge reasonably denied a Cameroon man's bid for asylum based on multiple driving under the influence convictions, despite granting his application for withholding of removal to the African country.

  • June 22, 2026

    Colo. Appellate Court Says A Fist Is Not A 'Bludgeon'

    The Colorado Court of Appeals held for the first time that a fist cannot be a "bludgeon" or "simulated bludgeon" under a state law on menacing, reversing a defendant's felony menacing conviction in a split decision.

  • June 22, 2026

    Plaintiffs Ask 11th Circ. To Unfreeze Cruise Voyeurism Suits

    A group of plaintiffs suing Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. with allegations that one of its crew members covertly filmed them for his own gratification asked the Eleventh Circuit on Monday to undo a stay on related cases and affirm an order denying Royal Caribbean's bid to bring the cases to arbitration.

  • June 22, 2026

    Justices To Hear Fight Over Reach Of Bivens Prison Suits

    The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear a case over whether a federal inmate can use a 1971 high court precedent to pursue damages from prison officials for allegedly failing to provide adequate medical care after a 2021 prison fight.

  • June 22, 2026

    10th Circ. Says Fire Chief Immune From Termination Suit

    A district court erred in denying a Colorado fire chief qualified immunity in a former union president's lawsuit alleging he was unlawfully terminated, the Tenth Circuit ruled Monday, finding that the former president failed to show the chief's actions violated "clearly established law."

  • June 22, 2026

    Yamaha Gets $7M Verdict Erased In Golf Cart Rollover Suit

    A Georgia appellate court panel on Monday ordered a new trial in a case in which a family won $7 million after their toddler was severely hurt in a Yamaha golf cart rollover, finding a lower court wrongly kept the motorized products maker from introducing warning label language at trial.

  • June 22, 2026

    3rd Circ. Backs Quest Over Claims Of Bad 401(k) Management

    The Third Circuit on Monday affirmed Quest Diagnostics Inc.'s victory over a proposed class action accusing the company of mismanaging its employee 401(k) plan, holding the company followed a prudent process in deciding to retain two challenged investment funds despite periods of underperformance.

Expert Analysis

  • 2 AI Snafus Show Why Attys Can't Outsource Judgment

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    The recent incident involving Sullivan & Cromwell where citations in a filed motion were fabricated by artificial intelligence, as well as a punitive ruling from the Sixth Circuit in U.S. v. Farris, demonstrate that the obligation to supervise AI has belonged and always will belong to lawyers, says John Powell at the Kentucky School Boards Association.

  • Assessing The 9th Circ.'s Recent Stock Drop Dismissal Trend

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    The recent decision in Nova Scotia Health Employees' Pension Plan v. Comerica is an important circuit-level addition to the growing trend of Ninth Circuit securities class action dismissals on loss causation grounds, which have used a contextual analysis premised on stock drops that are modest, typical and short-lived, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.

  • Calif. Case Raises Questions For Medical Practice Investors

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    The California attorney general's amicus brief in Art Center v. WCE and the California Medical Association's response highlight how the California appeals court's ruling could significantly affect the structure and enforceability of succession arrangements in medical practice ownership, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • Opinion

    Tribal Gaming Law Is Paramount In Prediction Market Cases

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    Whatever the outcome of the preemption question in prediction market litigation involving states and the federal government, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act deals very specifically with gaming on Indian lands and almost certainly trumps the general federal laws at issue, says Kevin Washburn at the University of California, Berkeley.

  • Series

    Playing Magic: The Gathering Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The competitive card game Magic: The Gathering offers me a training ground for the strategic thinking skills crucial to litigation, challenging me to adapt to oft-updated rules, analyze text as complicated as any statute and anticipate my opponent’s next moves, says Christopher Smith at Lash Goldberg.

  • Why Product-Based Public Nuisance Claims May Be Waning

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    The Maryland Supreme Court's recent decision in Express Scripts v. Anne Arundel County is the latest in a national trend of rulings rejecting product-based public nuisance claims — but other forms of government litigation against companies that allegedly increase the cost of public services are likely to continue, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

  • State Of Insurance: Q1 Notes From Illinois

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    Matthew Fortin at BatesCarey discusses notable insurance developments in Illinois, including the state Supreme Court's highly anticipated Griffith Foods v. National Union Fire Insurance ruling, two bulletins from the Department of Insurance directed at public adjusters and a Seventh Circuit decision precluding a "super excess" tier of coverage.

  • Fed. Circ. In March: IPR And The Limits Of Retroactivity

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    The Federal Circuit recently ruled in Implicit v. Sonos that even though the clever retroactive correction of two invalidated patents theoretically should have changed the outcome of the inter partes review, the patentee had forfeited the right to rely on the correction — which is interesting for several reasons, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.

  • Improving Well-Being In Law, 10 Years After Landmark Study

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    An important 2016 study revealed significant substance abuse and mental health issues among lawyers, and while the findings helped normalize the conversation around these topics, a decade later, structural change is still needed, says Denise Robinson at PLI.

  • Managing Tort Risk After Justices' War Zone Immunity Ruling

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Hencely v. Fluor changes the tort landscape for battlefield contractors, whose liability for employee injury will now turn on compliance with battlefield directives — a question that will require discovery into highly sensitive details of combat operations and military decision-making, says Warren Bianchi at Fluet.

  • What Mass. Ruling Clarifies About Whistleblower Protections

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    A Massachusetts appellate court's recent decision in Galvin v. Roxbury Community College, finding that an employee retained whistleblower protections despite his reporting responsibilities and possible contribution to the compliance failure, requires employers to distinguish between performance-based decisions and their response to protected reporting, say attorneys at Smith Kane.

  • AG Watch: Texas Charts A Course On Investigative Authority

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    The Texas Supreme Court's recent decision in Texas v. PFLAG affirmed, and arguably expanded, the Texas attorney general's civil investigative demand authority, providing a road map that other courts evaluating state attorney general CIDs may find instructive, amid a lack of precedent, say attorneys at Kelley Drye.

  • State Of Insurance: Q1 Notes From Pennsylvania

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    From causation standards in first-party property claims, to the scope of statutory bad faith liability, to the enforceability of arbitration provisions in underinsured motorist disputes, three recent cases illustrate how Pennsylvania courts continued to refine the boundaries of coverage and dispute resolution, says Todd Leon at Marshall Dennehey.

  • Building A Persecution Case After Justices' Asylum Ruling

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Urias-Orellana v. Bondi raises the bar for overturning agency findings in federal court, changing how practitioners handling asylum and removal defense cases need to think about building a factual record and formulating arguments on appeal, say attorneys at Lai & Turner and Farzaneh Law.

  • High Court 'Skinny Label' Case Will Matter To Tech Litigators

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    Hikma v. Amarin, set for oral argument in the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday, has potential to affect not just generic drug label-based evidence in patent cases, but also how technology inducement cases are presented and proven, says attorney Abdul Abdullahi.

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