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Appellate
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February 25, 2025
Atlanta Says 'Cop City' Completion Moots Public Vote
The city of Atlanta has told the Eleventh Circuit that the recent completion of its controversial "Cop City" police training center should render moot a lawsuit by noncity residents who had hoped to force a long-stalled public vote to roll back the city's approval of the project.
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February 25, 2025
NC High Court Hopeful Says Ballot Count Defied State Law
A North Carolina judge is pressing forward with his legal battle to throw out more than 60,000 ballots in a race he lost by just 734 votes, arguing in a newly filed appellate brief that the state Elections Board has ignored voter registration laws for decades.
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February 25, 2025
Justices Limit 'Prevailing Party' Status For Atty Fees
Litigants will no longer be considered the "prevailing party" — and thus won't be eligible for attorney fees — if they achieve courtroom victories via preliminary injunction instead of a final judgment, the U.S. Supreme Court has found, in a ruling that's expected to be a blow to legal advocacy groups.
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February 25, 2025
5th Circ. Backs FedEx's Win In Worker's Age Bias Suit
The Fifth Circuit refused to reopen a former FedEx manager's lawsuit alleging he was terminated because he was in his 50s, finding he couldn't overcome the delivery company's assertion that he was fired for failing to take action when a co-worker brought a BB gun to work.
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February 25, 2025
Federal Judiciary Repeats Request For More Judges
A federal circuit judge, speaking on behalf of the federal judiciary, repeated on Tuesday the need for more federal judges to alleviate the overwhelmed courts after President Joe Biden vetoed legislation late last year that would have added seats to the bench.
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February 25, 2025
NJ Atty Suspended Over Secret Outside Legal Work
A Garden State lawyer has been suspended for two years by the state's Supreme Court for surreptitiously accepting payments for legal services while never opening a file at his former firm for the clients or sharing profits with the firm, but instead had clients pay him directly.
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February 25, 2025
Ga. Chief Justice Resigning After Over 20 Years On Bench
Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael P. Boggs — who has steered the state's courts in spending pandemic relief funds and approving changes to the state's bar exam — announced Tuesday that he's stepping down at the end of March to return to private practice.
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February 25, 2025
Ayahuasca Church Appeals To 9th Circ. In $2M Atty Fee Fight
A Phoenix-based church is appealing to the Ninth Circuit a decision denying it more than $2 million in attorney fees after reaching a deal with the federal government to allow it to use ayahuasca for religious purposes.
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February 25, 2025
Insurers Owe Chubb $3.3M For Safelite Defense Costs
Two insurers must contribute $1.65 million each toward costs a Chubb unit incurred defending windshield repair company Safelite against a competitor's suit, an Ohio federal court ruled, finding the pair were not prejudiced by breaches of their policies' notice and voluntary payment provisions.
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February 25, 2025
10th Circ. Affirms Falsity Claims Bar Coverage Of HOA Fight
The Tenth Circuit affirmed that two AIG units need not cover a ski resort's homeowners association and other insureds found liable for trying to induce the owner of resort condo units to pay $15.5 million in fees it didn't owe, pointing to what are known as knowledge-of-falsity exclusions.
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February 25, 2025
10th Circ. Asked To Rethink Denying Atty's Racing Deductions
A Denver personal injury lawyer asked the Tenth Circuit to reconsider its decision barring his $300,000 tax deduction for car-racing costs as professional advertising, saying the court deprived him of due process in dismissing his argument that the IRS wrongly denied him a chance to settle.
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February 25, 2025
4th Circ. Taps 6 Judges For 6-Month Stint In NC Western
Chief U.S. Circuit Judge Albert Diaz of the Fourth Circuit has issued orders to five district court judges and one of his fellow appellate judges to serve temporarily in the Western District of North Carolina from March through the end of August.
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February 25, 2025
High Court Orders New Trial In Okla. Death Row Case
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a new trial for an Oklahoma inmate whose conviction and death sentence for a 1997 murder, the state confesses, was the product of prosecutors withholding evidence and knowingly presenting false testimony.
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February 24, 2025
9th Circ. Axes Fee Award In California Pizza Kitchen Hack Deal
The Ninth Circuit on Monday scrapped an attorney fee award of $800,000 given to class counsel as part of a deal resolving data breach litigation against California Pizza Kitchen, finding that the lower court had failed to properly compare the "actual value" of the settlement — which the panel put around $950,000 — to the requested fees.
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February 24, 2025
'We Need Go No Further': 10 Notable Judge Bruce Selya Lines
Senior First Circuit Judge Bruce Selya, who died Saturday at age 90, will be remembered not only for the opinions he wrote but for the flowery language he used to write them. Here are 10 of the judge's notable "Selyanisms" from recent years.
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February 24, 2025
FDIC Scraps 10th Circ. Brief Backing Colo.'s Opt-Out Law
In a pivot, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Monday withdrew a Tenth Circuit brief that had supported Colorado in industry litigation against the state's "opt-out" law aimed at curbing higher-cost online lending.
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February 24, 2025
9th Circ. Mostly Clears The Way For Mont. Logging Project
The Ninth Circuit on Monday reversed portions of a Montana federal judge's decision to vacate U.S. Forest Service approval of a controversial Black Ram logging project on the Kootenai National Forest, but told the lower court it had to take a closer look at some of the environmentalists' objections.
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February 24, 2025
Trump Birthright Citizenship EO Must Stay Paused, States Say
A coalition of states on Monday urged a Massachusetts federal judge to leave in place his preliminary injunction blocking President Donald Trump's executive order limiting birthright citizenship while the government appeals, arguing that the injunction merely maintains a centurylong status quo recognizing those citizenship rights.
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February 24, 2025
Fed. Circ. Shouldn't Assume Doctors Read Labels, Profs Say
The Federal Circuit has been reviewing whether generic-drug companies induce infringement of their limited-use drugs based on a misunderstanding of how prescribing physicians do their job, law professors from Illinois and Pennsylvania have argued in a new paper.
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February 24, 2025
Patent Eligibility Appeals 'Will Not Go Away,' Justices Told
Another plea to hear a patent eligibility case has been lodged at the U.S. Supreme Court, this time in an amicus brief from the owner of two invalidated patents covering medical machinery that warned "the problem will not go away. The problem will get worse and worse."
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February 24, 2025
Justices Told Illinois High Court Should Weigh Tire IP Dispute
Atturo Tire Corp. has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to have the top court in Illinois address whether the Federal Circuit wrongly discarded a $10 million award against Toyo Tire Corp. for interfering with Atturo's business through patent settlements with other companies.
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February 24, 2025
Border Wall Cos. Learned Of Fund Row In 2024, 5th Circ. Told
A group of contractors told the Fifth Circuit Monday that they had no choice but to intervene in Texas and Missouri's suit over border wall funds on the eve of a final judgment because they were only notified days before that a preliminary injunction regarding the funds would affect them.
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February 24, 2025
Ill. Court Clears Holiday Inn In Suit Over Migrant's Suicide
A Chicago-area Holiday Inn that housed several migrants from Venezuela was properly cut loose from a wrongful death suit over a migrant's suicide, an Illinois appeals court ruled Monday, saying the hotel did not enable the suicide by leaving a rope in a stairwell.
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February 24, 2025
CPKC Tells DC Circ. Gov't Merger Approval 'Airtight'
Canadian Pacific Kansas City is defending the government's approval of the $31 billion merger that created the railroad, telling the D.C. Circuit to reject a challenge to that decision because there was no flaw in the Surface Transportation Board's findings.
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February 24, 2025
DC Circ. To Hear Judge Newman's Appeal In April
The D.C. Circuit has set a date in April to hear an appeal from Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman, who is fighting her suspension from the bench for refusing to undergo medical tests.
Expert Analysis
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Fed. Circ. Ruling May Signal Software Patent Landscape Shift
The Federal Circuit's recent ruling in Broadband iTV, despite similarities to past decisions, chose to rely on prior cases finding patent-ineligible claims directed to receiving and displaying information, which may undermine one of the few areas of perceived predictability in the patent eligibility landscape, say attorneys at King & Wood.
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Series
After Chevron: The Future Of OSHA Enforcement Litigation
The U.S. Supreme Court's opinion in Loper Bright provides a blueprint for overruling the judicial obligation to defer to an agency's interpretation of its own regulations established by Auer, an outcome that would profoundly change the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s litigation and rulemaking landscape, say attorneys at Ogletree.
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What Hawaii High Court Got Right And Wrong In AIG Ruling
Though the Hawaii Supreme Court in its recent Aloha Petroleum v. National Union Fire Insurance decision correctly adopted the majority rule that recklessly caused harm is an accident for coverage purposes, it erred in its interpretation of the pollution exclusion by characterizing climate change as "traditional environmental pollution," say attorneys at Haynes Boone.
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Series
Beekeeping Makes Me A Better Lawyer
The practice of patent law and beekeeping are not typically associated, but taking care of honeybees has enriched my legal practice by highlighting the importance of hands-on experience, continuous learning, mentorship and more, says David Longo at Oblon McClelland.
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Amazon Holiday Pay Case Underscores Overtime Challenges
The recent Hamilton v. Amazon.com Services LLC decision in the Colorado Supreme Court underscores why employers must always consult applicable state law and regulations — in addition to federal law — when determining how to properly pay employees who work more than 40 hours in a workweek, says James Looby at Vedder Price.
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Opinion
It's Time To Sound The Alarm About Lost Labor Rights
In the Fifth Circuit, recent rulings from judges appointed by former President Donald Trump have dismantled workers’ core labor rights, a troubling trend that we cannot risk extending under another Trump administration, say Sharon Block and Raj Nayak at the Center for Labor and a Just Economy.
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Anticipating Jarkesy's Effect On Bank Agency Enforcement
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy, federal courts may eventually issue decisions on banking law principles and processes that could fundamentally alter the agencies' enforcement action framework, and the relationship between banks and examiners, says Brendan Clegg at Luse Gorman.
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Opinion
Legal Institutions Must Warn Against Phony Election Suits
With two weeks until the election, bar associations and courts have an urgent responsibility to warn lawyers about the consequences of filing unsubstantiated lawsuits claiming election fraud, says Elise Bean at the Carl Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy.
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Peeling Back The Layers Of SEC's Equity Trading Reforms
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recently adopted amendments lowering the tick sizes for stock trading and reducing access fee caps will benefit investors and necessitate broad systems changes — if they can first survive judicial challenges, say attorneys at Sidley.
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5th Circ. DOL Tip Decision May Trigger Final 80/20 Rule Fight
A recent Fifth Circuit decision concerning a Labor Department rule that limits how often tipped employees can be assigned non-tip-producing duties could be challenged in either historically rule-friendly circuits or the Supreme Court, but either way it could shape the future of tipped work, says Kevin Johnson at Johnson Jackson.
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Strategies To Avoid Patent Issues In AI Drug Discovery
Artificial intelligence has the potential to improve drug discovery and design, but companies should consider a variety of factors when patenting drugs created using AI systems, including guidance from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and methods for protecting patent eligibility, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.
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What Being An 'Insider' Means In Ch. 11, And Why It Matters
As borrowers grapple with approaching near-term maturities on corporate debt, lenders should be proactive in mitigating the risks of being classified as an insider in potential bankruptcies, including heightened scrutiny, preference risk, plan voting and more, say David Hillman and Steve Ma at Proskauer.
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How Cos. Can Build A Strong In-House Pro Bono Program
During this year’s pro bono celebration week, companies should consider some key pointers to grow and maintain a vibrant in-house program for attorneys to provide free legal services for the public good, says Mary Benton at Alston & Bird.
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Series
Home Canning Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Making my own pickles and jams requires seeing a process through from start to finish, as does representing clients from the start of a dispute at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board through any appeals to the Federal Circuit, says attorney Kevin McNish.
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Navigating The Bankruptcy Terrain After Purdue Pharma
The U.S. Supreme Court’s June ruling in Harrington v. Purdue Pharma is having a significant impact on bankruptcies, with recent cases addressing nonconsensual third-party releases and opt-out mechanisms, and highlighting strategies practitioners can employ to avoid running afoul of the decision, say Brett Axelrod and Agostino Zammiello at Fox Rothschild.