Appellate

  • May 15, 2026

    Michigan Says DOE Lacked Crisis To Extend Coal Plant Life

    A D.C. Circuit panel attempted Friday to find the limit on the U.S. Department of Energy's emergency authority to keep power plants running without a regional utility's request, with Michigan arguing that no emergency existed to justify the federal government's orders to keep a Consumers Energy plant online.

  • May 15, 2026

    Calif. Murder Conviction Tossed Over Bad Jury Instructions

    A man convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to up to life in prison must have a new trial as a result of improper jury instructions that were modified by a judge to conflict with actual state laws, a California appeals court has determined.

  • May 15, 2026

    Burford Tells Justices 3rd Circ. Botched Arbitration Question

    Litigation funder Burford Capital is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a Third Circuit decision dismissing on jurisdictional grounds its bid to arbitrate a dispute relating to German antitrust litigation, arguing that the appeals court committed a "fundamental error."

  • May 15, 2026

    9th Circ. Won't Revisit Wash. Professor Free Speech Ruling

    The Ninth Circuit won't revisit a decision saying the University of Washington violated a computer science professor's First Amendment rights after he voiced opposition to the school's policy that acknowledges Indigenous tribes as the traditional caretakers of the campus' land.

  • May 15, 2026

    Detroit-Area School Found Immune In Suit Over Student Injury

    The Michigan state appeals court has said a Detroit-area school district is not liable for a student's finger being amputated after a school bus-boarding mishap because the district is protected by governmental immunity from negligence lawsuits.

  • May 15, 2026

    Texas Justices Revive Anti-SLAPP Bid In Abortion Fund Suit

    The Texas Supreme Court on Friday revived a woman's anti-SLAPP bid in an abortion fund's suit against her, holding that the suit was filed in response to the woman's earlier attempt to investigate the fund's deputy director for potential violations of state abortion law.

  • May 15, 2026

    Alex Jones Can 'Freely Compete' With Infowars, Court Told

    The operator of Infowars says bankrupt broadcaster Alex Jones has a legal right to "freely compete" with his former outlet, telling a Texas appeals court the website shut down because a court-appointed receiver failed to pay a third-party streaming service, not because Jones absconded with its property.

  • May 15, 2026

    6th Circ. Upholds $10M Verdict Against Detective In Brady Suit

    The Sixth Circuit has upheld a $10 million jury verdict for a Michigan man who spent more than six years in prison before prosecutors concluded he was not guilty of murder, ruling that a Detroit detective could not use the man's vacated conviction to block his civil rights suit.

  • May 15, 2026

    NC Social Worker Wants Resentencing In Medicaid Fraud Suit

    A clinical social worker in North Carolina serving more than 11 years in prison on healthcare fraud charges is challenging her sentence in the Fourth Circuit, saying Thursday that a lower court used overly generalized findings to apply a vulnerable victim sentence enhancement.

  • May 15, 2026

    6th Circ. Won't Rehear Kellogg, FedEx Mortality Table Suits

    The Sixth Circuit on Friday refused to rethink a panel's earlier decision that revived two proposed class actions against cereal giant Kellogg and transportation company FedEx in which retirees allege that their pension payments were lowballed due to outdated mortality tables used in conversions.

  • May 15, 2026

    American Airlines Must Face Suit Over Teen's In-Flight Death

    The Fifth Circuit partially revived a lawsuit claiming American Airlines caused a teen's death when an on-flight defibrillator used to shock his heart allegedly malfunctioned, ruling that a genuine dispute remains whether the airline equipped the flight with a working defibrillator as required by the Federal Aviation Administration.

  • May 15, 2026

    Panel Fights Fla. Judge's Bid To Rethink Ethics Ruling

    A judicial panel is arguing a "key premise" is "incorrect" in a Florida appellate judge's bid for reconsideration of the denial of her motion to dismiss allegations that she attempted to influence lower court proceedings for an incarcerated man formerly on death row.

  • May 15, 2026

    Trade Probes Likely To Be Strong Bulwark For Trump's Tariffs

    President Donald Trump will likely deploy new tariffs this summer across numerous countries under a law that provides the federal government with its strongest legal footing yet in federal court for a global tariff regime.

  • May 15, 2026

    X.AI Urges 9th Circ. To Block Calif. AI Data Disclosure Law

    Elon Musk's company, X.AI LLC, has asked the Ninth Circuit to overturn a California court's refusal to block a state law that requires artificial intelligence developers to publicly disclose details about their training data, saying the judge's decision was "flawed from top to bottom."

  • May 15, 2026

    Veterans Group Asks Fed. Circ. To Toss VA Abortion Ban Rule

    The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs violated a federal rulemaking law when it enacted a 2025 regulation that banned abortion care and abortion counseling, a minority veterans group told the Federal Circuit on Friday, asking the court to toss out the rule because it's arbitrary and capricious. 

  • May 15, 2026

    Balancing The Scales: Justices To Revisit Sentencing Rules

    The U.S. Supreme Court will take a closer look at a circuit split over the deference that should be allotted to U.S. Sentencing Commission commentary, and a man convicted in the killing of an infant has been released after 27 years served over evidence that points to pneumonia as the likely cause of death.

  • May 15, 2026

    Girardi Trial Judge Josephine Staton To Take Senior Status

    The California federal judge who sentenced disgraced trial attorney Tom Girardi to prison for wire fraud last year has announced that she'll be taking senior status in the fall, allowing President Donald Trump to appoint her successor.

  • May 15, 2026

    8th Circ. Wells Fargo Ruling Focuses On Establishing Injury

    The Eighth Circuit's recent decision affirming the dismissal of a proposed class action claiming Wells Fargo misspent 401(k) forfeitures won't dissuade workers from filing similar suits, attorneys say, but those plan participants will likely include more details on how they were allegedly hurt.

  • May 15, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Upholds Tin Tariff Exclusion Rejections For Canner

    A Federal Circuit panel on Friday found the U.S. Department of Commerce didn't violate any rules when it blocked the country's largest vegetable can producer from securing tariff exclusions for its imported tin, affirming a U.S. Court of International Trade ruling.

  • May 15, 2026

    5th Circ. Faults NLRB's Take On Starbucks Worker's Language

    The Fifth Circuit has ordered the National Labor Relations Board to rethink a ruling that Starbucks unfairly fired a union backer who sent profane messages and opened its mail, saying the board did not grapple with evidence showing his "extreme" words were an outlier in a workplace that tolerated some profanity.

  • May 15, 2026

    Judge Splits From Texas High Court In Jail-Courtroom Case

    A judge on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has dissented from his colleagues' decision not to accept a petition from a man who said the decision to hold his murder trial inside a county jail violated state law.

  • May 15, 2026

    6th Circ. Backs Machinery Dealer In Fired Worker's FMLA Suit

    The Sixth Circuit declined to revive a worker's suit claiming a heavy machinery dealer fired him for seeking leave to manage his mental health and that his union failed to challenge his termination, ruling he lacked evidence that prejudice informed his firing rather than his performance issues.

  • May 14, 2026

    8th Circ. Backs Dismissal Of Horse Breeder's Malpractice Suit

    The Eighth Circuit said a federal judge was right to dismiss a malpractice suit a Minnesota horse breeder brought against Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP and one of its former attorneys for mishandling malpractice cases against three other firms.

  • May 14, 2026

    Platinum Execs, Feds Spar Amid $70M Bond Fraud Appeals

    The Second Circuit on Thursday once again weighed the nearly decadelong fraud case against former Platinum Partners executives, which has led to hard-fought trials, convictions, acquittals, appellate reversals and even a presidential pardon, as defense counsel and the government alike argued that a litany of errors demand rectification.

  • May 14, 2026

    Freight Brokers Brace For New Risks After High Court Ruling

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday shattered what freight brokers believed was an ironclad shield against state-based negligence and injury claims over catastrophic accidents, as the trucking industry's middlemen face heightened legal exposure and question what reasonable care means in selecting motor carriers for a transport, experts say.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Alpine Skiing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Skiing has shaped habits I rely on daily as an attorney — focus, resilience and the ability to remain steady when circumstances shift rapidly — and influences the way I approach legal strategy, client counseling and teamwork, says Isaku Begert at Marshall Gerstein.

  • Opinion

    Time To Fix The Accountability Gap In Freight Logistics

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    In Montgomery v. Caribe Transport, the U.S. Supreme Court must resolve an urgent question: whether freight broker selection in trucking accidents is categorically protected — meaning unreasonable safety decisions are insulated from liability — or subject to accountability under traditional negligence principles, says Amanda Demanda at Amanda Demanda Injury Lawyers.

  • 2 Strands Of Patent Law In High Court's 'Skinny Label' Case

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    Amarin v. Hikma, which is set for oral argument in the U.S. Supreme Court this month, highlights the distinction between two different strands of intellectual property law — analogizing a patent to either a property deed or a home, says Jonas McDavit at Spencer West.

  • Justices' Geofence Ruling May Test 4th Amendment's Future

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    When the U.S. Supreme Court decides in Chatrie v. U.S. whether law enforcement may use geofence warrants to compel Google to disclose location history data, the ruling is likely to become an important statement about the future of Fourth Amendment law in data-driven investigations, says Duncan Levin at Levin & Associates.

  • Series

    NY Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q1

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    In the first quarter of 2026, New York's banking developments were headlined by initiatives to expand oversight of financial institutions and strengthen consumer protection laws, including a new framework for buy now, pay later lenders, a sweeping debt collection rule and a revised corporate self-disclosure program for financial crimes, say attorneys at Proskauer.

  • Seeking A Policy Fix As Merger Reporting Fight Continues

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    A recently announced request by the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Justice for public comment on the Hart-Scott-Rodino premerger reporting requirements, as litigation challenging the commission's updated requirements continues, suggests the government's willingness to address how best to support modern merger enforcement without unduly burdening filing parties, say attorneys at Baker Botts.

  • Opinion

    Wash. Amazon Ruling Should Reshape Suicide Liability

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    The Washington Supreme Court's reinstatement of negligence claims in Scott v. Amazon.com, brought by the families of people who died by suicide after purchasing chemicals online, signals a reckoning for digital commerce and the rejection of the defense that online marketplaces are merely passive technology platforms, says Donald Fountain at Clark Fountain.

  • Axed Trade Secret Award Cautions Against Bundling Damages

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    The Fifth Circuit's recent ruling in Trinseo v. Harper, vacating a $75 million jury verdict for trade secret misappropriation due to a bundled damages model, offers a strong reminder to apportion damages so a jury can award a nonspeculative figure when it credits only some alleged secrets, say attorneys at Seyfarth.

  • 2 Rulings Poke Holes In Mandatory Restitution Framework

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Ellingburg v. U.S., as well as the Third Circuit’s recent ruling in U.S. v. Abrams, provide criminal defense practitioners with new tools to challenge Mandatory Victims Restitution Act orders, and highlight several restitution-related issues that converged in the recent prosecution of former Frank CEO Charlie Javice, say attorneys at Lankler Siffert & Wohl.

  • Pivotal 6th Circ. Ruling Threatens Decades Of NLRB Decisions

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    The Sixth Circuit's recent decision in Brown-Forman v. National Labor Relations Board fundamentally challenged the NLRB's long-standing practice of establishing policies through adjudication rather than formal rulemaking, giving employers and unions a new avenue to procedurally attack the vast majority of its rules, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

  • What A Court Doc Audit Reveals About Erroneous Filings

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    My audit of 1,522 court documents from last month found that over 95% contained at least one verifiable error, with fewer than 1% showing clear indicators of artificial intelligence use — highlighting above all else that lawyers may want to focus most on strengthening their review processes, says Elliott Ash at ETH Zurich.

  • Exploring When Fraud Asset Freezes Limit Right To Pick Atty

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    The defendant’s claim in the Seventh Circuit’s pending U.S. v. Shah case that the government restrained his assets until he couldn’t afford his chosen counsel presents a useful case study in how criminal forfeiture procedure interacts with U.S. Supreme Court rulings on Sixth Amendment rights and appealing complex fraud convictions, says Elisha Kobre at Sheppard.

  • How Justices' GEO Ruling Resets Gov't Contractor Litigation

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent GEO Group v. Menocal decision, holding that government contractors cannot immediately exit cases via interlocutory appeals, may increase litigation costs, strengthen plaintiffs' leverage in settlement negotiations and dampen the government's ability to attract bids on high-risk or sensitive projects, say attorneys at Wiley.

  • Appellate Strategy Lessons From Pa. Excess Coverage Ruling

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    In FedEx v. National Union Fire Insurance, a Pennsylvania state court recently set forth a clear holding that policyholders may recover postjudgment interest under excess liability insurance policies only when the policy language expressly allows, offering important takeaways for planning appeals, say attorneys at Hunton.

  • Defense Counsel Options Widen As No-Bill Rate Increases

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    Citizens impaneled on grand juries in politically motivated cases who are reasserting their role as a critical check on state power could provide criminal defense attorneys an opportunity to pursue seldom-used preindictment strategies, say attorneys at Ballard Spahr.

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