Appellate

  • July 25, 2024

    BREAKING: Calif. Justices Rule Prop. 22 Is Constitutional

    The California Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the Proposition 22 statewide ballot measure from 2020 that exempts certain app-based drivers from the state's independent contractor classification law, a ruling that could have widespread consequences for the gig economy and driver litigation.

  • July 24, 2024

    FTC Chair Wary AI Tools Can Be Used For Corporate Collusion

    Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan weighed in on a host of topics during a discussion Wednesday at the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference, expressing concerns about the agency's high legal bills for expert witnesses and describing AI price-setting tools as a potential loophole for collusion.

  • July 24, 2024

    SEC Unlikely To Relitigate Loss On Hedge Fund Regs

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission appears ready to accept defeat in its efforts to require more detailed disclosures from private fund managers, with attorneys saying the agency's continued silence since last month's Fifth Circuit loss likely indicates it will not press the issue any further.

  • July 24, 2024

    11th Circ. Says Nokia Unit Immune From Worker's Negligence Suit

    The Eleventh Circuit on Wednesday declined to revive a suit against Nokia subsidiary SAC Wireless LLC by a worker who was electrocuted and seriously injured while helping remove a crane from a cell tower site in Georgia, ruling that the worker was an employee of a subcontractor, not SAC Wireless.

  • July 24, 2024

    Solicitor General Warns Against Feds 'Winning At All Costs'

    U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar underscored the importance of the federal government ensuring justice is served and not "winning at all costs" during a keynote speech Wednesday at the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference, defending the DOJ's changed position in a high court case concerning a criminal defendant's right to a jury trial.

  • July 24, 2024

    FERC Can't Give Pipeline More Time, Green Groups Say

    Conservation groups are urging the D.C. Circuit to throw out a three-year deadline extension the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission granted for the completion of a southern extension of the controversial Mountain Valley pipeline.

  • July 24, 2024

    9th Circ. Wants Migrant's Credibility Reviewed After Atty Trick

    A split Ninth Circuit panel has ordered an immigration judge to reconsider a Chinese asylum seeker's credibility, saying Wednesday that they incorrectly deemed her untruthful based on her flustered behavior after a government attorney gave her information that turned out to be false.

  • July 24, 2024

    Pfizer's Fuel Cells Can't Be Taxed, Conn. Justices Rule

    A fuel cell module that powers Pfizer Inc.'s research campus in Groton, Connecticut, is not subject to personal property taxes, the state's high court ruled Wednesday, upholding a lower court decision that allowed FuelCell Inc. to avoid several multimillion-dollar local tax assessments and penalties.

  • July 24, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Rejects Challenges To PTAB's Network IP Decisions

    The Federal Circuit rejected an internet router-maker's bid to restore testimony that could have flipped two decisions at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, ruling Wednesday that the court won't revive ideas developed decades ago by a since-bankrupt tech company.

  • July 24, 2024

    Apple Foe Urges Fed. Circ. To Rethink PTAB Holding

    A Michigan professor's startup has asked the full Federal Circuit to revisit a ruling penned by U.S. District Judge Alan Albright, arguing the wrong call was made on what kind of arguments from Apple the Patent Trial and Appeal Board could field.

  • July 24, 2024

    DOJ Says NY Judge Muffed Standing In DirecTV Price-Fix Case

    Paying inflated prices isn't the only way someone can be injured by price-fixing, and a New York federal court was wrong to rule that it was in a case brought by DirecTV over retransmission fees, the U.S. Department of Justice has told the Second Circuit.

  • July 24, 2024

    DC Circ. Nixes Medicare Hospital Inpatient Payment Rule

    The D.C. Circuit has vacated a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services rule that inflated Medicare reimbursements for inpatient care at low-wage hospitals, saying the agency made an "unprecedented, expensive, broad, and possibly never-ending" change to a policy articulated by Congress.

  • July 24, 2024

    Atty Who Put Settlement In Spouse's Account Loses Appeal

    A Texas appellate court ruled Wednesday against an attorney seeking to overturn a ruling from a trial court barring him from practicing law for 18 months, saying the man clearly breached his ethical obligations by moving settlement funds through his spouse's personal bank account.

  • July 24, 2024

    Intelsat Insider Trading Claims Don't Connect, 9th Circ. Rules

    The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday affirmed a lower court's dismissal of claims accusing satellite company Intelsat stakeholders of insider trading, saying the suing hedge funds did not properly plead that the shareholders possessed material nonpublic information at the time of their trades.

  • July 24, 2024

    Naval Engineers Urge 4th Circ. To Revive No-Poach Suit

    A pair of former naval engineers have urged the Fourth Circuit to revive their proposed class action accusing military shipbuilding contractors and related firms of using secret "no-poach" agreements, saying their suit was wrongly ruled untimely amid a cover-up of the alleged scheme.

  • July 24, 2024

    Enterprise Rentals Secures Win In $750K Accident Dispute

    A freight carrier was not owed $750,000 in business travel insurance from a vehicle rental company, the Sixth Circuit affirmed Wednesday, holding that a lower court didn't err in excluding an excess policy from trial.

  • July 24, 2024

    6th Circ. Floats Remand Of Geico Agent Misclassification Suit

    The Sixth Circuit on Wednesday pressed Geico about plan documents reviewed by a lower court when it tossed agents' claims they were misclassified as independent contractors, floating the possibility of sending the case back for limited discovery.

  • July 24, 2024

    Boulder Wants Suncor Back In Colorado Climate Suit

    The city of Boulder, Colorado, and Boulder County have asked a Colorado state judge to certify part of his judgment dismissing Canadian oil and gas company Suncor Energy from the municipalities' climate change lawsuit so they can appeal that decision and bring Suncor back in.

  • July 24, 2024

    Atty Can't Deduct Car Racing Costs As Ads, US Tells 10th Circ.

    A personal injury lawyer who also races cars shouldn't be allowed to deduct about $300,000 for racing-related costs as ordinary business advertising expenses because they're unrelated to his law practice, the U.S. government told the Tenth Circuit on Wednesday.

  • July 24, 2024

    6th Circ. Judges Wary Of Dissecting Vaccine Objector's Views

    A Sixth Circuit judge said Wednesday he was uncomfortable questioning the legitimacy of a person's religious beliefs, criticizing the American Red Cross' argument that a former worker dressed up her secular anti-vaccine views with religious language to get an exemption from the COVID-19 vaccine.

  • July 24, 2024

    Ex-Atlanta Official Asks 11th Circ. To Toss Bribery Conviction

    A former Atlanta city commissioner sentenced to 4½ years in prison for taking bribes from a local contractor in exchange for steering millions of dollars to the contractor's company told the Eleventh Circuit Wednesday that her conviction must be reversed given the U.S. Supreme Court's recent holding in Snyder v. U.S.

  • July 24, 2024

    GOP States Still Can't Intervene In Wash. Abortion Pill Suit

    The Ninth Circuit rejected a bid by Idaho and other Republican-led states to intervene in Washington's lawsuit seeking to expand access to the abortion pill mifepristone, ruling Wednesday the states lacked standing and only speculated about how they were injured.

  • July 24, 2024

    Connecticut Justices Won't Certify 'Slum' Tenant Class

    A Connecticut state court judge was under no obligation to redefine a proposed class of low-income tenants in order to help them meet the certification requirements in a fraud and unfair trade practices lawsuit against their corporate landlord and property manager, the state Supreme Court hs ruled.

  • July 24, 2024

    Home Depot Truck Rental Keeps Win In Ramp Injury Suit

    A New Jersey appeals court won't upend a midtrial win for Tool & Truck Rental at the Home Depot in a suit from a man who alleges he was injured because of a faulty ramp.

  • July 24, 2024

    Ga. Judicial Candidate Aims To Keep Election Challenge Alive

    An attorney who lost her bid for a Georgia state appeals court seat has doubled down on her effort to overturn the election results, telling a state court to reject the winning candidate's dismissal bid and arguing it is actually his responsibility to establish a preponderance of the evidence about his eligibility to run.

Expert Analysis

  • Questions Linger About DTSA's Scope After Motorola Ruling

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    The Seventh Circuit’s recent ruling in Motorola v. Hytera, which held that the Defend Trade Secrets Act applies extraterritorially, does not address whether an act that furthers misappropriation must be committed by the defendant in order to satisfy the law's extraterritoriality requirement, say Ilissa Samplin and Grace Hart at Gibson Dunn.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Slowing Down AI In Medical Research

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision overturning the Chevron doctrine may inhibit agencies' regulatory efforts, potentially slowing down the approval and implementation of artificial intelligence-driven methodologies in medical research, as well as regulators' responses to public health emergencies, say Ragini Acharya and Matthew Deutsch at Husch Blackwell.

  • What High Court TM Rulings Tell Us About Free Speech

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    Recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings show tension between free speech and trademark law, highlighting that while political mockery is protected, established brands may be forced to adapt to evolving cultural values, says William Scott Goldman at Goldman Law Group.

  • Series

    Being A Luthier Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    When I’m not working as an appellate lawyer, I spend my spare time building guitars — a craft known as luthiery — which has helped to enhance the discipline, patience and resilience needed to write better briefs, says Rob Carty at Nichols Brar.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Uncertainty In Scope Of ITC Oversight

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    The U.S. International Trade Commission's long-standing jurisprudence on some of the most disputed and controversial issues is likely to be reshaped by the Federal Circuit, which is no longer bound by Chevron deference in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright decision, say Kecia Reynolds and Madeleine Moss at Paul Hastings.

  • Half-Truths Vs. Omissions: Slicing Justices' Macquarie Cake

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Macquarie v. Moab provides a road map for determining whether corporate reports that omit information should be considered misleading — and the court baked it into a dessert analogy that is key to understanding the guidelines, say Daniel Levy and Pavithra Kumar at Advanced Analytical Consulting Group.

  • Lead Like 'Ted Lasso' By Embracing Cognitive Diversity

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    The Apple TV+ series “Ted Lasso” aptly illustrates how embracing cognitive diversity can be a winning strategy for teams, providing a useful lesson for law firms, which can benefit significantly from fresh, diverse perspectives and collaborative problem-solving, says Paul Manuele at PR Manuele Consulting.

  • Chevron's End Puts Target On CFPB's Aggressive BNPL Rule

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    A recent interpretative rule by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, subjecting buy-now, pay-later loans to the same regulations as credit cards, is unlikely to survive post-Chevron challenges of the rule's partisan and shaky logic, say Scott Pearson and Bryan Schneider at Manatt.

  • Justices' Ch. 11 Ruling Is A Big Moment For Debtors' Insurers

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Truck Insurance v. Kaiser Gypsum ruling upends decades of Chapter 11 bankruptcy jurisprudence that relegated a debtor’s insurer to the sidelines, giving insurers a new footing to try and avoid significant liability, say Stuart Gordon and Benjamin Wisher at Rivkin Radler.

  • Justices' Starbucks Ruling May Limit NLRB Injunction Wins

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Starbucks v. McKinney, adopting a more stringent test for National Labor Relations Board Section 10(j) injunctions, may lessen the frequency with which employers must defend against injunctions alongside parallel unfair labor practice charges, say David Pryzbylski and Colleen Schade at Barnes & Thornburg.

  • Justices' Criminal Law Decisions: The Term In Review

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    Each of the 11 criminal decisions issued in the U.S. Supreme Court’s recently concluded term is independently important, but taken together, they reveal trends in the court’s broader approach to criminal law, presenting both pitfalls and opportunities for defendants and their counsel, says Kenneth Notter at MoloLamken.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: July Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy considers cases touching on pre- and post-conviction detainment conditions, communications with class representatives, when the American Pipe tolling doctrine stops applying to modified classes, and more.

  • 7th Circ. Motorola Ruling Raises Stakes Of DTSA Litigation

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    The Seventh Circuit’s recent ruling in Motorola v. Hytera gives plaintiffs a powerful tool to recover damages, greatly increasing the incentive to bring Defend Trade Secrets Act claims against defendants with large global sales because those sales could generate large settlements, say attorneys at MoFo.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Bid Protest Litigation Will Hold Steady For Now

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    Though the substantive holding of Loper Bright is unlikely to affect bid protests because questions of statutory interpretation are rare, the spirit of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision may signal a general trend away from agency deference even on the complex technical issues that often arise, say Kayleigh Scalzo and Andrew Guy at Covington.

  • Challenging Prosecutors' Use Of Defendants' Jail Phone Calls

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    Although it’s an uphill battle under current case law, counsel for pretrial detainees may be able to challenge prosecutors’ use of jail-recorded phone calls between the defendant and their attorney by taking certain advance measures, say Jim McLoughlin and Fielding Huseth at Moore & Van Allen.

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