Appellate

  • October 01, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Won't Rethink Vacating Contractor's $12.7M Award

    The Federal Circuit said Thursday it won't disturb a unanimous three-judge panel's decision vacating a roughly $12.7 million award a software developer won against the federal government over unauthorized software copies, denying a panel rehearing and rehearing en banc.

  • October 01, 2026

    7th Circ. Asks When Int'l Arbitration Pacts Are 'Null And Void'

    The Seventh Circuit for the first time is grappling with the grounds under which courts may determine if an international arbitration clause is null and void, with one judge questioning Thursday whether consumers should be forced to arbitrate their claims against online casino operators in Canada if Ontario law could ultimately invalidate any resulting award.

  • October 01, 2026

    $16B Ruling Faces High Court Sovereign Immunity Challenge

    The U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to review an "egregiously wrong" Second Circuit decision that overturned a New York judge's $16 billion judgment against Argentina that arose from its nationalization of YPF SA, the country's largest oil and gas exploration company.

  • October 01, 2026

    Water Utilities Say EPA Rule Defines Them Too Broadly

    The fate of a federal plan to eliminate the nation's lead drinking-water pipes may come down to a debate over the definition of a public water system.

  • October 01, 2026

    Hospital Can't Privately Contact Ex-Docs, Wash. Justices Rule

    Washington's Supreme Court split 6-3 Thursday in ruling that Virginia Mason Medical Center improperly engaged in private communications with a malpractice plaintiff's treating doctors by failing to go through formal discovery or establish the patient's knowledge or consent.

  • October 01, 2026

    NFL Concussion Claims Constitute Separate Occurrences

    A New York appeals court held Thursday that concussion-related injury claims brought by former professional football players should be treated as separate occurrences under the NFL's insurance policies, thus implicating coverage under a primary policy but not a fifth-layer excess policy.

  • October 01, 2026

    Trump Says Copyright Chief Can't Stay In Office Amid Appeal

    The Trump administration is urging the D.C. Circuit to let it remove U.S. Copyright Office leader Shira Perlmutter, arguing that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision protecting Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook for now does not entitle Perlmutter to remain in office while her firing challenge proceeds.

  • October 01, 2026

    Pa. Justices Keep But Decry $250K Damages Cap In $7M Case

    The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has opted to preserve the $250,000 limit on damages claims against state agencies, with the majority of justices rejecting a constitutional challenge to the cap because it doesn't impede a plaintiff's right to a jury trial, only the amount of recovery.

  • October 01, 2026

    Aya Health Tells 9th Circ. It Needn't Seek Suits Against Itself

    Aya Healthcare urged the Ninth Circuit on Thursday to undo an order pausing its wage-and-hour arbitration bid, arguing that requiring the travel nursing agency to first notify 400,000 workers of the collective action before deciding whether arbitration is appropriate violates the Federal Arbitration Act and essentially forces Aya to solicit lawsuits against itself.

  • October 01, 2026

    Blue States Fight EPA Rollback Of Power Plant Climate Rules

    A New York-led coalition of mostly Democratic states and municipalities lodged a petition on Thursday before the D.C. Circuit challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recent repeal of Biden-era limits on greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants.

  • October 01, 2026

    Colo. Judicial Branch Announces Death Of Former Justice

    The Colorado Judicial Branch late Thursday afternoon announced the death of former Justice Melissa Hart, who retired from the Colorado Supreme Court in December. 

  • October 01, 2026

    11th Circ. Told Maduro Owes $217M, Not Venezuelan Oil Co.

    Venezuela's state oil company told the Eleventh Circuit that it shouldn't be forced to pay a $217 million judgment owed to the family of a political opposition leader who was tortured and killed by his government, arguing Thursday that it was never an agent of former dictator Nicolás Maduro. 

  • October 01, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Backs Galderma In Injection Training IP Case

    The Federal Circuit on Thursday affirmed an order clearing Galderma SA of a medical training startup's accusations that it misappropriated trade secrets related to an injection training system and derailed what could have been a lucrative deal with Allergan PLC.

  • October 01, 2026

    7th Circ. Won't Rehear Enbridge's Wis. Tribal Trespass Fight

    The Seventh Circuit has refused to rehear Enbridge Energy's petition seeking to overturn a decision that its Line 5 pipeline is trespassing on Wisconsin tribal lands, but also sent back to a lower court a $5.2 million restitution order for a portion of the pipeline's removal.

  • October 01, 2026

    Kalshi Looks To Shield Sports Offerings At 2nd Circ.

    Prediction market giant Kalshi has asked the Second Circuit to shield its sports offerings from Connecticut gaming enforcers, drilling down on its position that those offerings ought to be immune from state scrutiny.

  • October 01, 2026

    High Court Will Hear Kentucky Religious Land Use Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court has partially granted a review petition filed by a Roman Catholic nonprofit that's embroiled in a legal dispute with two Kentucky neighbors who don't want the nonprofit to build a Virgin Mary shrine on land that's next to the organization's church.

  • October 01, 2026

    Samsung Win Affirmed Over 'Scientifically Impossible' Patent

    The Federal Circuit on Thursday found that wireless communications patent claims asserted against Samsung were invalid because they did not enable a skilled person to make and use the invention, ruling that "the claims explicitly cover a scientific impossibility that cannot be made or used by a skilled artisan."

  • October 01, 2026

    Developer Bound By Emailed Settlement Offer, Court Says

    A three-sentence email with the subject line "settlement communication," which proposed a meeting followed by dismissal of a lawsuit over a real estate development, was a binding agreement to end the case, Massachusetts' intermediate-level appellate court said Thursday.

  • October 01, 2026

    Pa. Justices Back Transit Prosecutor Law Challenged By DA

    The Pennsylvania Legislature's creation of a "special prosecutor" to address Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner's allegedly unsatisfactory handling of crime in the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority does not run afoul of the state constitution because of the city's special status, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

  • October 01, 2026

    Justices To Review Ex-Spouse Military Pay Suit

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to review a woman's attempt to enforce a divorce settlement under which she said she was entitled to a share of her ex-husband's military retirement pay, even if he waived it to receive disability benefits.

  • October 01, 2026

    Trump Announces Judicial Noms For 5th Circ., NC

    President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he's nominating Todd Butler, a managing partner at Phelps Dunbar LLP, to serve as a judge on the Fifth Circuit. 

  • October 01, 2026

    Justices To Review Trump's No-Bond Migrant Detention Policy

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to review whether the Trump administration can detain unauthorized immigrants without bond until their immigration cases conclude, regardless of whether they had already been living in the country.

  • September 30, 2026

    9th Circ. Judges Doubt X's Claims Against Anti-Hate Group

    Ninth Circuit judges appeared skeptical Wednesday of X Corp.'s bid to revive claims against two nonprofits for scraping tweets to study online hate speech, with one judge questioning X's contract damages claim and another doubting that the nonprofits could be held liable for publishing true information.

  • September 30, 2026

    Eli Lilly Loses Full Fed. Circ. Bid To Nix Teva's $177M IP Win

    Federal Circuit judges Wednesday denied Eli Lilly & Co.'s bid for a full court review of a panel decision that reinstated a $177 million jury verdict against it for infringing Teva headache drug patents, while one dissenting judge said the panel's holding "creates confusion" over enablement standards for patent method claims.

  • September 30, 2026

    7th Circ. Backs Truckers In Union Pacific BIPA Suit

    A Seventh Circuit panel on Wednesday affirmed that fingerprint scans at Union Pacific's Illinois facilities violated a state privacy law, rejecting the company's stance that a government contractor exception applies anytime the contract is active.

Expert Analysis

  • How 2nd Circ. Raised The Bar For Pleading Securities Fraud

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    In Huey v. Anavex, the Second Circuit recently appeared to increase the burden on securities fraud plaintiffs in pleading loss causation where no immediate share price decline follows the corrective disclosure, generating new questions that district courts must grapple with, say attorneys at Skadden.

  • Trade Secret Practice Tips From The 1st Half Of 2026

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    Intellectual property attorneys should consider what several significant developments in 2026 thus far mean for how they protect, litigate and value trade secrets, focusing on new state noncompete bans, cases scrutinizing how plaintiffs identify trade secrets and federal rulings on damages doctrines, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

  • Yellow Corp. WARN Act Appeal Refines Layoff Guidance

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    A Delaware federal court's recent upholding of a bankruptcy court's disallowance of unions' federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act claims against Yellow underscores that fact-specific notices and thoughtful timing are essential for distressed companies implementing layoffs, say attorneys at King & Spalding.

  • High Court Rulings Could Alter Agency Strategy For Cos.

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decisions in Trump v. Slaughter and Trump v. Cook mark major turning points in the law of independent agencies and in how regulated companies should think about federal enforcement, rulemaking and agency-facing strategy, say attorneys at Holtzman Vogel.

  • Opinion

    Justices' Parole Ruling Degrades Green Card Holders' Rights

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Blanche v. Lau, holding that U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers can parole a returning lawful permanent resident without clear and convincing evidence of a crime, weakens the statutory and practical protections Congress intended, say attorneys at Cyrus D. Mehta & Partners.

  • 3rd Circ. ERISA Ruling Stresses Process Over Perfect Returns

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    The Third Circuit's recent decision in Quest Diagnostics affirms that a sound fiduciary process — not perfect investment returns — defeats Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims, signaling that courts will keep scrutinizing how fiduciaries decide, and sponsors who can show their work should remain protected, say attorneys at Nixon Peabody.

  • Fed. Circ. Licensing Rulings Shed Light On Patentee Standing

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    Two recent decisions from the Federal Circuit provide a useful framework for evaluating whether a patent license agreement preserves a sufficient exclusionary interest to support future patent infringement claims, say attorneys at Venable.

  • Asylum Ruling Signals Larger Separation Of Powers Battle

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Mullin v. Al Otro Lado that border officials may turn away asylum-seekers without inspection is part of a broader conversation about the reach of institutional safeguards that subject governmental authority to legal constraint, says Dree Collopy at American University's Washington College of Law.

  • Solar's Momentum At Mid-2026 Will Help It Overcome Snags

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    The rapid expansion of U.S. solar development in the first half of 2026 is likely to continue its pace, even amid ongoing shifts in federal trade policy and supply chain regulations, obstacles to permitting reform, and an increasing divide between states enacting policies to encourage or stymie project development, say attorneys at Beveridge & Diamond.

  • How Justices Stayed Off The Geofence In Location Data Case

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent Chatrie v. United States decision reaffirms Fourth Amendment protections for location data but avoids more complicated questions about geofence warrants, say attorneys at Adams Duerk.

  • Remote Work Rulings Show ADA Fights Hinge On Process

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    Two opposite outcomes in recent Fifth Circuit and D.C. federal court cases underscore that the legality of denying employees' disability accommodation requests for remote work depends less on broad policy and more on how it's applied, says Paul Sweeney at Ice Miller.

  • Fed Autonomy Rests On Narrow Exception After Justices Rule

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decisions in Trump v. Cook and Trump v. Slaughter expand presidential removal power while temporarily preserving the Federal Reserve’s independence, but there is uncertainty about which of the Fed’s authorities fall within the court’s narrow monetary-policy exception, says Keith Bradley at Squire Patton.

  • Series

    Being A Magician Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The skills I've developed as a lifelong magician have translated directly into tangible benefits in the courtroom because performing magic and trying cases both live at the intersection of psychology, storytelling, timing and disciplined rehearsal, says Mark Dombroff at Fox Rothschild.

  • How Litigants Are Testing Conversion Therapy Ruling's Scope

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    Litigants are already using the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Chiles v. Salazar ruling, which applied strict scrutiny to Colorado’s conversion therapy ban, to challenge laws limiting algorithmic rental pricing, artificial intelligence-based discrimination and anti-union employer speech, and courts must soon decide Chiles’ First Amendment limits, say attorneys at O'Melveny.

  • How Justices' TPS Ruling Affects Workforce Planning

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent holding in Mullin v. Doe that courts lack jurisdiction to review temporary protected status determinations greenlights the end of TPS for thousands of Syrian and Haitian nationals, and means employers must reevaluate TPS-designees' employability while avoiding discriminatory document practices, says attorney Richard Herman.

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