Appellate

  • June 25, 2024

    Pappas Restaurants 'Invented' Causes In Houston Airport Suit

    The city of Houston told a state appeals court Tuesday that it should be shielded from a suit filed by Pappas Restaurants that alleges its procurement process caused Pappas to unfairly lose a 2023 contract with the William P. Hobby Airport because the contract for airport concessions did not require the city to spend any money.

  • June 25, 2024

    Texas Appeals Court Reverses Dallas Transit Contractor's Win

    A Texas appeals court has revived a subcontractor's lawsuit against a company that oversees the Dallas Area Rapid Transit Authority's services for people with disabilities, saying this week the subcontractor's allegations were strong enough to withstand a motion to dismiss.

  • June 25, 2024

    Expired Diversity Visas Can't Be Processed, DC Circ. Says

    The D.C. Circuit on Tuesday reversed several lower court orders requiring the U.S. Department of State to process applications for diversity visas for fiscal years 2020 and 2021 after the deadline, finding the district court lacked the authority to order such relief.

  • June 25, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Restores Amarin's Skinny Label Suit Against Hikma

    The Federal Circuit revived litigation Tuesday accusing Hikma Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. of inducing physicians to infringe patents covering Amarin Pharma Inc.'s blockbuster cardiovascular drug Vascepa in a case over limited-use generics.

  • June 25, 2024

    GOP Lawmakers Urge 8th Circ. To Quash SEC's Climate Rule

    A group of 35 Republican lawmakers on Tuesday moved to weigh in on the consolidated challenge to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recently adopted climate disclosure rule, arguing that the Eighth Circuit should vacate the measure due to a lack of clear congressional authorization.

  • June 25, 2024

    Split DC Circ. Backs Bush-Era Mining Deregulation

    A divided D.C. Circuit panel on Tuesday upheld a Bush-era mining regulation that removed limits on how much land near a mining site can be used for secondary operations like waste disposal, ruling against environmental groups that accused regulators of illegally walking back a more restrictive interpretation of federal mining law.

  • June 25, 2024

    3rd Circ. Says Smith & Wesson Can't Sidestep NJ Subpoena

    The gunmaker Smith & Wesson must comply with a subpoena from New Jersey to produce advertising materials requested in a consumer fraud case brought by the state, a divided Third Circuit panel ruled Tuesday.

  • June 25, 2024

    After Rahimi Win, Feds Set Sights On Felon Gun Ban

    In a bid to capitalize on last week's U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding a federal law that prohibits domestic abusers from possessing firearms, the U.S. solicitor general has called on the justices to next tackle a slew of constitutional challenges to the separate, sweeping ban on people convicted of felonies owning guns.

  • June 25, 2024

    No Need To Ship Net Neutrality Appeals To DC, 6th Circ. Told

    The Sixth Circuit should stand up to the "concerted effort" to push administrative law matters out of other appellate courts and into the D.C. Circuit by refusing to transfer a bundled set of challenges to the FCC's new net neutrality rules, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has said.

  • June 25, 2024

    FCC Says Anti-Redlining Rule 'Dutifully' Carries Out Law

    The Federal Communications Commission has urged the Eighth Circuit to toss multiple industry challenges to its rules against discrimination in broadband deployment, saying its use of a wide-reaching standard for prohibited bias fits the law's requirements.

  • June 25, 2024

    Google Tells Fed. Circ. To Eye ITC's Powers If Chevron Ends

    As the U.S. Supreme Court considers abolishing or narrowing precedent requiring deference to the legal interpretations of government agencies, a key part of the U.S. International Trade Commission's patent authority should be reconsidered, Google has told the full Federal Circuit.

  • June 25, 2024

    Firm Fights NC High Court Review Of Fight With Fla. Clients

    Wilson Ratledge PLLC urged the North Carolina Supreme Court to reject a petition by two Florida-based companies to duck a breach of contract suit by the Raleigh-based law firm, arguing that the trial court correctly found there are enough significant contacts with the state to haul the two companies into North Carolina court.

  • June 25, 2024

    6th Circ. Revives Part Of Barge Worker's Lung Injury Suit

    The Sixth Circuit has revived a maintenance and cure claim brought by a former crew member on one of Marathon Petroleum Co. LP's barges, saying there's enough evidence to create a question of whether his lung deterioration manifested during his service on the vessel.

  • June 25, 2024

    Conn. Justices Limit Malpractice Claims In Criminal Cases

    Convicts who want to sue their attorneys for malpractice in their criminal cases must first have their convictions vacated on appeal or in habeas proceedings, with one exception, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in a case brought against a New Haven lawyer and his law firm.

  • June 25, 2024

    9th Circ. Won't Revive Ex-County Worker's Race Bias Suit

    The Ninth Circuit backed a Nevada county's defeat of a Black former juvenile probation officer's lawsuit claiming he was fired because he'd previously filed a discrimination suit against the county, saying Tuesday rumors and a supervisor's rude attitude weren't enough to sustain his bias allegations.

  • June 25, 2024

    9th Circ. Reopens Jehovah's Witness Preacher's Asylum Bid

    The Ninth Circuit on Tuesday reopened a Jehovah's Witness preacher's petition seeking asylum after he was attacked and threatened by Salvadoran gang members for regularly preaching on the streets, finding his religion would be a central reason for the attacks, even without the gang's motive for financial gain through extortion.

  • June 25, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Won't Ship Patent Suit Against Apple Back To Texas

    The Federal Circuit on Tuesday denied a bid from patent-owning technology company Haptic Inc. to send its infringement suit back to Texas after it was transferred to California earlier this year, saying it wasn't going to second-guess the lower court's decision.

  • June 25, 2024

    Drilling Permit Challenge Should Stay Dead, DOI Tells DC Circ.

    The U.S. Department of the Interior told the D.C. Circuit a federal judge correctly ruled environmental groups cannot challenge the federal approval of thousands of drilling permits in New Mexico and Wyoming because they failed to establish any particularized injury.

  • June 25, 2024

    7th Circ. Backs State Farm's Employment Suit Coverage Win

    State Farm is off the hook for a dispute between the former president of the College of DuPage and the board that fired and allegedly defamed him, the Seventh Circuit said, affirming a lower court's finding that another insurer should cover the litigation and $4 million settlement.

  • June 25, 2024

    Gov't Asks Ala. Fed. Court To Stay Gender Care Case

    The Biden administration has asked an Alabama federal court to stay a suit challenging a state law criminalizing gender-affirming care for transgender youth, which has drawn attention because of judge-shopping allegations leveled against plaintiff's counsel, as the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a separate but potentially precedential suit.

  • June 25, 2024

    2nd Circ. Affirms 5-Year Sentence For Impostor Immigration Atty

    A Connecticut woman sentenced to five years in federal prison for stealing money from vulnerable victims by pretending to be an immigration attorney can't undo her plea deal or lessen the roughly $368,000 she was ordered to pay in restitution, the Second Circuit has ruled.

  • June 25, 2024

    Snell & Wilmer Adds Kirkland IP Partner In DC

    A longtime Kirkland & Ellis LLP litigator has jumped to Snell & Wilmer LLP's intellectual property group in Washington, D.C., the firm announced Monday.

  • June 25, 2024

    Ga. Supreme Court Removes Arrested Judge From Bench

    The Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday removed Douglas County Probate Court Judge Christina Peterson from office for violations of the state's code of judicial conduct, including jailing a woman seeking to amend her marriage record, after Peterson was arrested outside an Atlanta nightclub last week on unrelated charges.

  • June 25, 2024

    Ga. Panel OKs COVID Aid To Atty Who Cared For 2 Young Kids

    A Georgia attorney who left his legal job to be the primary caregiver for his young children during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic should have qualified for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, a state appeals panel has ruled, overturning the state's decision to deny benefits.

  • June 25, 2024

    Justice Berger Asks Full NC High Court To Decide Recusal Bid

    North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Phil Berger Jr. asked the full court on Monday to decide whether he should recuse himself from two constitutional challenges concerning the governor's appointment powers given his father's role in the litigation as a state lawmaker.

Expert Analysis

  • What Have We Learned In The Year Since Warhol?

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    In the almost year since the U.S. Supreme Court decided Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith, which was widely seen as potentially chilling to creative endeavors, seven subsequent decisions — while illuminating to some extent — do not indicate any trend toward a radical departure from prior precedents in fair use cases, says ​​​​​​​Jose Sariego at Bilzin Sumberg.

  • The Practical Effects Of Justices' Arbitration Exemption Ruling

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Bissonnette v. LePage Bakeries, that a transportation worker need not work in the transportation industry to be exempt from the Federal Arbitration Act, may negatively affect employers' efforts to mitigate class action risk via arbitration agreement enforcement, say Charles Schoenwetter and Eric Olson at Bowman and Brooke.

  • Binance Ruling Spotlights Muddled Post-Morrison Landscape

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    The Second Circuit's recent decision in Williams v. Binance highlights the judiciary's struggle to apply the U.S. Supreme Court's Morrison v. National Australia Bank ruling to digital assets, and illustrates how Morrison's territorial limits on the federal securities laws have become convoluted, say Andrew Rhys Davies and Jessica Lewis at WilmerHale.

  • Practical Pointers After Fed. Circ. Double-Patenting Decision

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    With the Federal Circuit recently denying a full court review of In re: Cellect, a decision regarding obviousness-type double-patenting, affected patent family holders should evaluate their rights through both patent prosecution and future litigation lenses to minimize risks, say Austin Lorch and Jeff Wolfson at Haynes Boone.

  • Sorting Circuit Split On Foreign Arbitration Treaty's Authority

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    A circuit court split over whether the New York Convention supersedes state law barring arbitration in certain disputes — a frequent issue in insurance matters — has left lower courts to rely on conflicting decisions, but the doctrine of self-executing treaties makes it clear that the convention overrules state law, says Gary Shaw at Pillsbury.

  • Corp. Transparency Act Could Survive 11th Circ. Several Ways

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    If the Eleventh Circuit upholds an Alabama federal court’s injunction against the Corporate Transparency Act, the anti-money laundering law could persist as a narrower version that could moot some constitutional challenges, but these remedies would likely generate additional regulatory or statutory ambiguities that would result in further litigation, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.

  • Del. Match.com Ruling Maintains Precedent In Time Of Change

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    Despite speculation that the Delaware Supreme Court could drive away corporations if it lowered the bar for business judgment review in its Match.com stockholder ruling, the court broke its recent run of controversial precedent-busting decisions by upholding, and arguably strengthening, minority stockholder protections against controller coercion, say Renee Zaytsev and Marc Ayala at Boies Schiller.

  • The Future Of BIPA Insurance Litigation After Visual Pak

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    A recent Illinois appellate court decision, National Fire Insurance v. Visual Pak, may have altered the future of insurance litigation under the state's Biometric Information Privacy Act by diametrically opposing a prominent Seventh Circuit ruling that found insurance coverage for violations of the act, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.

  • Macquarie Ruling Raises The Bar For Securities Fraud Claims

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's decision last week in Macquarie Infrastructure v. Moab Partners — holding that a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rule does not forbid omissions in company disclosures unless they render other statements false — is a major setback for plaintiffs pursuing securities fraud claims against corporations, say attorneys at Skadden.

  • Patent Lessons From 8 Federal Circuit Reversals In March

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    A number of Federal Circuit patent decisions last month reversed or vacated underlying rulings, providing guidance regarding the definiteness of a claim that include multiple limitations of different scopes, the importance of adequate jury instruction, the proper scope of the precedent, and more, say Denise De Mory and Li Guo at Bunsow De Mory.

  • NC Rulings Show Bankruptcy Isn't Only For Insolvent Debtors

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    Two recent rulings from a North Carolina bankruptcy court show that lack of financial distress is not a requirement for bankruptcy protection, particularly in the Fourth Circuit, but these types of cases can still be dismissed for other reasons, say Stuart Gordon and Alexandria Vath at Rivkin Radler.

  • A Look At Ex Parte Seizures 8 Years Post-DTSA

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    In the eight years since the Defend Trade Secrets Act was enacted, not much has changed for jurisprudence on ex parte seizures, but a few seminal rulings show that there still isn’t a bright line on what qualifies as extraordinary circumstances warranting a seizure, say attorneys at Finnegan.

  • Series

    Whitewater Kayaking Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Whether it's seeing clients and their issues from a new perspective, or staying nimble in a moment of intense challenge, the lessons learned from whitewater kayaking transcend the rapids of a river and prepare attorneys for the courtroom and beyond, says Matthew Kent at Alston & Bird.

  • 10 Years After Alice, Predictability Debate Lingers

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    A decade after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Alice ruling, critics continue to argue that the subject matter eligibility framework it established yields inconsistent results, but that contention is disproved by affirmance data from the Federal Circuit, district courts and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, say Dennis Abdelnour and David Thomas at Honigman.

  • Cannabis Ruling Lights Path For Bankruptcy Protection

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    A recent Massachusetts bankruptcy appellate court ruling in Blumsack v. Harrington leaves the door open for those employed in the cannabis industry to seek bankruptcy relief where certain conditions are met, but rescheduling marijuana as a Schedule III drug may complicate matters, say Jane Haviland and Kathryn Droumbakis at Mintz.

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