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Appellate
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June 20, 2024
2nd Circ. Affirms AIG's Win In Ex-Atty's Retaliation Suit
A former legal executive's retaliation lawsuit against American International Group Inc. has fizzled out as the Second Circuit on Thursday upheld an earlier ruling that found he was not fired for blowing the whistle on alleged fraud.
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June 20, 2024
Trump Says Willis Can't Erase DQ Appeal In Election Case
Former president Donald Trump urged the Georgia Court of Appeals on Thursday to keep alive his appeal of a trial court's decision that blocked Trump's bid to have Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis disqualified from the election interference case against him and co-defendants, arguing that his appeal involves issues of law.
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June 20, 2024
Fla. Calls Abortion Drug Case Irrelevant To Migrant Parole Suit
Florida has rebuffed the Biden administration's efforts to use a high court ruling maintaining access to the abortion drug mifepristone to nix challenges to its migrant parole policies, telling the Eleventh Circuit that the healthcare case is unrelated to the immigration one.
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June 20, 2024
House Dems Ask Chief Justice To Say How He'll Review Ethics
Two top Democrats on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee asked Chief Justice John Roberts on Thursday how he's working to address the "glaring episodes" of ethical improprieties on the U.S. Supreme Court.
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June 20, 2024
NC Law Firm Fights Ex-Client's Bid To Ditch Malpractice Deal
A personal injury law firm and one of its former attorneys urged a North Carolina state appeals court to enforce their settlement with a prior client in a legal malpractice suit, as the client asserts that he was sick during mediation and didn't know what he was doing when he signed the agreement.
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June 20, 2024
Casinos Must Fight Hotel Tax In State Court, 5th Circ. Says
Owners of two Louisiana casinos with attached hotels must challenge Baton Rouge in state court, rather than federal court, over taxes the city says they owe on free hotel stays they gave patrons, the Fifth Circuit ruled, saying the state is entitled to deference.
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June 20, 2024
Fla. Judge's 'Conservative' Label No Cause For Reprimand
The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday declined to sanction a judge for calling herself a "conservative" during her first campaign for office last year, but the state justices did issue a public reprimand over the jurist's approval of a social media post that misled voters about her fundraising ahead of the election.
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June 20, 2024
Ill. Panel Says Insurer Off Hook For 23 Carbon Monoxide Suits
An insurer doesn't need to defend a design firm against 23 allegations that its negligent work led numerous children and others to suffer injuries from carbon monoxide exposure, an Illinois appeals court panel found, affirming a lower court's ruling.
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June 20, 2024
GOP Sens. Get Tough On 6th Circ. Nominee's History
Republican senators hammered Sixth Circuit nominee Karla M. Campbell, of counsel at Stranch Jennings & Garvey PLLC, during a hearing on Thursday about her political donations, past advisory roles and the process by which she was nominated.
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June 20, 2024
Ga. Panel Says $3M Damages Should Be Cut In Crash Case
The Georgia Court of Appeals reversed and vacated a trial court's $3 million compensatory damages award in a case in which a Southern Oil Refinery LLC truck driver rear-ended another vehicle, killing three people.
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June 20, 2024
ACLU Urges 9th Circ. To Reject Insurer's Trans Health Appeal
The American Civil Liberties Union urged the Ninth Circuit to reject Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois' appeal seeking to overturn a lower court ruling that found denying transgender health plan participants gender-affirming care violated the Affordable Care Act, arguing federal healthcare nondiscrimination laws clearly protected against gender identity bias.
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June 20, 2024
Patent Office Elevates Acting Solicitor To Official Position
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday announced that its longtime litigator Farheena Y. Rasheed has been appointed solicitor and deputy general counsel for the agency.
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June 20, 2024
5th Circ. Misapplied Precedent In Arrest Case, Justices Say
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday scrapped a Fifth Circuit decision that a woman who claims she was jailed in retaliation for criticizing local government officials couldn't pursue her retaliatory arrest claim, reviving a five-year dispute between the woman and a Texas city.
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June 20, 2024
Justices Say Experts Can Testify Broadly On Criminal Intent
The U.S. Supreme Court found Thursday that a rule barring expert witnesses from testifying about a defendant's alleged criminal intent does not block testimony about the mental state of people in similar situations.
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June 20, 2024
Top Court Declines To Limit Malicious Prosecution Cases
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a charge made without probable cause can be grounds for a malicious prosecution civil suit even if another charge with valid probable cause accompanied it.
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June 20, 2024
Repatriation Tax Doesn't Violate Constitution, Justices Rule
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the 2017 federal tax overhaul's mandatory repatriation levy on Thursday, finding the measure applies to the earnings of foreign corporations with U.S. shareholders and therefore does not raise constitutional questions about taxing unrealized income.
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June 18, 2024
High Court Petition Asks Justices: What's A 'Willful' Kickback?
Does a "willful" act under federal anti-kickback law require a defendant to know that the conduct violates the law? That's the question a whistleblower is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to answer in order to resolve what the petition calls a circuit split on a key question of federal fraud prosecutions.
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June 18, 2024
No Reason To Move Net Neutrality Suits To DC Circ., ISPs Say
Nearly a dozen industry groups are calling on the Sixth Circuit to reject an effort by the Federal Communications Commission to move a raft of lawsuits over the FCC's net neutrality rules to the D.C. Circuit.
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June 18, 2024
'Reckless' Behavior Centered In Climate Coverage Suit Args
Attorneys for a Sunoco subsidiary and AIG offered sharply differing views to Hawaii's top court Tuesday in oral arguments over whether reckless behavior would trigger the oil company's liability coverage in a novel suit over coverage for underlying climate change claims.
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June 18, 2024
Fed. Circ. Won't Revive Philips Communication Patent Claims
The Federal Circuit on Tuesday sided with Patent Trial and Appeal Board judges who gutted claims in a Philips patent challenged by a Chinese chipmaker that is facing an infringement suit in Delaware.
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June 18, 2024
Fla. Immune To Contract Suit Over COVID Tests, 4th Circ. Says
The Fourth Circuit reversed on Tuesday a district court decision denying a motion to dismiss by a Florida state agency in a breach of contract case involving COVID-19 tests, finding the lower court erred in ruling that the state did not have sovereign immunity and remanding the case for further proceedings.
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June 18, 2024
11th Circ. Orders New Shrimp Secrets Trial Over Judge's Exit
The Eleventh Circuit ordered a new trial in a trade secrets dispute involving breeders of disease-resistant shrimp, saying Tuesday that a magistrate judge who oversaw the trial's conclusion so that a federal judge could catch a flight exceeded his authority by answering jury questions and rejecting a defense counsel's request for clarification on damages awarded.
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June 18, 2024
Nuke Regulator Asks High Court To Review Atomic Waste Rule
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a contentious Fifth Circuit decision that barred it from issuing a license to a temporary nuclear waste storage facility in Texas, saying that the circuit court widened circuit splits and upended decades of agency practice.
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June 18, 2024
6th Circ. Asks Who's A 'Consumer' In Meta Data Sharing Case
Sixth Circuit judges questioned how a decades-old federal privacy law aimed at protecting people's video rental history applies to website users, as one customer argued Tuesday that the court should revive claims that Paramount unlawfully shared his data with Meta, Facebook's parent company.
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June 18, 2024
Colo. Justices Iffy On Cake's Message In Baker's Speech Suit
The Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday pressed a Christian cake baker on whether requiring him to make a pink cake with blue frosting to celebrate a customer's gender transition counts as "compelled speech" under a recent high court ruling, with some justices skeptical that such a cake has inherent meaning.
Expert Analysis
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What To Watch As Justices Consider Appeal Deadline Case
Next week, in Harrow v. U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Supreme Court will consider for the first time whether a statutory deadline for appealing from a federal agency to an Article III court is jurisdictional, setting the stage for a decision that could dramatically reshape the landscape for challenging agency decisions, say attorneys at MoloLamken.
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Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: March Lessons
In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses four notable circuit court decisions on topics from consumer fraud to employment — and provides key takeaways for counsel on issues including coercive communications with putative class members and Article III standing at the class certification stage.
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Opinion
Justices' Trump Ballot Ruling May Spark Constitutional Crisis
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling that former President Donald Trump must be reinstated to Colorado’s primary ballot endorses an unnecessarily broad legal theory of disqualification from federal office, raising constitutional questions that will only become more urgent as the next presidential election nears, says Devon Ombres at the Center for American Progress.
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Rebuttal
High Court Should Maintain Insurer Neutrality In Bankruptcy
While a recent Law360 guest article argues that the U.S. Supreme Court should endorse insurer standing in Truck Insurance Exchange v. Kaiser Gypsum, doing so would create a playground for mischief and delay, and the high court should instead uphold insurance neutrality, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.
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Spartan Arbitration Tactics Against Well-Funded Opponents
Like the ancient Spartans who held off a numerically superior Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae, trial attorneys and clients faced with arbitration against an opponent with a bigger war chest can take a strategic approach to create a pass to victory, say Kostas Katsiris and Benjamin Argyle at Venable.
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The Future Of ERISA If High Court Ends Chevron Deference
The U.S. Supreme Court's upcoming decisions in two cases involving fishing company challenges to regulatory requirements could weaken or repeal Chevron deference, meaning U.S. Department of Labor regulations adopted under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act may be heavily scrutinized, modified or vacated by federal courts, say Naina Kamath and Julie Stapel at Morgan Lewis.
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Assessing 2 Years Of High Court's Arbitration Waiver Ruling
In the two years since the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Morgan v. Sundance, clarifying that no special rules apply to waiver of arbitration provisions, the ruling has had immediate ramifications in federal courts, but it may take some time for the effects to be felt on other federal issues and in state courts, say attorneys at Norton Rose.
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Risks Of Nonmutual Offensive Collateral Estoppel In MDLs
After the Supreme Court declined to review the Sixth Circuit's ruling in the E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. personal injury litigation, nonmutual offensive collateral estoppel could show up in more MDLs, and transform the loss of a single MDL bellwether trial into a de facto classwide decision that binds thousands of other MDL cases, say Chantale Fiebig and Luke Sullivan at Weil Gotshal.
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Infringement Policy Lessons From 4th Circ. Sony Music Ruling
The Fourth Circuit's recent decision in Sony Music v. Cox Communications, which in part held that the internet service provider was liable for contributing to music copyright infringement, highlights the importance of reasonable policies to terminate repeat infringers, and provides guidance for litigating claims of secondary liability, say Benjamin Marks and Alexandra Blankman at Weil.
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What Recent Study Shows About AI's Promise For Legal Tasks
Amid both skepticism and excitement about the promise of generative artificial intelligence in legal contexts, the first randomized controlled trial studying its impact on basic lawyering tasks shows mixed but promising results, and underscores the need for attorneys to proactively engage with AI, says Daniel Schwarcz at University of Minnesota Law School.
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When Your Client Insists On Testifying In A Criminal Case
Speculation that former President Donald Trump could take the stand in any of the four criminal cases he faces serves as a reminder for counsel to consider their ethical obligations when a client insists on testifying, including the attorney’s duty of candor to the court and the depth of their discussions with clients, says Marissa Kingman at Fox Rothschild.
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Tips On Numerical Range From Fed. Circ. Philip Morris Ruling
The Federal Circuit's recent RAI v. Philip Morris decision that a patent provided sufficient written description to support a claimed numerical range offers several takeaways for practitioners, including the need for a cautious approach to criticism of ranges, say attorneys at BCLP.
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How Calif. Video Recording Ruling May Affect Insured Exams
A recent California appellate decision, Myasnyankin v. Nationwide, allowing policyholders to video record all parties to an insurance examination under oath, has changed the rules of the road for EUOs and potentially opened Pandora's box for future disputes, say John Edson and Preston Bennett at Sheppard Mullin.
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Fed. Circ. Patent Lesson: No Contradiction, No Indefiniteness
The Federal Circuit’s recent ruling in Maxwell v. Amperex Technology highlights the complexities of construing patent claims when seemingly contradictory limitations are present, and that when a narrowing limitation overrides a broader one, they do not necessarily contradict each other, says Roy Wepner at Kaplan Breyer.
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11th Circ. FMLA Ruling Deepens Divide Over Causation
The Eleventh Circuit's recent ruling in Lapham v. Walgreen distinguishes the circuit as the loudest advocate for the but-for causation standard for assessing Family and Medical Leave Act retaliation claims, though employers in other jurisdictions may encounter less favorable standards and the U.S. Supreme Court will likely have to address the circuit split eventually, say attorneys at Benesch.