Appellate

  • July 26, 2024

    Copyright Cases To Watch In The Second Half Of 2024

    The first copyright trial arising from an artificial intelligence platform could provide intellectual property attorneys with insight into dozens of pending suits against AI companies, while the Tenth Circuit is reconsidering whether Netflix made fair use of a funeral clip in its "Tiger King" docuseries.

  • July 26, 2024

    DC Circ. Axes Agriculture Department's $1M Fine On Amazon

    E-commerce giant Amazon doesn't owe $1 million to the U.S. Department of Agriculture after the D.C. Circuit on Friday undid an order concluding Amazon facilitated unlawful plant and animal product importation, finding that the online retailer didn't knowingly assist the purported infractions.

  • July 26, 2024

    Live Nation Tells 9th Circ. Arbitration Supported By Calif. Ruling

    Live Nation told the Ninth Circuit that recent precedent from California's top court backs its argument that consumer litigation over allegedly exorbitant ticket prices should go to arbitration, despite arbitral rules criticized by the panel as "cockamamie" during oral arguments last month.

  • July 26, 2024

    Ohio Jury Must Consider Brain Injury Patient's Mental State

    An Ohio appeals court has reinstated a suit accusing doctors of causing a man's catastrophic brain injury due to medical negligence, saying it should be up to a jury to decide whether the applicable filing deadlines can be tolled due to the man's purported mental incompetence.

  • July 26, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Upholds PTAB Estoppel Rule, But Limits Its Reach

    The Federal Circuit on Friday upheld a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rule that can lead to Patent Trial and Appeal Board decisions rendering patent claims invalid in later office proceedings, but found in a case involving Apple and Motorola that the rule doesn't apply to issued claims.

  • July 26, 2024

    DC Circ. Vacates FERC Oil Pipeline Index Revision

    The D.C. Circuit on Friday vacated a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission order that lowered the five-year index level governing oil pipeline transportation rates, ruling that the agency ran afoul of federal law when it failed to gather public input on the revision.

  • July 26, 2024

    DC Circ. Denies Entergy Challenge To MISO Changes

    The D.C. Circuit on Friday affirmed Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approvals for various capacity market changes proposed by MISO, the central U.S. grid operator for 15 states, rejecting challenges raised by several Entergy Corp. units.

  • July 26, 2024

    DC Circ. Vacates EPA's Biofuel Exemptions Denial

    The D.C. Circuit on Friday largely sided with dozens of small petroleum refiners challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's denial of their exemptions to federal renewable fuel blending requirements while keeping its reasoning for doing so under seal.

  • July 26, 2024

    Feds Tell 9th Circ. Wash. ICE Inspection Law Rightly Blocked

    The federal government has inserted itself into the battle over a Washington state law allowing surprise inspections of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement immigration detention center, telling the Ninth Circuit it was rightly blocked under the intergovernmental immunity doctrine.

  • July 26, 2024

    Hemp Exporter's Lost-Product Claims Fail At 4th Circ.

    A hemp exporter lost a bid for payment for lost products at the Fourth Circuit on Friday when the court ruled that the Montreal Convention precludes claims that a transportation company was liable for the destruction of more than a ton of product by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

  • July 26, 2024

    Shareholder Litigation To Watch: A Midyear Report

    A pair of anticipated U.S. Supreme Court arguments, the fate of a new wave of lawsuits against special purpose acquisition companies and the future of shareholder claims of artificial intelligence malfeasance are among the issues that securities practitioners are following as the second half of 2024 unfolds in the courts.

  • July 26, 2024

    Fired Doc Can Pursue Claims Against Atty Over Award Error

    A Michigan state appeals court has ruled a doctor may pursue malpractice claims against the attorney who represented him during arbitration proceedings in an underlying wrongful termination suit after she allegedly failed to catch the arbitrator's miscalculation of the award, reportedly resulting in a $2.5 million loss.

  • July 26, 2024

    1st Circ. Says Juror's FB Likes Can't Nix Equal Pay Verdict

    A female sales representative for a beer and wine distributor can't get a new trial in her equal pay and discrimination suit because a Maine federal court correctly turned down her arguments that a juror was biased, the First Circuit ruled.

  • July 26, 2024

    DC Circ. Won't Stave Off Amtrak's Union Station Takeover

    The D.C. Circuit on Friday rejected an emergency bid to stop Amtrak from taking control of Washington, D.C.'s Union Station, but did not dismiss the case outright, ruling that efforts to stop the eminent domain takeover appeared unlikely to succeed on appeal.

  • July 26, 2024

    EV Group Seeks To Defend Fuel Economy Rule In 6th Circ.

    A coalition of electric vehicle manufacturers and suppliers want in on a consolidated challenge in the Sixth Circuit to the U.S. Department of Transportation's new fuel economy standards for passenger cars and light trucks, saying the EV industry's future viability banks on the stringent new standards.

  • July 26, 2024

    Chubb Unit Asks 11th Circ. To Undo $13.8M Appraisal Award

    A Chubb unit asked the Eleventh Circuit on Friday to reverse the approval of a Florida condominium association's $13.8 million appraisal award for hurricane damage sustained in 2017, arguing that a lower court erred in finding that one of the appraisers was partial to the association.

  • July 26, 2024

    Power Groups Join Bid To Stay EPA Plant Rule At High Court

    Utility and coal industry groups have joined dozens of red states in urging the U.S. Supreme Court to block implementation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's rule curbing greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.

  • July 26, 2024

    Cuomo Harassment Document Fight Heads To NY Appeals Court

    A Manhattan judge on Friday allowed both the New York attorney general and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo to appeal parts of a decision requiring the state to produce unredacted transcripts of some witness interviews in the sexual harassment investigation that led to Cuomo's resignation.

  • July 26, 2024

    7th Circ. Nixes Ex-Immigration Attorney's Appeal

    The Seventh Circuit nixed an appeal from a former immigration attorney found guilty of conspiring with clients, interpreters and employees to submit fabricated asylum applications, saying the lower court didn't err in its rulings about benefits the government provided to some witnesses.

  • July 26, 2024

    5th Circ. Can't Shake Remand Order In Firm Poaching Dispute

    The Fifth Circuit is powerless to review a remand order issued by a Texas district court in a Houston law firm's poaching suit against a former associate, with a panel finding that, although "intuition and basic legal principles" suggest the circuit court holds appellate jurisdiction to weigh in, precedent forbids it.

  • July 26, 2024

    Hospital Can't Shift Shooting Liability To ER Group

    A Michigan appellate panel has affirmed that Trinity Health Corp. can't make an emergency-room physicians practice defend it against lawsuits stemming from a shooting outside a Chicago hospital that killed one of the practice's ER doctors.

  • July 26, 2024

    NFL Leads Sports & Betting Cases To Watch For Rest Of 2024

    Significant cases involving major American pro sports organizations have earned extra attention as the second half of 2024 begins, as have cases involving young professional athletes, college recruits and youth sports participants. Still, the NFL remains king with its footprint all over the list of must-follow cases for the rest of the year.

  • July 26, 2024

    NJ Justices Won't Discipline Ex-Judge Twice For Estate Work

    The New Jersey Supreme Court has thrown out an ethics complaint against a retired state judge for continuing to administer a deceased client's estate for 13 years after being appointed to the bench.

  • July 26, 2024

    Ohio Justice Blasts Jury-Less Result In Wing Injury Case

    An Ohio Supreme Court justice accused his colleagues of "a serious, perhaps disingenuous, lack of perspective" for their position that a man who injured himself swallowing a bone inside a chicken wing marketed as boneless should have suspected the offending object might intrude upon his meal.

  • July 26, 2024

    9th Circ. Says Online Posts Can Count As Work Harassment

    The Ninth Circuit breathed new life into a psychologist's suit alleging the Federal Bureau of Prisons failed to stop a correctional officer from creating sexist and threatening social media posts about her, ruling a lower court erroneously determined the online content didn't amount to workplace harassment.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Solving Puzzles Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Tackling daily puzzles — like Wordle, KenKen and Connections — has bolstered my intellectual property litigation practice by helping me to exercise different mental skills, acknowledge minor but important details, and build and reinforce good habits, says Roy Wepner at Kaplan Breyer.

  • 1st Gender Care Ban Provides Context For High Court Case

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    The history of Arkansas' ban on gender-affirming medical care — the first such legislation in the U.S. — provides important insight into the far-reaching ramifications that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in U.S. v. Skrmetti next term will have on transgender healthcare, says Tyler Saenz at Baker Donelson.

  • Series

    After Chevron: FCC And Industry Must Prepare For Change

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    The Chevron doctrine was especially significant in the communications sector because of the indeterminacy of federal communications statutes, so the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of the doctrine could have big implications for those regulated by the Federal Communications Commission, bringing both opportunities and risks for companies, say Thomas Johnson and Michael Showalter at Wiley.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Uniform Tax Law Interpretation Not Guaranteed

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    The loss of Chevron deference will significantly alter the relationship between the IRS, courts and Congress when it comes to tax law, potentially precipitating more transparent rulemaking, but also provoking greater uncertainty due to variability in judicial interpretation, say Michelle Levin and Carneil Wilson at Dentons.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Environmental Law May Face Hurdles

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling overturning Chevron deference could prove to be as influential as the original 1984 decision, with far-reaching implications for U.S. environmental laws, including rendering recently promulgated regulations more vulnerable to challenges, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Opinion

    'Trump Too Small' Ruling Overlooks TM Registration Issues

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's decision last month in Vidal v. Elster, which concluded that “Trump Too Small” cannot be a registered trademark as it violates a federal prohibition, fails to consider modern-day, real-world implications for trademark owners who are denied access to federal registration, say Tiffany Gehrke and Alexa Spitz at Marshall Gerstein.

  • Colo. Ruling Adopts 'Actual Discharge' Test For The First Time

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    After a Colorado court’s recent decision in Potts v. Gaia Children, adopting for the first time a test for evaluating an actual discharge claim, employers must diligently document the circumstances surrounding termination of employment, and exercise particular caution when texting employees, says Michael Laszlo at Clark Hill.

  • Texas Ethics Opinion Flags Hazards Of Unauthorized Practice

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    The Texas Professional Ethics Committee's recently issued proposed opinion finding that in-house counsel providing legal services to the company's clients constitutes the unauthorized practice of law is a valuable clarification given that a UPL violation — a misdemeanor in most states — carries high stakes, say Hilary Gerzhoy and Julienne Pasichow at HWG.

  • Why High Court Social Media Ruling Will Be Hotly Debated

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    In deciding the NetChoice cases that challenged Florida and Texas content moderation laws, what the U.S. Supreme Court justices said about social media platforms — and the First Amendment — will have implications and raise questions for nearly all online operators, say Jacob Canter and Joanna Rosen Forster at Crowell & Moring.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Good News For Gov't Contractors In Litigation

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    The net result of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision overturning Chevron deference is that individuals, contractors and companies bringing procurement-related cases against the government will have new pathways toward success, say Joseph Berger and Andrés Vera at Thompson Hine.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Scale Tips Favor Away From HHS Agencies

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    The loss of Chevron deference may indirectly aid parties in challenging the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' interpretations of regulations and could immediately influence several pending cases challenging HHS on technical questions and agency authority, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • Series

    After Chevron: FDA Regulations In The Crosshairs

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of the Chevron doctrine is likely to unleash an array of challenges against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, focusing on areas of potential overreach such as the FDA's authority under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • 2 Options For Sackler Family After High Court Purdue Ruling

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    After the U.S. Supreme Court recently blocked Purdue Pharma's plan to shield the family that owns the company from bankruptcy lawsuits, the Sacklers face the choice to either continue litigation, or return to the bargaining table for a settlement that doesn't eliminate creditor claims, says Gregory Germain at Syracuse University.

  • In Memoriam: The Modern Administrative State

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    On June 28, the modern administrative state, where courts deferred to agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes, died when the U.S. Supreme Court overruled its previous decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council — but it is survived by many cases decided under the Chevron framework, say Joseph Schaeffer and Jessica Deyoe at Babst Calland.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Expect Limited Changes In USPTO Rulemaking

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling overturning Chevron deference will have limited consequences for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office given the USPTO's unique statutory features, but it is still an important decision for matters of statutory interpretation, especially those involving provisions of the America Invents Act, say Andrei Iancu and Cooper Godfrey at Sullivan & Cromwell.

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