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Circuit-By-Circuit Guide To 2024's Most Memorable Moments
One judge said a litigant's position would cause "an effing nightmare," and another decried the legal community's silence amid "illegitimate aspersions." Public officials literally trashed one court's opinion, and fateful rulings dealt with controversial politicians, social media and decades of environmental policy. Those were just a few appellate highlights in 2024, a year teeming with memorable moments both substantive and sensational.
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January 09, 2025
Trump's Attorney General Pick To Face Senators Next Week
President-elect Donald Trump's pick for attorney general, Pam Bondi, former attorney general of Florida, will sit for two days of confirmation hearings next week.
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January 09, 2025
IRS Gets First Dibs On $1M BP Oil Spill Payout, 11th Circ. Says
The IRS gets first priority to a $1 million settlement BP paid to a staffing company that racked up $23 million in federal tax debt and went bankrupt following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed, denying an insurer's claim to the money.
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January 09, 2025
Texas Appeals Court Frees Google Of Incognito Mode Suit
A Texas appeals court wiped Texas' deceptive trade practices suit alleging Google misleads consumers about the privacy available through its "Incognito" mode, finding in a Thursday opinion the lower court doesn't have jurisdiction to hear the case.
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January 09, 2025
Top Oversight Dem Seeks Report On Trump Classified Docs
The top Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Thursday asked the U.S. Department of Justice for a look at the special counsel report on former President Donald Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents, days after a federal court blocked its publication.
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January 09, 2025
Wind Power Substation Is Quiet Enough, Mass. Justices Say
Massachusetts' top court on Thursday gave the green light for an electric substation connected to an 800-megawatt wind turbine generation facility in federal waters south of Martha's Vineyard, rejecting a resident's argument that the new facility would be too noisy.
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January 09, 2025
DA Asks Supreme Court To Allow Trump's Sentencing
Prosecutors for the Manhattan district attorney's office on Thursday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow President-elect Donald Trump to be sentenced Friday as scheduled following his hush money conviction, after a top state judge declined to intervene.
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January 08, 2025
2nd Circ. Weighs FIFA Verdicts In Light Of High Court Rulings
Brooklyn federal prosecutors on Wednesday urged the Second Circuit to reverse a lower court's controversial decision to overturn the bribery convictions of a former 21st Century Fox television executive and an Argentine marketing company, disputing that the U.S. Supreme Court's recent corruption rulings impact the massive FIFA corruption ordeal.
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January 08, 2025
Wash. Official Presses Hospital On Filing Delay In Death Suit
A Washington state appellate official asked Wednesday why a hospital should be allowed to defend itself against a wrongful death suit even after it failed to respond to the complaint, noting there was nothing in the record explaining the internal snafu that caused the silence.
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January 08, 2025
Fed. Circ. Grills USAA On Bid To Revive Patent In $218M Case
The United Services Automobile Association faced a skeptical Federal Circuit panel Wednesday as it argued that an administrative board's invalidation of claims in its check deposit patent, which is part of a $218 million verdict against PNC Bank, conflicted with a prior decision upholding the patent.
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January 08, 2025
Michael Jordan 'Bought Into' System, NASCAR Tells NC Judge
NASCAR implored a North Carolina federal judge on Wednesday to throw out portions of an antitrust suit brought by Michael Jordan's team and award a $36 million bond, saying it was the teams themselves who demanded the contracts they now claim are monopolistic.
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January 08, 2025
Wash. Justices To Review Airline Worker's COVID Comp. Case
The Washington State Supreme Court has agreed to review whether an allegedly botched jury instruction dooms an Alaska Airlines flight attendant's COVID-19 workers' compensation win, after a split lower appeals court upended the jury's verdict.
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January 08, 2025
Mich. Utility Tells DC Circ. It Can Challenge FERC Decision
A Michigan transmission owner has told the D.C. Circuit that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's challenge of its ability to protest the agency's refusal to grant it sole ownership of grid updates needed to serve a Michigan solar farm is "meritless."
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January 08, 2025
Shareholder Atty Urges Del. Justices To Revive Skechers Suit
An attorney for a shareholder of footwear maker Skechers Inc. told Delaware's Supreme Court on Wednesday that the Court of Chancery had ample reason to keep alive his suit alleging failure to control insider use of corporate aircraft for personal travel that the court dismissed instead.
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January 08, 2025
Farm Owner Can't Claim $6.5M For Border Wall, 5th Circ. Told
The federal government argued Wednesday that a Texas woman isn't owed millions of dollars in compensation for a section of the state's border wall built on her land, telling the Fifth Circuit that a principle giving landowners rights to property improvements can't be equitably applied to the federal government.
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January 08, 2025
Epic Gets Backing For Google App Store Changes
Epic Games has received support from federal antitrust enforcers, Microsoft and others at the Ninth Circuit as the game developer fights Google's bid to appeal an order forcing the tech giant to loosen its policies surrounding the distribution of apps on Android devices.
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January 08, 2025
7th Circuit's Wood Gets Back To Hearing Cases At FedArb
Former Seventh Circuit Judge Diane Wood, who left the court last year, told Law360 Tuesday that joining the dispute resolution firm FedArb lets her get back to her passion for settling controversies without forcing her to give up her post-retirement academic commitments.
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January 08, 2025
Welch's Asks 3rd Circ. To Nix Alleged Harasser Rehire Order
Welch's is asking the Third Circuit to undo a September order from a Pennsylvania judge requiring it to rehire a worker fired for allegedly sexually harassing a co-worker, saying the labor arbitrator who issued the decision failed to make a clear finding of fact both initially and on remand.
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January 08, 2025
Feds Ask To Release Report On Trump's DC Case, But Not Fla.
Special counsel Jack Smith asked the Eleventh Circuit on Wednesday to deny Donald Trump's request to block the publication of a report on the now-abandoned federal election-meddling case against the president-elect in D.C. federal court, but said the Justice Department will hold off on releasing a report regarding the classified-documents case in Florida, where two co-defendants remain under indictment.
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January 08, 2025
Fed. Circ. Backs Microsoft's PTAB Wins In Software Fight
Microsoft has defeated an appeal from an inventor alleging its Azure cloud computing software infringed his patents, with Federal Circuit judges deciding to side with the tech giant's wins at the patent board.
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January 08, 2025
Trump Electors May Have To Face Civil Suit, Mich. Panel Hints
A Michigan state appeals court seemed hesitant Wednesday to extend a freeze in a civil lawsuit against Republican electors criminally accused of participating in then-President Donald Trump's alleged efforts to change the outcome of the 2020 election, citing deference to the trial judge's decision to press on.
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January 08, 2025
Fed. Circ. Wrestles With China Tariff Authority Limits
Attorneys for both importers and the government faced pointed questions from a Federal Circuit panel Wednesday, as the judges tried to understand the limits of U.S. tariff authority and whether a huge chunk of Trump-era levies on Chinese goods went too far.
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January 08, 2025
Feds Ask DC Circ. To Block Guilty Plea Of 9/11 'Mastermind'
The Biden administration wants the D.C. Circuit to block plea agreements set to be approved Friday for the men accused of plotting the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, including the "alleged mastermind" of the plot, Khalid Shaikh Mohammad.
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January 08, 2025
Fla. Atty Can't Beat Contempt Ruling Over Failed Apology
A Florida state appeals panel on Wednesday agreed that an attorney was in indirect criminal contempt when he failed to post an apology on a consumer reporting website as part of a settlement in his former counsel's suit against him over disparaging and allegedly defamatory comments made on the site.
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January 08, 2025
2nd Circ. Backs NYC Hospital In Retirement Plan Fee Suit
The Second Circuit refused Wednesday to reopen a proposed class action claiming Montefiore Medical Center allowed its employee retirement plan to be saddled with excessive recordkeeping fees, saying the workers leading the suit failed to show the plan paid too much for the services it received.
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January 08, 2025
Ohio Judge's License Reinstated Days After Retirement News
A former Cleveland judge's license to practice was reinstated Wednesday following a one-year suspension on ethics charges stating he pushed plea deals on defendants, made racially insensitive comments to them and ordered excessive contempt sentences for relatively minor infractions, days after the judge announced his retirement.
Editor's Picks
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12 Lawyers Who Are The Future Of The Supreme Court Bar
One attorney hasn't lost a single U.S. Supreme Court case she's argued, or even a single justice's vote. One attorney is perhaps "the preeminent SCOTUS advocate." And one may soon become U.S. solicitor general, despite acknowledging there are "judges out there who don't like me." All three are among a dozen lawyers in the vanguard of the Supreme Court bar's next generation, poised to follow in the footsteps of the bar's current icons.
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How Reshaped Circuit Courts Are Faring At The High Court
Seminal rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court's latest term will reshape many facets of American society in the coming years. Already, however, the rulings offer glimpses of how the justices view specific circuit courts, which have themselves been reshaped by an abundance of new judges.
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Law360's Guide To Biden's Judicial Picks
UPDATED December 20, 2024 | President Joe Biden is shaping the federal judiciary by adding to the courts' professional and demographic diversity — a sharp break from former President Donald Trump, who made the judiciary more homogeneous as the judges confirmed under him were 84% white and 76% male.
Expert Analysis
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When Judging Product Label Claims, Follow The Asterisk
A recurring question in false advertising class actions is whether misleading or ambiguous statements on a product's front label can be cured by information on the back label — but recent decisions from the Ninth Circuit suggest that a front-label asterisk can help alert consumers to seek further clarification, say attorneys at Hunton.
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Justices Seem Focused On NEPA's Limits In Utah Rail Case
After last month's oral argument at the U.S. Supreme Court in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado, the court appears poised to forcefully reiterate that the National Environmental Policy Act requires federal agencies to review only those environmental impacts within their control, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.
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Fed. Circ. Patent Decisions In 2024: An Empirical Review
Despite an ever-increasing backlog of argument-ready cases, the Federal Circuit issued fewer decisions in 2024 than in previous years, and the decisions' overall friendliness toward patent owners and applicants was low, says Dan Bagatell at Perkins Coie.
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Series
Exercising On My Peloton Bike Makes Me A Better Lawyer
While I originally came to the Peloton bike for exercise, one cycling instructor’s teachings have come to serve as a road map for practicing law thoughtfully and mindfully, which has opened opportunities for growth and change in my career, says Andrea Kirshenbaum at Littler.
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5 Drug And Device Developments That Shaped 2024
The last year saw significant legal developments affecting drug and device manufacturers, with landmark decisions and regulatory changes that require vigilance and agility from the industry, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.
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Lessons From United's Axed Win In Firing Over Online Pics
In Wawrzenski v. United Airlines, a California state appeals court revived a flight attendant’s suit over her termination for linking photos of herself in uniform to her OnlyFans account, providing a cautionary tale for employers navigating the complexities of workplace policy enforcement in the digital age, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.
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Reviewing The High Court's Approach To Free Speech Online
As the U.S. Supreme Court began addressing the interplay between the First Amendment and online social media platforms, its three opinions from last term show the justices adopting a nuanced approach that recognizes that private citizens, public employees and online platforms all have First Amendment rights, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.
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Series
In The CFPB Playbook: A Sprint To The Finish Line
The fourth quarter of 2024 was an impressive demonstration of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's ability to regulate, enforce and supervise, even on borrowed time following the election results, and we should expect the current bureau to run nonstop until Jan. 20, say attorneys at Covington.
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Mich. Ruling Offers View On 'Occurrence' Coverage Definition
As demonstrated by a Michigan state court in its recent decision finding per-wound insurance coverage for a school shooting, the amount of coverage available under occurrence-based policies often depends on how courts interpret "occurrence," say attorneys at Hunton.
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Rejoinder Strategy After Allergan Double-Patenting Case
A closer look at last year's Allergan v. MSN case at the Federal Circuit highlights the importance of rejoinder during patent prosecution in view of the risks associated with obviousness-type double patenting based on later-filed applications in the same patent family, say attorneys at BCLP.
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What FARA Enforcement In 2024 Reveals For The Year Ahead
A number of developments, from indictments to legislation, shaped the Foreign Agents Registration Act enforcement landscape last year, and following the U.S. Department of Justice's recently released long-awaited proposed amendments to the law, 2025 shows no signs of slowing down, says Tessa Capeloto at Wiley.
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Exploring Venue Strategy For Trump-Era Regulatory Litigation
Litigation will likely play a prominent role in shaping policy outcomes during the second Trump administration, and stakeholders have several tools at their disposal to steer regulatory litigation toward more favorable venues, say attorneys at Covington.
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Lessons Learned From 2024's Top FMLA Decisions
Last year's major litigation related to the Family and Medical Leave Act underscores why it is critical for employers to understand the basics of when leave and accommodations are required, say attorneys at Dechert.
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5th Circ.'s Nasdaq Ruling Another Piece In DEI Policy Puzzle
The Fifth Circuit's recent en banc opinion vacating Nasdaq's board diversity listing rule wades into the hotly debated topic of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at a time when many public companies are navigating the attention that DEI commitments are drawing from activists and shareholders, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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Lessons Learned From 2024's Top ADA Decisions
Last year's major litigation related to the Americans with Disabilities Act highlights that when dealing with accommodation requests, employers must communicate clearly, appreciate context and remain flexible in addressing needs, say attorneys at Dechert.