Appellate

  • March 17, 2025

    Wash. AG Backs Tribe's $400M Trespass Win Against BNSF

    The state of Washington has said the Ninth Circuit should uphold a trial judge's ruling that BNSF Railway Co. owes nearly $400 million for years of illegally running oil cars across tribal territory, arguing in an amicus brief the railroad must be held accountable for perpetuating "a pattern of disregard for the sovereignty of Native people."

  • March 17, 2025

    Calif. Panel Sides With Tribe In Hotel Construction Fight

    A California appeals panel has sided with a Native American tribe in its decision to reverse a lower court ruling and invalidate the city of Clearlake's approval of a hotel project on tribal land, finding that the city failed to comply with a state environmental law.

  • March 17, 2025

    Full 7th Circ. Won't Revive Suit Over Late Medicaid Payments

    The full Seventh Circuit has answered the "enormous question" of whether a Chicago hospital can sue the state of Illinois to force the managed-care organizations it contracts with to make timely Medicaid payments, concluding the hospital doesn't have a federal right to prompt payments for fear of turning federal trial courts into "de facto Medicaid claims processors."

  • March 17, 2025

    9th Circ. Judge Urges Review Of Asylum Credibility Precedent

    The Ninth Circuit on Monday declined to review an Indian national's bid to revive an asylum claim deemed noncredible, with one judge calling on the court to revisit precedent that restricts immigration judges' ability to reject questionable asylum claims.

  • March 17, 2025

    Split 9th Circ. Won't Halt Federal Workers Reinstatement Order

    A divided Ninth Circuit panel on Monday denied the Trump administration's bid for an immediate administrative stay of a California district court order requiring reinstatement of some probationary federal workers fired from six agencies, with the majority saying a pause "would disrupt the status quo and turn it on its head."

  • March 17, 2025

    Colo. Justices Reject Bid To Toss Election Defamation Suit

    Colorado's justices have rejected petitions from President Donald Trump's campaign and conservative media personalities arguing that a former Dominion Voting executive's defamation suit should be tossed under a state anti-SLAPP law, according to an en banc order Monday declining to review the case. 

  • March 17, 2025

    Vague Settlement Can't Free Insurer From Asbestos Claims

    An insurer that says its policies' limits were exhausted while paying over $5 million toward an asbestos injury settlement on behalf of BNSF Railway failed to show it actually went over its limits, a Texas appeals court found. 

  • March 17, 2025

    Union, Green Groups Fight EPA Bid To Redo Biden TSCA Rule

    Labor unions and green groups are asking the D.C. Circuit to reject the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's bid to reconsider a Biden-era rule that strengthened regulations to assess chemicals' health and environmental risks.

  • March 17, 2025

    2nd Circ. Sends Amazon Wage Question To Conn. Justices

    The Second Circuit asked Connecticut's top court Monday to weigh in on whether employees are owed pay for their time spent undergoing post-shift anti-theft screenings, saying the state's justices have not yet provided guidance on this matter.

  • March 17, 2025

    FERC Grid Upgrade Fight Has DC Circ. Judges Flummoxed

    D.C. Circuit judges appeared to struggle Monday with how to determine ownership of new grid upgrades needed for a Michigan solar farm as they consider a transmission company's challenge to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's refusal to grant it sole ownership.

  • March 17, 2025

    NJ Justices Take On Nonclients' Malpractice Case Against Atty

    The New Jersey Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge to an appellate court decision tossing part and keeping part of a malpractice suit brought against an estate attorney by plaintiffs who were never his clients.

  • March 17, 2025

    Georgia Justices Urged To Revive Trump Election Charges

    Prosecutors argued that the Georgia Supreme Court should reinstate certain criminal charges against President Donald Trump, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and others alleging interference in the 2020 presidential election, saying lower courts wrongly dismissed the charges because of the indictment's purported lack of detail.

  • March 17, 2025

    DOL Urges 5th Circ. To Keep Contractor Wage Hike Ruling

    Former President Joe Biden had the authority to raise the minimum wage for federal contractors through a presidential executive order, the Trump administration's U.S. Department of Labor said, urging the full Fifth Circuit to leave in place a panel's decision backing the wage hike.

  • March 17, 2025

    4th Circ. Tosses HOA Closing Fees Suit

    The Fourth Circuit tossed a North Carolina property owner's proposed class action alleging that a property management company unlawfully charged excessive closing fees when she sold two properties.

  • March 17, 2025

    NC Appeals Court Leaves Judge's Ballot Challenge To Panel

    The full North Carolina Court of Appeals has shot down Democratic Justice Allison Riggs' request for an en banc hearing of her Republican challenger's suit seeking to throw out more than 60,000 ballots cast in their race for a seat on the state's highest court, leaving the dispute for a panel to decide first.

  • March 17, 2025

    High Value Dubious In $23M Easement Dispute, 11th Circ. Told

    A partnership that claimed a $23 million tax deduction for a conservation easement donation failed to consider the lack of market demand for a potential quarry it used to justify the land's high value, the U.S. government told the Eleventh Circuit.

  • March 17, 2025

    Jordan's Race Team Defends NASCAR Injunction To 4th Circ.

    A pair of stock car race teams including one owned by Michael Jordan urged the Fourth Circuit not to vacate a lower court's injunction allowing them to keep competing in NASCAR races while they pursue antitrust claims against the league, arguing NASCAR's "overblown rhetoric" against the order falls flat.

  • March 14, 2025

    Justices Set Deadline In Birthright Citizenship Injunction Row

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday gave states and organizations challenging President Donald Trump's executive order aimed at limiting birthright citizenship until early next month to address Trump's request for the high court to limit three federal judge's injunctions that preliminarily blocked the order's implementation across the U.S.

  • March 14, 2025

    4th Circ. Lets White House Anti-DEI Efforts Proceed

    The Fourth Circuit on Friday lifted a temporary injunction blocking President Donald Trump's administration from implementing the bulk of his executive orders targeting diversity, equity and inclusion programs, though each judge on the panel had differing views on the matter. 

  • March 14, 2025

    ExxonMobil Brings $14M Clean Air Act Suit To High Court

    ExxonMobil on Friday urged the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn both a "radically divided" en banc Fifth Circuit's opinion upholding $14.25 million in air pollution penalties as well as a decades-old high court ruling concerning redressability, saying it was being made to pay penalties environmental group plaintiffs won't even receive.

  • March 14, 2025

    11th Circ. Again Upholds Fla. Ban On Under-21 Gun Sales

    Florida's law banning sales of firearms to anyone under 21 is constitutional, a divided Eleventh Circuit ruled Friday on en banc review, finding that America's 18- to 20-year-olds have had their gun rights checked since the nation's founding.

  • March 14, 2025

    Antitrust Questions Earn Belt Line Deal A Deep Dive

    The Surface Transportation Board isn't going to let Norfolk Southern get away with calling its attempt to procure the remainder of a rail line a minor transaction, since it's been locked in antitrust litigation over the control of that line for years, according to an order Friday that deemed the transaction "significant."

  • March 14, 2025

    9th Circ. Axes Dershowitz Sanction, Clarifies 'Of Counsel' Law

    The Ninth Circuit on Friday rejected Alan Dershowitz's arguments that his First Amendment rights shield him from being sanctioned for filing frivolous election-related litigation as "for counsel" representing Republican Arizona candidates, but the panel nevertheless reversed sanctions against Dershowitz since it's the first time the circuit has clarified the law.

  • March 14, 2025

    Ga. Panel Says COVID-Era Legal Shield Blocks Amputee's Suit

    A divided Georgia Court of Appeals on Friday said a trial court should have dismissed a wrongful amputation suit against a Marietta hospital, holding that the patient who lost his right leg after being admitted for COVID-19 symptoms could not beat the legal immunity granted to the hospital by a pandemic-era state law.

  • March 14, 2025

    Fed. Circ. OKs Apple's Patent Board Win In Beacon Dispute

    The Federal Circuit on Friday signed off on a ruling from the patent board that wiped out all of the claims Apple challenged in a patent covering location-tracking beacons that was asserted against a software protocol developed for iPhones and iPads.

Expert Analysis

  • 1st Circ. iMessage Ruling Illustrates Wire Fraud Circuit Split

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    The First Circuit’s recent decision that text messages exchanged wholly within Massachusetts but transmitted by the internet count as interstate commerce spotlights a split in how circuits interpret intrastate actions under the federal wire fraud statute, perhaps prompting U.S. Supreme Court review, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • 4 Ways Women Attorneys Can Build A Legal Legacy

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    This Women’s History Month, women attorneys should consider what small, day-to-day actions they can take to help leave a lasting impact for future generations, even if it means mentoring one person or taking 10 minutes to make a plan, says Jackie Prester, a former shareholder at Baker Donelson.

  • Justices' Revival Ruling In Bias Suit Exceeds Procedural Issue

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Waetzig v. Halliburton allowed the plaintiff in an age discrimination lawsuit to move to reopen his case after arbitration, but the seemingly straightforward decision on a procedural issue raises complex questions for employment law practitioners, says Christopher Sakauye at Dykema.

  • Cleanup Claim Characterization Key For Timeliness Inquiry

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    The Tenth Circuit's recent ruling in Atlantic Richfield Co. v. NL Industries, determining that ARCO's contribution claim was timely, highlights the importance of accurately characterizing a claim for recoupment of environmental cleanup costs as a cost-recovery action or contribution to avoid dismissal or recharacterization of the claim, say attorneys at Spencer Fane.

  • A Judge's Pointers For Adding Spice To Dry Legal Writing

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    U.S. District Judge Fred Biery shares a few key lessons about how to go against the grain of the legal writing tradition by adding color to bland judicial opinions, such as by telling a human story and injecting literary devices where possible.

  • A Closer Look At Money Laundering Sentencing Issues

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    Federal money laundering cases are on the rise, often involving lengthy prison sentences for defendants who have little to no criminal history, but a closer look at the statistics and case law reveal some potentially valuable arguments that defense attorneys should keep in their arsenal, says Sarah Sulkowski at Gelber & Santillo.

  • Justices Likely To Issue Narrow Ruling In $1.3B Award Dispute

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    After last week's argument in Devas v. Antrix, the Supreme Court appears likely to reverse the holding that minimum contacts are required before a federal court may exercise personal jurisdiction over a foreign state and remand the case for further litigation on other important constitutional questions, say attorneys at Cleary. 

  • Pleading Rules At Stake In High Court Hamas Banking Case

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    While a case between victims of Hamas terrorist attacks and a Lebanese bank, recently argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, appears to ask a narrow question of which civil procedure rules apply to requests to reopen final judgments, how the justices rule could drastically change pleading strategies for future plaintiffs, say attorneys at Dorsey & Whitney.

  • What's At Stake In High Court Transgender Care Suit

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    The outcome of U.S. v. Skrmetti will have critical implications for the rights of transgender youth and their access to gender-affirming care, and will likely affect other areas of law and policy involving transgender individuals, including education, employment, healthcare and civil rights, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • Considerations As Trump Admin Continues To Curtail CFPB

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    Recent sweeping moves from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's new leadership have signaled a major shift in the agency's trajectory, and regulated entities should prepare for broader implications in both the near and long term, say attorneys at Pryor Cashman.

  • 6th Circ. Ruling Paves Path Out Of Loper Bright 'Twilight Zone'

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright ruling created a twilight zone between express statutory delegations that trigger agency deference and implicit ones that do not, but the Sixth Circuit’s recent ruling in Moctezuma-Reyes v. Garland crafted a two-part test for resolving cases within this gray area, say attorneys at Wiley.

  • NCAA Rulings Signal Game Change For Athlete Classification

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    A Tennessee federal court's recent decision in Pavia v. NCAA adds to a growing call to consider classifying college athletes as employees under federal law, a change that would have unexpected, potentially prohibitive costs for schools, says J.R. Webster Cucovatz at Gilson Daub.

  • Copyright Ruling Could Extend US Terminations Worldwide

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    If upheld on appeal, Vetter v. Resnik, a recent ruling from a Louisiana federal court, could extend the geographical scope of U.S. copyright termination rights to foreign territories, say attorneys at Manatt.

  • Recent Cases Clarify FCA Kickback Pleading Standards

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    Two recently resolved cases involving pharmaceutical manufacturers may make it more difficult for False Claims Act defendants facing kickback scheme allegations to get claims dismissed for lack of evidence, say Li Yu at Bernstein Litowitz, Ellen London at London & Noar, and Gregg Shapiro at Gregg Shapiro Law.

  • Bankruptcy Ruling Provides Guidance On 363 Asset Sales

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    HE v. Avadim Holdings, a recent ruling from the District of Delaware, underscores the principle that rejection of executory contracts does not unwind completed transfers of property and the importance of clear and precise language in sale orders and asset purchase agreements in bankruptcy cases, say attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland.

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