Appellate

  • June 14, 2024

    Enviros Fight FERC OK Of Pipeline Feeding Mexico LNG Plant

    The Sierra Club and Public Citizen called on the D.C. Circuit to review the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's approval of a methane gas pipeline to run between West Texas and Mexico, asserting the agency failed to conduct a thorough analysis of the pipeline's 157 U.S.-based miles.

  • June 14, 2024

    Texas Justices To Weigh Ethics Claims Against Paxton Deputy

    The Texas Supreme Court agreed Friday to review a lower court's decision to revive an ethics charge against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's first assistant over a failed lawsuit challenging the results of the 2020 election.

  • June 14, 2024

    Senate Passes Bill For State, Local Judge Security

    The U.S. Senate has passed a bill unanimously to better protect state and local judges from threats amid "unacceptable attacks" on the judiciary.

  • June 14, 2024

    Chamblee Ryan Gets $1M Legal Malpractice Verdict Tossed

    Chamblee Ryan PC has escaped a $1.1 million jury verdict in a malpractice suit brought by former client JBS Carriers Inc., with a Texas appeals court finding that the food transportation giant failed to submit expert testimony showing that the firm was negligent in failing to settle an underlying car crash lawsuit.

  • June 14, 2024

    Dunkin' Franchise Must Face Customer's Race Bias Suit

    An intermediate appellate court in Massachusetts on Friday revived part of a lawsuit brought by a Black customer of a Dunkin' franchise who says an employee deliberately ignored his order for 15 minutes, then threw his food at him and called him a racist epithet.

  • June 14, 2024

    4 Big ERISA Decisions From The 1st Half Of 2024

    A California federal court allowed a novel type of 401(k) mismanagement suit to advance to discovery, the Ninth Circuit elaborated on the pleading standard for mental health parity claims, and workers beat back an attempt to force their federal benefits suit into arbitration at the Second Circuit. Here, attorneys discuss four consequential ERISA decisions in 2024's first half.

  • June 14, 2024

    Full DC Circ. Won't Hear Foreign Disclosure Penalty Dispute

    The D.C. Circuit declined to reconsider its ruling overturning a major U.S. Tax Court decision that had crimped the administrative collection arm of the Internal Revenue Service, letting stand a panel's restoration of the agency's power to more freely penalize undisclosed foreign corporations.

  • June 14, 2024

    Justices Endorse 2-Step Notification System For Removals

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday said the federal government's practice of issuing multiple notices to migrants to advise them of removal proceedings is acceptable, ruling that in absentia removal orders can't be rescinded when the government fails to provide the location and time of immigration court hearings in a single document.

  • June 14, 2024

    Justices Overturn ATF Rule Banning Bump Stocks

    The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday that the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives does not have the authority to ban bump stocks, finding that the firearm accessory can't be considered a machine gun for purposes of the National Firearms Act.

  • June 14, 2024

    No Retroactive Fix For US Trustee Fee Dispute, Justices Say

    The U.S. Supreme Court sided with the U.S. Trustee's Office on Friday in finding that an amended fee structure implemented before a 2022 ruling that struck down a nonuniform system of payments was all that was needed to resolve the disparate treatment of debtors under the unconstitutional law.

  • June 13, 2024

    Ex-Duke Doc Wants Panel To Redo Disability Bias Ruling

    A fired Duke University hospital doctor pressed a North Carolina state appeals court to reconsider not reviving the disability claims in his suit against the hospital, arguing that the case belongs before a jury.

  • June 13, 2024

    'Trump Too Small' Opinion Leaves Some Justices, Attys Vexed

    In denying a bid to register "Trump Too Small" as a trademark for apparel, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously concluded Thursday there was no free speech violation. But Justice Clarence Thomas' opinion leaning on tradition to justify prohibiting names as marks without an individual's consent left some justices and attorneys dissatisfied.

  • June 13, 2024

    Textualism Still Dominates Justices' Arbitration Decisions

    The U.S. Supreme Court's approach to arbitration issues this past term has helped to exemplify a growing trend by the justices in favor of textualism and away from a less nuanced pro-arbitration mindset that had been favored in previous decades, experts say.

  • June 13, 2024

    Tribal Casino Tells 7th Circ. Ill. City Rigged Proposal Votes

    A proposed tribal casino has asked the Seventh Circuit to undo a lower court ruling that found Waukegan, Ill., did not intentionally discriminate against it when the city chose three other competitors to operate casinos, saying the city ran a rigged review process.

  • June 13, 2024

    Justices Hand Abortion Advocates An Incomplete Win

    The U.S. Supreme Court's rejection Thursday of a challenge to the abortion drug mifepristone will do little to safeguard long-term access to the medication while suggesting that it will be up to voters, not judges, to settle some of the nation's abortion debates, attorneys say.

  • June 13, 2024

    2nd Circ. Case Over NY Broadband Law Could Wrap Up

    An agreement could soon be reached between internet providers and the New York attorney general's office that would avoid the need for further Second Circuit review of New York's controversial low-cost broadband law, court records show.

  • June 13, 2024

    Colo. News Station Must Face Claim Over Contractor Shooting

    A Denver news station must face a man's vicarious liability claim over the actions of a plainclothes security guard who shot and killed a man during a police protest while working for the TV station, the Colorado Court of Appeals said Thursday.

  • June 13, 2024

    Youth Org. Not Covered For Ex-Worker's Claim, 6th Circ. Rules

    A sexual misconduct exclusion bars a youth advocacy organization's bid for coverage of an ex-employee's claim that they were sexually harassed and assaulted by a supervisor, the Sixth Circuit affirmed Thursday, saying the organization's failure to raise certain arguments before the district court was fatal to its appeal.

  • June 13, 2024

    Thomas Targets Group Standing In Mifepristone Ruling

    U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas joined his colleagues Thursday to unanimously uphold broad access to the abortion medication mifepristone for now, but he wrote separately to challenge a standing rule that often serves as the key to the courthouse doors for litigants of all varieties.

  • June 13, 2024

    Ending Flores Settlement Won't Endanger Children, Feds Say

    The Biden administration said a recent regulation it contends warrants winding down the 27-year-old Flores settlement governing health and safety standards for minors in immigration detention can address concerns that human rights organizations raised about the continued use of unlicensed facilities.

  • June 13, 2024

    9th Circ. Doubts SPAC Investors Can Sue Lucid Over Merger

    A Ninth Circuit panel appeared skeptical Thursday of investors' bid to revive a proposed class action alleging that Lucid duped them into buying stock in a special-purpose acquisition company ahead of the electric-vehicle maker's $11.75 billion merger, with two of three judges doubting that the SPAC investors have standing to sue.

  • June 13, 2024

    NJ Justices Create New Liability Rule For Property Owners

    The New Jersey Supreme Court on Thursday voted 4-3 to craft a new rule stating that owners of commercial vacant lots have a duty to maintain the public sidewalks abutting the lots, and reinstated a woman's trip-and-fall injury suit.

  • June 13, 2024

    Wawa Beats Suit By Man Who Lost Leg In Crash Outside Store

    A New Jersey appellate court handed a victory to Wawa on Thursday, ruling that the convenience store didn't own the area outside the store where a customer lost his leg in a car accident while jaywalking and thus was not liable.

  • June 13, 2024

    Full Fed. Circ. Rejects Rehearing Bids In Xifaxan Case

    The Federal Circuit has shot down bids for rehearing filed by both sides in a case involving an April decision that prevents an Alvogen unit from releasing a generic version of Bausch Health's diarrhea and brain disorder drug Xifaxan until 2029.

  • June 13, 2024

    Aggie Pride Doesn't Create Duty In Donor Football Ticket Row

    A state appeals court said Thursday that loyalty to Texas A&M is not enough to establish a fiduciary relationship between a university foundation and its donors, partially dismissing the donors' suit over seating changes in the wake of 2013 football stadium renovations.

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    Why Supreme Court Should Allow Repatriation Tax To Stand

    If the U.S. Supreme Court doesn't reject the taxpayers' misguided claims in Moore v. U.S. that the mandatory repatriation tax is unconstitutional, it could wreak havoc on our system of taxation and result in a catastrophic loss of revenue for the government, say Christina Mason and Theresa Balducci at Herrick Feinstein.

  • For Lawyers, Pessimism Should Be A Job Skill, Not A Life Skill

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    A pessimistic mindset allows attorneys to be effective advocates for their clients, but it can come with serious costs for their personal well-being, so it’s crucial to exercise strategies that produce flexible optimism and connect lawyers with their core values, says Krista Larson at Stinson.

  • High Court's Jan. 6 Rioter Case May Have Wide Ripple Effects

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    The U.S. Supreme Court will soon hear oral arguments in Fischer v. United States, a case that will determine whether a law enacted after the Enron scandal can be used to prosecute Jan. 6 rioters, and could affect the government’s ability to charge those who impede a range of official proceedings, say Brook Dooley and Sara Fitzpatrick at Keker Van Nest.

  • 5th Circ. Clarifies What Is And Isn't A 'New Use' Of PFAS

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    The Fifth Circuit's March 21 decision in Inhance Technologies v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, preventing the EPA from regulating existing uses of PFAS under "significant new use" provisions of the Toxic Substances Control Act, provides industry with much-needed clarity, say Joseph Schaeffer and Sloane Wildman at Babst Calland.

  • CORRECTED: Endoscope Patent Case Offers Guidance On Right To Repair

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    An Alabama federal court's decision in Karl Storz v. IMS reaffirmed that product owners have broad rights to repair or modify their property as they see fit, highlighting the parameters of the right to repair in the context of patent infringement, say Dustin Weeks and Dabney Carr at Troutman Pepper. Correction: Due to an editing error, a previous version of this article and headline attributed the Karl Storz ruling to the wrong court. The error has been corrected.

  • Trump's NY Civil Fraud Trial Spotlights Long-Criticized Law

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    A New York court’s recent decision holding former President Donald Trump liable for fraud brought old criticisms of the state law used against him back into the limelight — including its strikingly broad scope and its major departures from the traditional elements of common law fraud, say Mark Kelley and Lois Ahn at MoloLamken.

  • How A Motion Before Justices May Help Trump Beyond Court

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    Even if Donald Trump loses his presidential immunity claim before the U.S. Supreme Court, the delay created by the motion may mean a trial can't be completed before the November election, says Paul Tuchmann at Wiggin and Dana.

  • Opinion

    $175M Bond Refiled By Trump Is Still Substantively Flawed

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    The corrected $175 million bond posted by former President Donald Trump on Thursday to stave off enforcement of the New York attorney general's fraud judgment against him remains substantively and procedurally flawed, as well as inadequately secured, says Adam Pollock of Pollock Cohen.

  • Opinion

    Requiring Leave To File Amicus Briefs Is A Bad Idea

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    A proposal to amend the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure that would require parties to get court permission before filing federal amicus briefs would eliminate the long-standing practice of consent filing and thereby make the process less open and democratic, says Lawrence Ebner at the Atlantic Legal Foundation and DRI Center.

  • NJ Ruling Offers Road Map To Fight Dishonored Check Claims

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    As ATM and mobile check deposits become more common, a New Jersey state appellate court’s recent ruling in Triffin v. Neptune shows that issuers can rely on copies of checks to defend against claims that checks were wrongfully dishonored after being electronically deposited, say attorneys at Sherman Atlas.

  • 4 Ways To Motivate Junior Attorneys To Bring Their Best

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    As Gen Z and younger millennial attorneys increasingly express dissatisfaction with their work and head for the exits, the lawyers who manage them must understand and attend to their needs and priorities to boost engagement and increase retention, says Stacey Schwartz at Katten.

  • A Look At Recent Challenges To SEC's Settlement 'Gag Rule'

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    Though they have been unsuccessful so far, opponents of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's so-called gag rule, which prevents defendants from denying allegations when settling with the SEC, are becoming increasingly vocal and filing more challenges in recent years, say Mike Blankenship and Regina Maze at Winston & Strawn.

  • How 3 Unfolding Cases Could Affect The Energy Industry

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    Three judicial decisions now in the pipeline — Texas' challenge to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's methane regulations, Delaware's climate suit against big energy companies, and a case before the Supreme Court of Texas on royalty lease interpretation — could have important implications for the energy industry, say Michelle Scheffler and Rachael Cox at Skadden.

  • Conn. Bankruptcy Ruling Furthers Limitation Extension Split

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    A recent Connecticut bankruptcy court decision further solidifies a split of authority on whether Bankruptcy Rule 9006(b) may be used to extend the limitations period, meaning practitioners seeking to extend should serve the motion on all applicable parties and, where possible, rely on the doctrine of equitable tolling, says Shane Ramsey at Nelson Mullins.

  • How Purdue Pharma High Court Case May Change Bankruptcy

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s upcoming ruling in Purdue Pharma may be the death of most third-party releases in Chapter 11 cases, and depending on the decision’s breadth, could have much more far-reaching effects on the entire bankruptcy system, say Brian Shaw and David Doyle at Cozen O'Connor.

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