Appellate

  • March 03, 2025

    Justices To Weigh Double-Jeopardy Claim In Robbery Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to wade into a seven-circuit split over whether the double jeopardy clause allows for separate sentences on different charges stemming from the same robbery — an issue that can lead to significantly longer prison terms.

  • March 03, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Says OPM Reg On Entry-Level Workers' OT Is Valid

    The Office of Personnel Management's regulation denying overtime pay for federal employees undergoing training is valid, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled Monday, sending an FBI analyst's overtime suit back to the Court of Federal Claims.

  • March 03, 2025

    10th Circ. Backs CPSC In Challenge To New Magnet Rule

    The Tenth Circuit on Monday denied a petition challenging a new Consumer Product Safety Commission rule regulating the sale of small, high-powered magnets, finding that the evidence the CPSC provided supports the rule and the commission's structure is constitutional.

  • March 03, 2025

    DC Circ. Asks Crowley For More Info In GSA Audit Powers Suit

    A D.C. Circuit panel directed Crowley Government Services Inc., which has challenged the authority of the General Services Administration to audit its contract with the U.S. Department of Defense's Transportation Command, to file a brief detailing whether the contract included any such audit provision.

  • March 03, 2025

    Justices Decline Data Breach Suit Against SC Medical Center

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review a Fourth Circuit decision that a health center cannot use federal immunity as a shield against a data breach lawsuit even though it received public funds, despite the company's warning that the ruling has created a circuit split.

  • March 03, 2025

    3rd Circ. Preview: Litigation Funder, J&J Seek Relief In March

    The Third Circuit's case lineup this month will task panels with determining if an American litigation funder can keep its dispute with a German law firm in federal court, and whether Johnson & Johnson can decertify class claims accusing the company of artificially inflating its stock price by failing to disclose the alleged cancer risks of its talc products.

  • March 03, 2025

    Justices Deny Google Foe's Bid For Patent Eligibility Clarity

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a patent owner's appeal arguing that the Federal Circuit has a "broken approach to patent eligibility" and that the justices must clarify the law, in a case where advertising patents asserted against Google were found to cover abstract ideas.

  • March 03, 2025

    Justices Turn Away Christian Worker Who Panned Pride Flag

    The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to review the dismissal of a suit brought by a Christian worker who said he was unlawfully fired by a metal manufacturer after calling a Pride month rainbow on the company's website an "abomination."

  • March 03, 2025

    Justices Evade Circuit Split On Student Speech, Thomas Says

    The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to wade into a free speech advocacy group's suit challenging Indiana University's processes for reporting and investigating controversial speech, but Justice Clarence Thomas complained that the high court missed a chance to address a circuit split over student challenges to schools' "bias response teams."

  • March 03, 2025

    Justices Turn Away Peru Mining Pollution Suit

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a bid by a mining company controlled by billionaire Ira Rennert to resolve whether the Eighth Circuit incorrectly denied the dismissal of claims raised by over 1,000 Peruvians alleging improper pollution.

  • March 03, 2025

    High Court Declines Souvenir Store's TM Fraud Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it will not consider a Florida souvenir store chain's challenge to a Second Circuit decision shutting down its case that a bankrupt beachwear company fraudulently procured a trademark registration to secure a $3.5 million settlement. 

  • March 03, 2025

    Justices Turn Down Suit By Worker Fired Over Online Post

    The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it would not review a Sixth Circuit decision holding that a former CSX Transportation Inc. engineer waited too long to try to revive his wrongful termination suit stemming from an online post he made about a fatal train accident.

  • March 02, 2025

    WH Appeals After Watchdog Chief Is Permanently Reinstalled

    A D.C. federal judge ruled Saturday that President Donald Trump's firing of the head of the Office of Special Counsel was illegal, finding that the federal employment watchdog can only be ousted for cause.

  • February 28, 2025

    9th Circ. Keeps Mass Starz Privacy Arbitration Consolidated

    The Ninth Circuit on Friday refused to allow a consumer whose video privacy arbitration claims against Starz Entertainment LLC have been merged with more than 7,000 similar allegations to break off from the pack, finding that the television network couldn't be blamed for the current "procedural stalemate" in the consolidated arbitration proceedings. 

  • February 28, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Orders Interest Recalculation In Hardware IP Row

    Halo Electronics' nearly two-decades-old dispute with a rival completed its fifth trip to the Federal Circuit, with the appeals court on Friday ordering a Nevada federal court to recalculate the amount of interest Halo could collect on a jury verdict.

  • February 28, 2025

    Texas Appeals Court Finds City Can't Take Oncor Streetlights

    A Texas appeals court found Killeen, Texas, can't claim sovereign immunity to evade a suit seeking to stop the city from taking possession of streetlights owned by a utility company, finding Friday the utility company had presented a viable constitutional claim.

  • February 28, 2025

    Ga. Can Cap Wrongful Death Damages, US Chamber Says

    The U.S. and Georgia chambers of Commerce have urged the Supreme Court of Georgia to find that its 2010 decision striking down a $350,000 cap on noneconomic medical malpractice damages as unconstitutional should not prevent the court from allowing a similar cap in wrongful death claims.

  • February 28, 2025

    Calif. Justices Revive Yacht Club Worker's Injury Suit

    The California Supreme Court has revived a suit brought by a yacht club maintenance worker seeking to hold his employer liable for his workplace injuries under federal maritime law, saying the law preempts California's workers' compensation statute.

  • February 28, 2025

    8th Circ. Backs Auto Co. Exec's Win In $5M Benefits Suit

    The Eighth Circuit declined Friday to overturn a former chief operating officer's win in his lawsuit accusing an automotive company of reneging on the terms of his deferred compensation plan when he left the firm, saying the company can't rely on nonexistent documents to deny his claim to the funds.

  • February 28, 2025

    5 Argument Sessions Benefits Attys Should Watch In March

    The Ninth Circuit will mull Express Scripts and OptumRx's bid to force a public nuisance suit brought by the state of California into federal court, and the Second Circuit will hear from pensioners who say that IBM's use of outdated mortality tables shrank their benefits payouts. Here, Law360 looks at these and other appellate arguments happening in March that should be on benefits lawyers' radar.

  • February 28, 2025

    Up Next At High Court: Gun Violence Liability & Nuclear Waste

    The U.S. Supreme Court will return to the bench Monday to consider Mexico's attempt to hold gun manufacturers and distributors liable for cartel-related gun violence and a nuclear waste site dispute that could determine who can challenge future agency actions.

  • February 28, 2025

    2nd Circ. Revives Electrical Worker's Union Pension Fight

    An electrical worker can try again to argue that two trustees of his union pension fund violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by paying themselves over $1 million in compensation from the fund's assets, with the Second Circuit ruling Friday that the worker has standing to sue.

  • February 28, 2025

    9th Circ. Says Risk Justified Firing Vax-Refusing Actor

    A split Ninth Circuit panel declined Friday to revive an actor's suit claiming she was illegally removed from a Starz Network show because she rejected its COVID-19 vaccine mandate on religious grounds, ruling her immunization status posed too much of a risk to the production.

  • February 28, 2025

    Presidents v. Courts: Lincoln, Trump & Judicial Power Limits

    Amid fears of President Donald Trump disobeying judges with impunity, debate has focused on famous instances of officials defying the U.S. Supreme Court. But some of the clearest insights into America's handling of White House disregard for courts exist in relatively obscure cases from the Civil War era, when unprecedented presidential actions provoked extraordinary responses from the judiciary — and underscored the limits of its powers.

  • February 28, 2025

    NJ Out-Of-State Wine Sale Limits Are Justified, 3rd. Circ. Says

    The Third Circuit on Friday upheld a New Jersey law barring out-of-state sellers to directly ship wine to in-state consumers, saying that to grant a New York retailer's challenge would "shake the foundations" of New Jersey's three-tiered system for regulating alcohol.

Expert Analysis

  • Short-Seller Implications Of 10th Circ.'s Overstock Decision

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    The Tenth Circuit's Oct. 15 decision in Overstock Securities Litigation provides clarity on the pleading standard for a market manipulation claim under the Exchange Act, and suggests that short sellers might not be able to rely on the fraud-on-the-market presumption typically invoked by securities plaintiffs, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.

  • Patent Lessons From 4 Federal Circuit Reversals In September

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    Cases that were reversed or vacated by the Federal Circuit last month provide helpful clarity on collateral estoppel, patent eligibility, construction of claim terms that have different boundaries across different claims, and the role of courts as neutral arbiter, say attorneys at Bunsow De Mory.

  • 11th Circ. Ruling Offers Refresher On 'Sex-Plus' Bias Claims

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    While the Eleventh Circuit’s recent ruling in McCreight v. AuburnBank dismissed former employees’ sex-plus-age discrimination claims, the opinion reminds employers to ensure that workplace policies and practices do not treat a subgroup of employees of one sex differently than the same subgroup of another sex, say attorneys at Bradley Arant.

  • Ex-Chicago Politician's Case May Further Curb Fraud Theories

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    The U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to hear Thompson v. U.S. to determine whether a statement that is misleading but not false still violates federal law, potentially heralding the court’s largest check yet on prosecutors’ expansive fraud theories, with significant implications for sentencing, say attorneys at the Law Offices of Alan Ellis.

  • Lawyers With Disabilities Are Seeking Equity, Not Pity

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    Attorneys living with disabilities face extra challenges — including the need for special accommodations, the fear of stigmatization and the risk of being tokenized — but if given equitable opportunities, they can still rise to the top of their field, says Kate Reder Sheikh, a former attorney and legal recruiter at Major Lindsey & Africa.

  • High Stakes In Justices' Review Of Clean Air Act Venue Fights

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    Disputes over the Clean Air Act's venue provision may seem arcane, but a forthcoming U.S. Supreme Court decision encompassing three cases will affect core principles of the separation of powers and constitutional due process in ways that could have significant consequences for the regulated community, say J. Michael Showalter and David Loring at ArentFox Schiff.

  • Testing The Waters As New Texas Biz Court Ends 2nd Month

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    Despite an uptick in filings in the Texas Business Court's initial months of operation, the docket remains fairly light amid an apparent wait-and-see approach from some potential litigants, say attorneys at Norton Rose.

  • Employer Lessons From Mass. 'Bonus Not Wages' Ruling

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    In Nunez v. Syncsort, a Massachusetts state appeals court recently held that a terminated employee’s retention bonus did not count as wages under the state’s Wage Act, illustrating the nuanced ways “wages” are defined by state statutes and courts, say attorneys at Segal McCambridge.

  • Opinion

    Judicial Committee Best Venue For Litigation Funding Rules

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    The Advisory Committee on Civil Rules' recent decision to consider developing a rule for litigation funding disclosure is a welcome development, ensuring that the result will be the product of a thorough, inclusive and deliberative process that appropriately balances all interests, says Stewart Ackerly at Statera Capital.

  • The Strategic Advantages Of Appointing A Law Firm CEO

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    The impact on law firms of the recent CrowdStrike outage underscores that the business of law is no longer merely about providing supplemental support for legal practice — and helps explain why some law firms are appointing dedicated, full-time CEOs to navigate the challenges of the modern legal landscape, says Jennifer Johnson at Calibrate Strategies.

  • Fed. Circ. Ruling May Signal Software Patent Landscape Shift

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    The Federal Circuit's recent ruling in Broadband iTV, despite similarities to past decisions, chose to rely on prior cases finding patent-ineligible claims directed to receiving and displaying information, which may undermine one of the few areas of perceived predictability in the patent eligibility landscape, say attorneys at King & Wood.

  • Series

    After Chevron: The Future Of OSHA Enforcement Litigation

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's opinion in Loper Bright provides a blueprint for overruling the judicial obligation to defer to an agency's interpretation of its own regulations established by Auer, an outcome that would profoundly change the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s litigation and rulemaking landscape, say attorneys at Ogletree.

  • What Hawaii High Court Got Right And Wrong In AIG Ruling

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    Though the Hawaii Supreme Court in its recent Aloha Petroleum v. National Union Fire Insurance decision correctly adopted the majority rule that recklessly caused harm is an accident for coverage purposes, it erred in its interpretation of the pollution exclusion by characterizing climate change as "traditional environmental pollution," say attorneys at Haynes Boone.

  • Series

    Beekeeping Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The practice of patent law and beekeeping are not typically associated, but taking care of honeybees has enriched my legal practice by highlighting the importance of hands-on experience, continuous learning, mentorship and more, says David Longo at Oblon McClelland.

  • Amazon Holiday Pay Case Underscores Overtime Challenges

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    The recent Hamilton v. Amazon.com Services LLC decision in the Colorado Supreme Court underscores why employers must always consult applicable state law and regulations — in addition to federal law — when determining how to properly pay employees who work more than 40 hours in a workweek, says James Looby at Vedder Price.

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