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Appellate
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July 18, 2024
8th Circ. Blocks Another Biden Student Debt Relief Plan
The Eighth Circuit has blocked the Biden administration from implementing another plan for student loan forgiveness while the appellate court considers a Missouri-led state alliance's injunction request, according to an order entered Thursday.
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July 18, 2024
6th Circ. Sees 'Fundamental' Shift Post-Chevron In Title X Row
The toppling of Chevron deference set the tone for a Sixth Circuit hearing on Thursday as the court contemplated Tennessee's arguments that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services went beyond its statutory power when it introduced new requirements for family planning funding.
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July 18, 2024
Florida Urges 11th Circ. To Allow Gender Law Despite Appeal
Florida officials have urged the Eleventh Circuit to immediately allow enforcement of a law restricting gender-affirming treatment for transgender minors and adults despite an appeal, saying that a lower court wrongly determined the law was discriminatory and that patients will be harmed if "life-altering" medical procedures are not outlawed.
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July 18, 2024
Conn. Justices Order Redo Of Apartment Tenant's Fee Award
The Connecticut Supreme Court on Thursday gave a landlord another shot at reducing a $3,500 attorney fee award scored by a tenant in an eviction dispute, holding that the lower court failed to consider whether the total was reasonable under the relevant fee shifting statute.
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July 18, 2024
5th Circ. Upholds Tossing Of Ship Captain's Toxic Injury Suit
A former offshore supply vessel captain, who claims chemicals aboard caused his cancer and kidney failure, must sue his U.S. employer in England, the Fifth Circuit has ruled, saying the employment contract's forum selection clause is enforceable even after considering Louisiana's law which largely prohibits such clauses.
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July 18, 2024
9th Circ. Revives Fired Doctor's COVID Vax Religious Bias Suit
The Ninth Circuit revived a doctor's claims that Washington State University failed to accommodate his religious beliefs when it fired him from his residency for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine, ruling Thursday that U.S. Supreme Court precedent necessitates another look at his case.
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July 18, 2024
Fed. Circ. OKs Gilstrap's Alice Ax Of Background Check Patent
The Federal Circuit on Thursday upheld Eastern District of Texas Judge Rodney Gilstrap's invalidation of a background check patent for claiming only an abstract idea, as well as his refusal to award attorney fees to the small Texas city that prevailed in the case.
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July 18, 2024
9th Circ. Signals Support For Alaska Salmon Fishery
A Ninth Circuit panel on Thursday leaned toward allowing government-approved commercial salmon fishing in Southeast Alaska, with one judge saying the economic hardship indigenous communities would face without fishing outweighs the "enormous uncertainty" of impacts on a small population of orca whales that feed on the fish.
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July 18, 2024
Google Warns Fed. Circ. Panel Backed Manipulating Damages
The Federal Circuit's decision to make Google pay EcoFactor $20 million for infringing a smart thermostat patent clears patent owners to "manufacture a royalty rate" and ignore both market realities and apportionment, Google told the full court in a bid for rehearing.
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July 18, 2024
SpaceX Tells 5th Circ. It Will Win Challenge To NLRB Structure
The Fifth Circuit should block claims that SpaceX violated labor law from proceeding before the National Labor Relations Board because the company has a good shot at winning its constitutional challenge to the agency's structure, SpaceX argued.
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July 18, 2024
Menendez Appeal Could Make Hay From Bribery Case Law
Sen. Robert Menendez's planned "aggressive" appeal will almost certainly include broadsides against his novel foreign-agent conviction and attempt to capitalize on the U.S. Supreme Court's proven appetite for bribery cases, experts say.
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July 18, 2024
Split 9th Circ. Panel Backs Restoring DHS Bond Rule
A Ninth Circuit panel upheld a Department of Homeland Security rule barring some immigration surety firms from posting bonds for detained border-crossers Thursday, saying the rule's 2021 ratification by current Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas cured any defects with its original introduction in 2020.
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July 18, 2024
Judge Won't Pause Sanctions In Byju's Ch. 11
A Delaware district court Thursday ruled hedge fund Camshaft Capital Fund LP cannot hold off a contempt order from a Delaware bankruptcy court in the Chapter 11 case of Byju's Alpha while it appeals the sanctions, finding that it could avoid sanctions if it complied with a court order.
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July 18, 2024
Miner Seeks Atty Fees After 4th Circ. DOL Judges Ruling
A former miner urged the Fourth Circuit to approve approximately $21,000 in attorney fees in his case seeking benefits for his black lung disease, saying he has been unable to reach a settlement with an engineering company that challenged the appointment of two U.S. Department of Labor administrative law judges.
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July 18, 2024
LegitScript Asks 9th Circ. To Ax Price-Checker Antitrust Suit
LegitScript has told the Ninth Circuit that PharmacyChecker cannot bring antitrust claims for allegedly having its price-checking website blacklisted because the bulk of its business is geared towards helping people illegally import prescription drugs.
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July 18, 2024
Bank Exec's Tax Tip Case Wrongly Axed, Estate Tells DC Circ.
The estate of a Dutch bank executive asked the D.C. Circuit to overturn a U.S. Tax Court decision denying him a whistleblower award for reporting on tax avoidance schemes, saying the lower court improperly relied on proposed regulations from the Internal Revenue Service.
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July 18, 2024
Fed. Circ. Won't Deflate Air Mattress Patent Upheld At PTAB
The Federal Circuit on Thursday affirmed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's conclusion that no claims of a Sun Pleasure Co. air mattress patent are invalid based on the grounds asserted by a Chinese company.
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July 18, 2024
Texas Psychiatric Patient's Head Trauma Suit Can Go Forward
A Texas appeals court has revived a man's claims against a doctor who he said failed to diagnose and treat a head injury while he was a psychiatric patient, saying the trial court was wrong to find his allegations had no basis in fact.
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July 18, 2024
4th Circ. Deems Paying For Sex 'Immoral' In Deportation Case
The Fourth Circuit denied a Salvadorian man's petition to stop his removal from the U.S. in a precedential ruling that soliciting prostitution is a "crime of moral turpitude" that disqualifies him from getting his deportation canceled even if the public stigma surrounding sex work is reducing.
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July 18, 2024
Creek Citizenship Case Paused Amid Tribal Court Controversy
The Muscogee (Creek) Nation Supreme Court has paused a dispute between descendants of those once enslaved by the tribe and its citizenship board after the two plaintiffs accused the tribe's national council of illegally appointing special justices to the panel as part of a targeted campaign against them.
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July 18, 2024
6th Circ. Looks To Wash Hands Of Waters Of US Appeal
An exasperated Sixth Circuit panel on Thursday looked for an easy way to dispatch Kentucky and industry groups' appeal of the dismissal of their challenges to a federal government rule defining the scope of the Clean Water Act.
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July 18, 2024
Tech Giants Can't Sink Slide-To-Unlock Patent At Fed. Circ.
Samsung, Apple and Google failed on Thursday to persuade a panel of Federal Circuit judges to kill a patent covering the idea of sliding-to-unlock a phone, purportedly developed by a small Sweden smartphone developer over a decade ago.
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July 18, 2024
Woman Can't Get Rectal Cancer Med Mal Suit Reinstated
A Texas appeals court won't let a woman revive her claims that a doctor with Houston Methodist Willowbrook failed to diagnose her rectal cancer, saying she failed to preserve for appeal the issue of whether the court properly granted a 30-day extension to file an amended expert report.
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July 18, 2024
Docs Get Same Hefty Opioid Sentences Despite Top Court Win
Two Alabama doctors accused of unlawfully prescribing patients fentanyl and other opioids failed to shave time off their lengthy prison sentences despite a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that raised the bar for such prosecutions.
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July 18, 2024
Meta And FTC Want DC Circ. Privacy Fight Kept Paused
Meta's D.C. Circuit bid to stop the Federal Trade Commission from modifying the parties' $5 billion privacy settlement should be kept on ice, both sides said Thursday, as the commission vies to toss Meta's trial court suit following a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
Expert Analysis
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In Debate Over High Court Wording, 'Wetland' Remains Murky
Though the U.S. Supreme Court's decision limiting the Clean Water Act’s wetlands jurisdiction is now a year old, Sackett v. EPA's practical consequences for property owners are still evolving as federal agencies and private parties advance competing interpretations of the court's language and methods for distinguishing wetlands in lower courts, says Neal McAliley at Carlton Fields.
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Navigating Title VII Compliance And Litigation Post-Muldrow
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Muldrow v. St. Louis has broadened the scope of Title VII litigation, meaning employers must reassess their practices to ensure compliance across jurisdictions and conduct more detailed factual analyses to defend against claims effectively, say Robert Pepple and Christopher Stevens at Nixon Peabody.
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How CFPB Credit Card Rules Slot Into Broader Considerations
Swirling legal challenges against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recent rulemaking concerning credit card late fees raise questions about how regulated entities should respond to the bureau's rules — and how quickly they should act, say Caitlin Mandel and Elizabeth Ireland at Winston & Strawn.
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Perspectives
Public Interest Attorneys Are Key To Preserving Voting Rights
Fourteen states passed laws restricting or limiting voting access last year, highlighting the need to support public interest lawyers who serve as bulwarks against such antidemocratic actions — especially in an election year, says Verna Williams at Equal Justice Works.
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Insurer Quota-Sharing Lessons From $112M Bad Faith Verdict
In Indiana GRQ v. American Guarantee and Liability Insurance, an Indiana federal jury recently issued a landmark $112 million bad faith verdict, illustrating why insurers must understand the interplay between bad faith law and quota-sharing before entering into these relatively new arrangements, say Jason Reichlyn and Christopher Sakauye at Dykema.
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Lessons On Challenging Class Plaintiffs' Expert Testimony
In class actions seeking damages, plaintiffs are increasingly using expert opinions to establish predominance, but several recent rulings from California federal courts shed light on how defendants can respond, say Jennifer Romano and Raija Horstman at Crowell & Moring.
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Novel Applications May Fizzle After Fed Master Account Wins
Two recent federal court rulings that upheld decisions denying master account applications from two fintech-focused banks are noteworthy for depository institutions with novel charters that wish to have direct access to the Federal Reserve's payment channels and settle transactions in central bank money, say attorneys at Davis Polk.
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Exploring An Alternative Model Of Litigation Finance
A new model of litigation finance, most aptly described as insurance-backed litigation funding, differs from traditional funding in two key ways, and the process of securing it involves three primary steps, say Bob Koneck, Christopher Le Neve Foster and Richard Butters at Atlantic Global Risk LLC.
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Cell Therapy Cos. Must Beware Limits Of Patent Safe Harbors
Though developers of gene and cell therapy products commonly assume that a legal safe harbor protects them from patent infringement suits, recent case law shows that not all preapproval uses of patented technology are necessarily protected, say Natasha Daughtrey and Joshua Weinger at Goodwin.
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Why Employers Shouldn't Overreact To Protest Activities
Recent decisions from the First Circuit in Kinzer v. Whole Foods and the National Labor Relations Board in Home Depot hold eye-opening takeaways about which employee conduct is protected as "protest activity" and make a case for fighting knee-jerk reactions that could result in costly legal proceedings, says Frank Shuster at Constangy.
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Devil's In The Details On FDCPA, Article III Standing
The Third Circuit’s recent decision in Barclift v. Keystone Credit Services concerning the alleged harm needed to support a class action under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is in line with other circuits' interpretations of Article III of the Constitution, notwithstanding disagreement over the minutiae of a proper Article III analysis, says Nick Agnello at Burr & Forman.
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11th Circ. Ruling May Foreshadow Ch. 15 Clashes
The Eleventh Circuit's recent decision in In re: Talal Qais Abdulmunem Al Zawawi has introduced a split from the Second Circuit regarding whether debtors in foreign proceedings must have a domicile, calling attention to the understudied nature of Chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code, say attorneys at Cleary.
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What The Justices' Copyright Damages Ruling Didn't Address
While the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Warner Chappell v. Nealy clarified when a copyright owner may recover damages in jurisdictions that apply the so-called discovery rule, it did not settle the overriding question of whether the Copyright Act even permits applying the rule, say Ivy Estoesta and William Milliken at Sterne Kessler.
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Series
Teaching Yoga Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Being a yoga instructor has helped me develop my confidence and authenticity, as well as stress management and people skills — all of which have crossed over into my career as an attorney, says Laura Gongaware at Clyde & Co.
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TTAB Ruling Raises Foreign-Language Mark Questions
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board's recent decision to cancel the Veuve Olivier registration due to its similarity to Veuve Clicquot brings new focus to the treatment of foreign terms and the doctrine of foreign equivalents, say attorneys at Finnegan.