Appellate

  • July 25, 2024

    Web Designer Seeks $2M Atty Fees After High Court Win

    A Christian web designer and her company have asked a Colorado federal court to award her nearly $2 million in legal fees, arguing that their journey to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled the state can't force the designer to make wedding websites for same-sex couples, was "long, complex and ground-breaking."

  • July 25, 2024

    4th Circ. Vacates FTC Loss After Novant Bows Out Of Merger

    The Fourth Circuit has agreed to vacate a North Carolina federal judge's ruling allowing Novant Health's planned $320 million hospital merger to advance after the Federal Trade Commission secured an emergency injunction on appeal that effectively killed the deal.

  • July 25, 2024

    11th Circ. Sets Briefing Schedule In Mar-A-Lago Docs Appeal

    Briefing in special counsel Jack Smith's appeal of the dismissal of the classified documents criminal case against former President Donald Trump will run through mid-October, according to a scheduling notice from the Eleventh Circuit on Thursday.

  • July 25, 2024

    Pa. Justices To Weigh Rules For Tossing Provisional Votes

    The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania will expedite an appeal to clarify the rules for accepting or tossing certain provisional votes, in a case brought by candidates in a tight race for a seat in Pennsylvania's House of Representatives.

  • July 25, 2024

    The Biggest Copyright Decisions Of 2024: A Midyear Report

    The justices ruled there's no time limit for how far back copyright plaintiffs can pursue infringement damages as long as their claims are timely, and an Ohio jury said video game developers didn't infringe a tattoo artist's works by depicting the images on basketball players. Here's a look at some of the most notable copyright decisions so far in 2024.

  • July 25, 2024

    2nd Circ. Revives NYC's Coverage Rift With Captive Insurer

    The Second Circuit revived New York City's coverage dispute against a captive insurer, reversing a lower court's finding that it lacked diversity jurisdiction after having already granted the city an early win on the coverage issues.

  • July 25, 2024

    Mass. Court Revives Malpractice Suit Over Late Arbitration

    Massachusetts' intermediate-level appellate court on Thursday revived a legal malpractice suit against a pair of attorneys who allegedly waited too long to file an arbitration on their client's behalf, finding that a lower court was wrong to grant the lawyers a pretrial win.

  • July 25, 2024

    BREAKING: Calif. Justices Rule Prop 22 Is Constitutional

    The California Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the Proposition 22 statewide ballot measure from 2020 that exempts certain app-based drivers from the state's independent contractor classification law, a ruling that could have widespread consequences for the gig economy and driver litigation.

  • July 24, 2024

    FTC Chair Wary AI Tools Can Be Used For Corporate Collusion

    Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan weighed in on a host of topics during a discussion Wednesday at the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference, expressing concerns about the agency's high legal bills for expert witnesses and describing AI price-setting tools as a potential loophole for collusion.

  • July 24, 2024

    SEC Unlikely To Relitigate Loss On Hedge Fund Regs

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission appears ready to accept defeat in its efforts to require more detailed disclosures from private fund managers, with attorneys saying the agency's continued silence since last month's Fifth Circuit loss likely indicates it will not press the issue any further.

  • July 24, 2024

    11th Circ. Says Nokia Unit Immune From Worker's Negligence Suit

    The Eleventh Circuit on Wednesday declined to revive a suit against Nokia subsidiary SAC Wireless LLC by a worker who was electrocuted and seriously injured while helping remove a crane from a cell tower site in Georgia, ruling that the worker was an employee of a subcontractor, not SAC Wireless.

  • July 24, 2024

    Solicitor General Warns Against Feds 'Winning At All Costs'

    U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar underscored the importance of the federal government ensuring justice is served and not "winning at all costs" during a keynote speech Wednesday at the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference, defending the DOJ's changed position in a high court case concerning a criminal defendant's right to a jury trial.

  • July 24, 2024

    FERC Can't Give Pipeline More Time, Green Groups Say

    Conservation groups are urging the D.C. Circuit to throw out a three-year deadline extension the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission granted for the completion of a southern extension of the controversial Mountain Valley pipeline.

  • July 24, 2024

    9th Circ. Wants Migrant's Credibility Reviewed After Atty Trick

    A split Ninth Circuit panel has ordered an immigration judge to reconsider a Chinese asylum seeker's credibility, saying Wednesday that they incorrectly deemed her untruthful based on her flustered behavior after a government attorney gave her information that turned out to be false.

  • July 24, 2024

    Pfizer's Fuel Cells Can't Be Taxed, Conn. Justices Rule

    A fuel cell module that powers Pfizer Inc.'s research campus in Groton, Connecticut, is not subject to personal property taxes, the state's high court ruled Wednesday, upholding a lower court decision that allowed FuelCell Inc. to avoid several multimillion-dollar local tax assessments and penalties.

  • July 24, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Rejects Challenges To PTAB's Network IP Decisions

    The Federal Circuit rejected an internet router-maker's bid to restore testimony that could have flipped two decisions at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, ruling Wednesday that the court won't revive ideas developed decades ago by a since-bankrupt tech company.

  • July 24, 2024

    Apple Foe Urges Fed. Circ. To Rethink PTAB Holding

    A Michigan professor's startup has asked the full Federal Circuit to revisit a ruling penned by U.S. District Judge Alan Albright, arguing the wrong call was made on what kind of arguments from Apple the Patent Trial and Appeal Board could field.

  • July 24, 2024

    DOJ Says NY Judge Muffed Standing In DirecTV Price-Fix Case

    Paying inflated prices isn't the only way someone can be injured by price-fixing, and a New York federal court was wrong to rule that it was in a case brought by DirecTV over retransmission fees, the U.S. Department of Justice has told the Second Circuit.

  • July 24, 2024

    DC Circ. Nixes Medicare Hospital Inpatient Payment Rule

    The D.C. Circuit has vacated a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services rule that inflated Medicare reimbursements for inpatient care at low-wage hospitals, saying the agency made an "unprecedented, expensive, broad, and possibly never-ending" change to a policy articulated by Congress.

  • July 24, 2024

    Atty Who Put Settlement In Spouse's Account Loses Appeal

    A Texas appellate court ruled Wednesday against an attorney seeking to overturn a ruling from a trial court barring him from practicing law for 18 months, saying the man clearly breached his ethical obligations by moving settlement funds through his spouse's personal bank account.

  • July 24, 2024

    Intelsat Insider Trading Claims Don't Connect, 9th Circ. Rules

    The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday affirmed a lower court's dismissal of claims accusing satellite company Intelsat stakeholders of insider trading, saying the suing hedge funds did not properly plead that the shareholders possessed material nonpublic information at the time of their trades.

  • July 24, 2024

    Naval Engineers Urge 4th Circ. To Revive No-Poach Suit

    A pair of former naval engineers have urged the Fourth Circuit to revive their proposed class action accusing military shipbuilding contractors and related firms of using secret "no-poach" agreements, saying their suit was wrongly ruled untimely amid a cover-up of the alleged scheme.

  • July 24, 2024

    Enterprise Rentals Secures Win In $750K Accident Dispute

    A freight carrier was not owed $750,000 in business travel insurance from a vehicle rental company, the Sixth Circuit affirmed Wednesday, holding that a lower court didn't err in excluding an excess policy from trial.

  • July 24, 2024

    6th Circ. Floats Remand Of Geico Agent Misclassification Suit

    The Sixth Circuit on Wednesday pressed Geico about plan documents reviewed by a lower court when it tossed agents' claims they were misclassified as independent contractors, floating the possibility of sending the case back for limited discovery.

  • July 24, 2024

    Boulder Wants Suncor Back In Colorado Climate Suit

    The city of Boulder, Colorado, and Boulder County have asked a Colorado state judge to certify part of his judgment dismissing Canadian oil and gas company Suncor Energy from the municipalities' climate change lawsuit so they can appeal that decision and bring Suncor back in.

Expert Analysis

  • The Rise Of State And Local Environmental Leadership

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    While Congress is deadlocked, and a U.S. Supreme Court with a hostility toward the administrative state aggressively dismantles federal environmental oversight, state and local governments are stepping up with policies to shape a more sustainable future for all species, says Jonathan Rosenbloom at Albany Law School.

  • Questions Linger About DTSA's Scope After Motorola Ruling

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    The Seventh Circuit’s recent ruling in Motorola v. Hytera, which held that the Defend Trade Secrets Act applies extraterritorially, does not address whether an act that furthers misappropriation must be committed by the defendant in order to satisfy the law's extraterritoriality requirement, say Ilissa Samplin and Grace Hart at Gibson Dunn.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Slowing Down AI In Medical Research

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision overturning the Chevron doctrine may inhibit agencies' regulatory efforts, potentially slowing down the approval and implementation of artificial intelligence-driven methodologies in medical research, as well as regulators' responses to public health emergencies, say Ragini Acharya and Matthew Deutsch at Husch Blackwell.

  • What High Court TM Rulings Tell Us About Free Speech

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    Recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings show tension between free speech and trademark law, highlighting that while political mockery is protected, established brands may be forced to adapt to evolving cultural values, says William Scott Goldman at Goldman Law Group.

  • Series

    Being A Luthier Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    When I’m not working as an appellate lawyer, I spend my spare time building guitars — a craft known as luthiery — which has helped to enhance the discipline, patience and resilience needed to write better briefs, says Rob Carty at Nichols Brar.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Uncertainty In Scope Of ITC Oversight

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    The U.S. International Trade Commission's long-standing jurisprudence on some of the most disputed and controversial issues is likely to be reshaped by the Federal Circuit, which is no longer bound by Chevron deference in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright decision, say Kecia Reynolds and Madeleine Moss at Paul Hastings.

  • Half-Truths Vs. Omissions: Slicing Justices' Macquarie Cake

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Macquarie v. Moab provides a road map for determining whether corporate reports that omit information should be considered misleading — and the court baked it into a dessert analogy that is key to understanding the guidelines, say Daniel Levy and Pavithra Kumar at Advanced Analytical Consulting Group.

  • Lead Like 'Ted Lasso' By Embracing Cognitive Diversity

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    The Apple TV+ series “Ted Lasso” aptly illustrates how embracing cognitive diversity can be a winning strategy for teams, providing a useful lesson for law firms, which can benefit significantly from fresh, diverse perspectives and collaborative problem-solving, says Paul Manuele at PR Manuele Consulting.

  • Chevron's End Puts Target On CFPB's Aggressive BNPL Rule

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    A recent interpretative rule by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, subjecting buy-now, pay-later loans to the same regulations as credit cards, is unlikely to survive post-Chevron challenges of the rule's partisan and shaky logic, say Scott Pearson and Bryan Schneider at Manatt.

  • Justices' Ch. 11 Ruling Is A Big Moment For Debtors' Insurers

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Truck Insurance v. Kaiser Gypsum ruling upends decades of Chapter 11 bankruptcy jurisprudence that relegated a debtor’s insurer to the sidelines, giving insurers a new footing to try and avoid significant liability, say Stuart Gordon and Benjamin Wisher at Rivkin Radler.

  • Justices' Starbucks Ruling May Limit NLRB Injunction Wins

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Starbucks v. McKinney, adopting a more stringent test for National Labor Relations Board Section 10(j) injunctions, may lessen the frequency with which employers must defend against injunctions alongside parallel unfair labor practice charges, say David Pryzbylski and Colleen Schade at Barnes & Thornburg.

  • Justices' Criminal Law Decisions: The Term In Review

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    Each of the 11 criminal decisions issued in the U.S. Supreme Court’s recently concluded term is independently important, but taken together, they reveal trends in the court’s broader approach to criminal law, presenting both pitfalls and opportunities for defendants and their counsel, says Kenneth Notter at MoloLamken.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: July Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy considers cases touching on pre- and post-conviction detainment conditions, communications with class representatives, when the American Pipe tolling doctrine stops applying to modified classes, and more.

  • 7th Circ. Motorola Ruling Raises Stakes Of DTSA Litigation

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    The Seventh Circuit’s recent ruling in Motorola v. Hytera gives plaintiffs a powerful tool to recover damages, greatly increasing the incentive to bring Defend Trade Secrets Act claims against defendants with large global sales because those sales could generate large settlements, say attorneys at MoFo.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Bid Protest Litigation Will Hold Steady For Now

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    Though the substantive holding of Loper Bright is unlikely to affect bid protests because questions of statutory interpretation are rare, the spirit of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision may signal a general trend away from agency deference even on the complex technical issues that often arise, say Kayleigh Scalzo and Andrew Guy at Covington.

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