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Senior Dem Asks Schumer For Votes On Circuit Court Picks
Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Friday pushed back against a deal Democrats and Republicans cut earlier this week that obligates Democrats to forgo votes on four appellate picks.
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November 25, 2024
Justices Won't Hear Takings Clause Claim For Wrecked House
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied a woman's petition seeking to review a Fifth Circuit decision that held McKinney, Texas, did not need to compensate her for destroying her home while resolving a hostage situation with an armed fugitive.
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November 25, 2024
Jack Smith Asks To Dismiss Trump Cases
Special Counsel Jack Smith on Monday moved to drop the federal prosecutions of President-elect Donald Trump in D.C. and Florida, citing longstanding Justice Department policy barring the prosecution of a sitting president while insisting that the government "stands fully behind" the merits of the charges.
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November 25, 2024
Justices Pass On Ex-Atty's Puerto Rico Bribery Appeal
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review the bribery convictions of a former attorney who solicited and accepted payments from an environmental contractor to influence three Puerto Rican mayors and helped the contractor secure government contracts worth millions of dollars.
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November 25, 2024
High Court Refuses To Review FDA Cigarette Warning Rule
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday said that it won't take up a challenge to a U.S. Food and Drug Administration rule requiring larger warnings on cigarette boxes, in a suit brought by tobacco companies.
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November 25, 2024
Justices Reject Patent Case Challenging Newman Suspension
The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to hear an appeal by a company that owns a background check patent invalidated for claiming only an abstract idea and that argued it was deprived of a fair hearing at the Federal Circuit due to the suspension of Judge Pauline Newman.
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November 25, 2024
Justices Turn Away $10M Tanker Seizure Suit
The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it will not review a petition asking it to resolve if courts are bound by "hard-and-fast" rules limiting their inquiry into whether a property can be seized to enforce a maritime debt, an issue the petitioner argued affected "fundamental principles of admiralty law."
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November 25, 2024
Justices Turn Away Suit Over Data Extraction Award
The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to take up a petition asking it to resolve whether a court or an arbitrator should decide the preclusive effect of a prior judgment, in a case stemming from a soured data extraction services contract involving a mortgage industry data analytics firm.
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November 25, 2024
Justices Won't Review Mich. Gun Range Ban
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a proposed gun range's challenge to a Michigan town's zoning denial, denying its petition over Second Amendment protections for firearm training.
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November 24, 2024
Full Fed. Circ. To Rethink AI Contractor's Win In $376M Fight
The full Federal Circuit agreed Friday to rehear a high-profile decision that revived an artificial intelligence company's protest over its exclusion from a $376.4 million procurement, seeking to clarify who counts as an "interested party" that can protest contract awards.
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November 22, 2024
Del Monte's 'Fruit Naturals' Label Not Deceptive, 9th Circ. Says
The Ninth Circuit on Friday refused to revive a California woman's proposed class action accusing Del Monte Foods of falsely advertising fruit cups as being "natural" despite containing synthetic preservatives, saying a reasonable consumer would know to read the products' back label to confirm the ingredients.
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November 22, 2024
Split DC Circ. Punts On FINRA's Constitutionality
A partially divided D.C. Circuit panel on Friday blocked the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority from removing Alpine Securities Corp. from its membership rolls while the corporation sues in federal court to challenge the agency's constitutionality, which the appeals court declined to remark on.
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November 22, 2024
Pam Bondi's 'Greatest Hits' As Florida Attorney General
In her eight years as attorney general of Florida, Pam Bondi — who has been tapped by President-elect Donald Trump as attorney general — took on pill mills and telemarketing scams targeting the state's large elderly population, while also leading GOP state efforts to battle the Obama administration.
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November 22, 2024
Retirement Contributions Found Not Disposable In Ch. 13
A split Ninth Circuit on Friday held that voluntary contributions to employer-managed retirement plans are not disposable income under Chapter 13 bankruptcy, reversing a lower court's decision that required a debtor to include $484 in monthly retirement contributions in her disposable income.
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November 22, 2024
Taco Bell's 'Inconsistent' Stance Revives Fla. Fall Suit
A Florida state appellate court on Friday reversed a ruling that tossed a slip-and-fall injury lawsuit against Taco Bell, citing the restaurant's "logically inconsistent" position admitting that a customer ignored a freshly mopped restroom floor but proceeded to dispute that the floor was actually wet.
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November 22, 2024
Texas Justices Say Court Bungled Ruling In Abortion Case
The Texas Supreme Court said Friday a lower appellate court tried to "prematurely drag the judiciary into highly contentious and politicized debates" around abortion without analyzing a key standing issue, jeopardizing Planned Parenthood's and other abortion rights groups' bid to invalidate the controversial Texas Heartbeat Act.
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November 22, 2024
11th Circ. Panel Weighs Remanding Florida Trans Health Fight
The Eleventh Circuit on Friday appeared unlikely to affirm a lower court's ruling to invalidate a Florida state law banning Medicaid payments for gender-affirming medical care, with two judges on the panel asking attorneys for specifics about additional analysis of discriminatory factors on a potential remand.
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November 22, 2024
High Court Bar's Future: Sullivan & Cromwell's Morgan Ratner
Morgan L. Ratner has emerged as a leader of the U.S. Supreme Court bar's next generation, and she attributes her ascent to brilliant mentors, a laid-back argument style, an aversion to overconfidence and a firm commitment to clear principles in every case — even if that means reluctantly telling the chief justice, as she once did, that a hypothetical cat stuck in a tree shouldn't be saved.
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November 22, 2024
Texas Supreme Court Sends 130-Car Pileup Suit To Trial
The Texas Supreme Court on Friday denied a petition from several defendants involved in a fatal 130-car ice storm pileup in Fort Worth to temporarily stay an upcoming trial date, teeing up the trial to begin in January, almost four years after the tragedy.
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November 22, 2024
Service Fees Not 'Incidental' To Debt Collection, 11th Circ. Told
Ocwen Loan Servicing LLC urged the Eleventh Circuit on Friday to reverse two Florida lower court judgments finding it violated debt collection practices with a fee to process phone or internet payments, saying it's not an illegal "incidental" charge because the borrower is paying for an optional service.
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November 22, 2024
Calif. Panel Affirms Six Flags' Trial Win In Coaster Injury Case
Six Flags isn't liable for a woman's injury after her hand was crushed by a railing while waiting to get on the Twisted Colossus roller coaster, California appellate justices said Thursday, finding the park didn't have a heightened duty of care since she was injured before she got on the ride.
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November 22, 2024
Texas Panel Says Gender-Affirming Surgery Suit Too Late
A Texas appellate court has backed a counselor's win in a lawsuit from a former client who came to regret undergoing a double mastectomy following the counselor's recommendation for gender-affirming surgery, finding the claims were time-barred.
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November 22, 2024
Nissan Automatic Brake Classes Dismantled By 6th Circ.
A Sixth Circuit panel vacated class certification Friday for Nissan drivers who say their cars' automatic braking system activates unnecessarily, finding the trial judge failed to grapple with software upgrades that may have fixed the alleged flaw for some of the class vehicles.
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November 22, 2024
Feds Slam Utah High Court Case Over Fed. Land Ownership
The federal government called on the Supreme Court to reject Utah's attempt to file a complaint accusing it of unconstitutionally hoarding and profiting from public lands in the state, saying the justices should decline to exercise original jurisdiction over the matter.
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November 22, 2024
EEOC Backs Rehab Worker's Retaliation Case At 10th Circ.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Friday urged the Tenth Circuit to revive an occupational therapist's lawsuit claiming a colleague inappropriately touched her and that she was fired after she reported the co-worker's harassment, arguing the trial court used the wrong standard when it tossed her retaliation claim.
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November 22, 2024
Mich. Justices Want To Know If 3M Water Challenge Is Moot
The Michigan Supreme Court ordered additional briefing Friday in 3M Co.'s challenge to regulations on PFAS in drinking water to address whether subsequent regulatory changes made 3M's lawsuit moot, echoing a focal point of last week's oral arguments in the case.
Editor's Picks
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12 Lawyers Who Are The Future Of The Supreme Court Bar
One attorney hasn't lost a single U.S. Supreme Court case she's argued, or even a single justice's vote. One attorney is perhaps "the preeminent SCOTUS advocate." And one may soon become U.S. solicitor general, despite acknowledging there are "judges out there who don't like me." All three are among a dozen lawyers in the vanguard of the Supreme Court bar's next generation, poised to follow in the footsteps of the bar's current icons.
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How Reshaped Circuit Courts Are Faring At The High Court
Seminal rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court's latest term will reshape many facets of American society in the coming years. Already, however, the rulings offer glimpses of how the justices view specific circuit courts, which have themselves been reshaped by an abundance of new judges.
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Law360's Guide To Biden's Judicial Picks
UPDATED November 21, 2024 | President Joe Biden is shaping the federal judiciary by adding to the courts' professional and demographic diversity — a sharp break from former President Donald Trump, who made the judiciary more homogeneous as the judges confirmed under him were 84% white and 76% male.
Expert Analysis
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Racing Patents To The Fed. Circ.: Collateral Estoppel Lessons
As more and more parties find themselves in two different forums addressing the same issues and then competing in a race to the Federal Circuit, certain strategies can help despite unanswered questions on when Patent Trial and Appeal Board determinations trigger collateral estoppel, say attorneys at Akin.
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Nvidia Supreme Court Case May Not Make Big Splash
The skeptical tenor of the justices' questioning at oral argument in Nvidia v. Ohman Fonder suggests that the case is unlikely to alter the motion to dismiss pleading standard in securities class actions, as some had feared, say attorneys at WilmerHale.
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Series
Circus Arts Make Me A Better Lawyer
Performing circus arts has strengthened my ability to be more thoughtful, confident and grounded, all of which has enhanced my legal practice and allowed me to serve clients in a more meaningful way, says Bailey McGowan at Stinson.
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Purse-Case Scenarios: 'MetaBirkin' Appeal Tests TM Rights
A federal court's finding that "MetaBirkin" nonfungible tokens infringed on Hermes' iconic Birkin bag imagery is now on appeal in the Second Circuit, and the order will have a lasting effect on how courts balance trademark rights and the First Amendment, say attorneys at Venable.
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3 Ways To Train Junior Lawyers In 30 Minutes Or Less
Today’s junior lawyers are experiencing a skills gap due to pandemic-era disruptions, but firms can help bring them up to speed by offering high-impact skill building content in bite-sized, interactive training sessions, say Stacey Schwartz at Katten, Diane Costigan at Winston & Strawn and Lauren Tierney at Freshfields.
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6th Circ. Ruling Prevents Disability Insurer Overreach
The Sixth Circuit’s recent ruling in McEachin v. Reliance Standard Life Insurance offers disability insurance claimants guidance on how they might challenge misapplications of policy limitations for mental illness when a medical condition accounts for their disability, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Law.
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Bid Protest Spotlight: Unclear Criteria, Data Rights, Conflicts
Liam Bowers at MoFo examines three recent decisions from the U.S. Government Accountability Office and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims examining the use of unstated evaluation criteria, an agency's investigation of its own data rights and unequal access to information about an organizational conflict of interest.
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The Bar Needs More Clarity On The Discovery Objection Rule
Almost 10 years after Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 34 was amended, attorneys still seem confused about what they should include in objections to discovery requests, and until the rules committee provides additional clarity, practitioners must beware the steep costs of noncompliance, says Tristan Ellis at Shanies Law Office.
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Foreclosing Lenders Still Floating In Murky Legal Waters In NY
The New York foreclosure landscape remains in disarray after the state's highest court last month declined to weigh in on whether legal changes from 2022 that severely curtailed lenders' ability to bring successive foreclosure cases were retroactive, says Brian Rich at Barclay Damon.
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In Terror Case, DC Circ. Must Weigh Justices' Twitter Ruling
When the D.C. Circuit hears oral argument in AstraZeneca UK v. Atchley, how the court interprets the U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 ruling in Twitter v. Taamneh will have a significant impact on future claims brought under the Anti-Terrorism Act and Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, say attorneys at Lewis Baach.
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Series
Being A Navy Reservist Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Serving this country in uniform has not only been one of the greatest honors of my life, but it has also provided me with opportunities to broaden my legal acumen and interpersonal skills in ways that have indelibly contributed to my civilian practice, says Phillip Smith at Weinberg Wheeler.
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So You Want To Move Your Law Practice To Canada, Eh?
Google searches for how to move to Canada have surged in the wake of the U.S. presidential election, and if you’re an attorney considering a move to the Great White North, you’ll need to understand how the practice of law differs across the border, says David Postel at Henein Hutchison.
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3 Policyholder Lessons From NY Bad Faith Ruling
A New York appellate court's recent decision finding that Rockefeller University alleged viable bad faith claims against its insurers reinforces the principle that insurers may not elevate their own economic interests over those of their insureds, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.
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In SF Water Case, Justices Signal How Loper May Be Applied
Skeptical questions from U.S. Supreme Court justices during oral argument in San Francisco v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency offer hints of how the court intends to apply limits on agency regulatory autonomy established last term in Loper Bright, says Karen Cullinane at Goldberg Segalla.
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Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: November Lessons
In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses six federal court decisions that touch on Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and when individual inquiries are needed to prove economic loss.