Appellate

  • April 16, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Won't Touch Meta's PTAB Win Against Xerox

    A Federal Circuit panel on Wednesday quickly and without comment rejected a bid from Xerox Corp. to overturn a Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision in favor of Meta Platforms Inc. that found claims in a message distribution patent are invalid.

  • April 16, 2025

    Ex-Judges Say BIA Wrongly Looking For 'Sushi-Grade Tuna'

    Former immigration judges and members of the Board of Immigration Appeals told the Eleventh Circuit on Wednesday that the BIA has recently departed from the clear error standard to reverse relief to those seeking protection under the Convention Against Torture, emphasizing that the error needs to smell like "five-week-old, unrefrigerated dead fish."

  • April 16, 2025

    Pa. Poultry Farm's Slaughter Methods Deemed Trade Secrets

    The Pennsylvania Superior Court has ruled that an animal rights group cannot force a Lebanon County poultry farm to disclose its chicken slaughtering practices, with the court ruling that the materials sought were confidential trade secrets.

  • April 16, 2025

    Fed Circ. Affirms Greek Air Force Suit Was Untimely

    A Federal Circuit panel issued a one-word judgment upholding a Court of Federal Claims ruling that a $22 million suit the Greece air force brought over faulty reconnaissance cameras bought through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program was untimely.

  • April 16, 2025

    Wyo. Justices Skeptical Of State Abortion Bans' Legality

    The Wyoming Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed poised to side with a lower court judge that recent abortion bans violate the state's constitution, hinting that the Legislature doesn't have the authority to determine when life begins and thus cannot establish a compelling interest for the laws. 

  • April 16, 2025

    Limits On Conn. Biz Law Stay In Effect In Sandy Hook Case

    A Connecticut appeals court's $150 million paring of a $1.44 billion judgment against Infowars host Alex Jones for defaming the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims' families was a shift away from a broader view of the state's most popular business litigation statute, several experts told Law360.

  • April 16, 2025

    Koch, Chicken Buyers Spar Over $75M Deal Challenge

    Restaurants challenging $75 million in settlements inked in the broiler chicken price-fixing litigation with Koch Foods Inc. and House of Raeford Farms Inc. told the Seventh Circuit the appeal should succeed because it includes more detail than a recently rejected challenge of a smaller deal with Simmons Foods Inc.

  • April 16, 2025

    3rd Circ. Says FAA Doesn't Apply To Drivers' Distributor Pact

    The Third Circuit nixed on Wednesday a New Jersey lower court's order making a father-son delivery driver duo arbitrate their wage and hour claims against tortilla producer Gruma Corp., finding the Federal Arbitration Act does not apply to the parties' distributor contract.

  • April 16, 2025

    Carvana Stockholders Urge Revival Of Insider Trading Suit

    Stockholder attorneys who saw unjust enrichment and fiduciary breach claims against Carvana Inc.'s directors, officers and controller scuttled in Delaware's Court of Chancery last year urged the state's justices Wednesday to revive claims against its controller, who allegedly relied on inside information while selling $3.7 billion of shares.

  • April 16, 2025

    Wash. Atty Disbarred For Blown Divorce Case, Blaming Client

    A Seattle-area attorney has been disbarred for failing to file any pleadings in a divorce case, resulting in a default order keeping the client from his children, then repeatedly lying during disciplinary proceedings in an attempt to avoid the blame, according to records from the Washington State Bar Association.

  • April 16, 2025

    5th Circ. Says Late Settlement Notice Means No Coverage

    A healthcare company was rightfully denied coverage for a settlement over the erroneous approval of a Florida Medicaid recipient's out-of-state treatment, a Fifth Circuit panel ruled, finding the company breached its policy when it failed to inform its insurer of the agreement in advance.

  • April 16, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Won't Revive MIT Patent In Electric Vehicle Fight

    The Federal Circuit on Wednesday refused to revive a technology company's patent covering a wireless charging system created by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, backing a Patent Trial and Appeal Board finding that the challenged claims were too obvious to warrant patent protection.

  • April 16, 2025

    Justices Urged To Deny Insurers' Tribal Jurisdiction Challenge

    The Suquamish Tribe told the U.S. Supreme Court it shouldn't hear a group of insurers' bid to litigate COVID-19-related property insurance claims outside tribal court, arguing the Ninth Circuit correctly held that the insurers' coverage of tribal property sufficiently established tribal jurisdiction.

  • April 16, 2025

    8th Circ. Vacates Block On Iowa Immigration Law

    An Eighth Circuit panel has vacated its decision barring Iowa from enforcing a state law that criminalizes noncitizens who enter the state after deportation from the U.S., after the Trump administration voluntarily dropped the suit that the Biden administration had launched against the state. 

  • April 16, 2025

    Mass. High Court Revives BU Contract Suit Against Architect

    Massachusetts' highest court ruled Wednesday that a six-year limit on tort claims due to design defects in a construction project under a Boston University athletic field doesn't apply to a contract dispute between the school and an architectural firm that explicitly agreed to cover such costs.

  • April 16, 2025

    Exxon Urges Justices To Resolve Seized Cuba Property Claim

    Exxon Mobil Corp. asked the U.S. Supreme Court to scrutinize a ruling frustrating its attempts to collect damages from Cuban property confiscated decades ago, arguing the Trump and Biden administrations' opposing stances on such lawsuits present a chance for the court to settle the political debate.

  • April 16, 2025

    Paralegal Tells NC Justices Not To Disturb Appellate Victory

    The convicted former paralegal of a disbarred attorney has urged North Carolina's highest court to let stand an intermediate appellate ruling offering her another chance to dismiss the state's embezzlement charges against her, arguing the decision doesn't meet the high bar for review.

  • April 16, 2025

    Locke Lord Escapes Refinery's Suit Over $2.5M Loss

    A New Jersey state appeals court said Wednesday Locke Lord LLP's office in the state isn't a strong enough tie to establish jurisdiction in an oil company's legal malpractice suit over the company's $2.5 million loss connected to a North Dakota refinery project.

  • April 16, 2025

    Schumer Looks To Block Trump NY US Attorney Nominations

    Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced on Wednesday he is exercising his power to block two of President Donald Trump's nominations for U.S. attorneys, which could set up an early test for preserving the long-standing Senate blue slip tradition.

  • April 16, 2025

    7th Circ. Judge Doubts CTA Worker's Signal Chat Claims

    A Seventh Circuit judge on Wednesday expressed skepticism that a lower court erred in tossing a former Chicago Transit Authority employee's retaliation suit as a sanction for spoiling evidence, saying he changed his story about how electronic phone messages were deleted after a Signal executive said the initial explanation was technologically impossible.

  • April 16, 2025

    Reed Smith Wins Stay Order In Eletson Shipping Feud

    For now, Reed Smith will not be compelled to turn over a client file to the new owners of reorganized international shipping group Eletson, following a temporary stay issued by the Second Circuit amid the BigLaw firm's fight to continue representing the company's prebankruptcy shareholders.

  • April 15, 2025

    9th Circ. Nixes JustAnswer Arbitration Bid In Membership Suit

    The Ninth Circuit on Tuesday denied website JustAnswer's bid to force into arbitration a putative class action accusing it of trapping customers into expensive subscriptions, ruling that no contract requiring arbitration was formed between JustAnswer and individuals who were allegedly roped into recurring subscriptions costing up to $60 per month.

  • April 15, 2025

    9th Circ. Told Oregon Hospital Merger Law Flouts Due Process

    A hospital trade group urged the Ninth Circuit on Monday to block an Oregon law allowing the Oregon Health Authority to review proposed healthcare business consolidations, arguing the law is "unconstitutionally vague" and bestows unlimited power on the agency to block healthcare transactions in the state.

  • April 15, 2025

    Westlaw Rival Urges 3rd Circ. Intervention In AI Fair Use Case

    Tech startup ROSS Intelligence has urged the Third Circuit to allow a quick appeal focusing on two key questions from a lower court decision concluding it infringed copyrighted material from Thomson Reuters' Westlaw platform to create an artificial intelligence-backed competing legal research tool. 

  • April 15, 2025

    7th Circ. Judge Skeptical Amazon Violated Labor Law

    A Seventh Circuit judge on Tuesday pushed a National Labor Relations Board attorney to address why it was a violation of federal labor law for Amazon to tell employees that it can make exceptions to a policy limiting their off-duty access to a Kentucky facility at any time, "when the legal right exists whether the workers are told or not."

Expert Analysis

  • Justices Likely To Issue Narrow Ruling In $1.3B Award Dispute

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    After last week's argument in Devas v. Antrix, the Supreme Court appears likely to reverse the holding that minimum contacts are required before a federal court may exercise personal jurisdiction over a foreign state and remand the case for further litigation on other important constitutional questions, say attorneys at Cleary. 

  • Pleading Rules At Stake In High Court Hamas Banking Case

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    While a case between victims of Hamas terrorist attacks and a Lebanese bank, recently argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, appears to ask a narrow question of which civil procedure rules apply to requests to reopen final judgments, how the justices rule could drastically change pleading strategies for future plaintiffs, say attorneys at Dorsey & Whitney.

  • What's At Stake In High Court Transgender Care Suit

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    The outcome of U.S. v. Skrmetti will have critical implications for the rights of transgender youth and their access to gender-affirming care, and will likely affect other areas of law and policy involving transgender individuals, including education, employment, healthcare and civil rights, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • Considerations As Trump Admin Continues To Curtail CFPB

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    Recent sweeping moves from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's new leadership have signaled a major shift in the agency's trajectory, and regulated entities should prepare for broader implications in both the near and long term, say attorneys at Pryor Cashman.

  • 6th Circ. Ruling Paves Path Out Of Loper Bright 'Twilight Zone'

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright ruling created a twilight zone between express statutory delegations that trigger agency deference and implicit ones that do not, but the Sixth Circuit’s recent ruling in Moctezuma-Reyes v. Garland crafted a two-part test for resolving cases within this gray area, say attorneys at Wiley.

  • NCAA Rulings Signal Game Change For Athlete Classification

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    A Tennessee federal court's recent decision in Pavia v. NCAA adds to a growing call to consider classifying college athletes as employees under federal law, a change that would have unexpected, potentially prohibitive costs for schools, says J.R. Webster Cucovatz at Gilson Daub.

  • Copyright Ruling Could Extend US Terminations Worldwide

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    If upheld on appeal, Vetter v. Resnik, a recent ruling from a Louisiana federal court, could extend the geographical scope of U.S. copyright termination rights to foreign territories, say attorneys at Manatt.

  • Recent Cases Clarify FCA Kickback Pleading Standards

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    Two recently resolved cases involving pharmaceutical manufacturers may make it more difficult for False Claims Act defendants facing kickback scheme allegations to get claims dismissed for lack of evidence, say Li Yu at Bernstein Litowitz, Ellen London at London & Noar, and Gregg Shapiro at Gregg Shapiro Law.

  • Bankruptcy Ruling Provides Guidance On 363 Asset Sales

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    HE v. Avadim Holdings, a recent ruling from the District of Delaware, underscores the principle that rejection of executory contracts does not unwind completed transfers of property and the importance of clear and precise language in sale orders and asset purchase agreements in bankruptcy cases, say attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland.

  • FLSA Ruling Shows Split Over Court Approval Of Settlements

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    A Kentucky federal court's recent ruling in Bazemore v. Papa John's highlights a growing trend of courts finding they are not required, or even authorized, to approve private settlements releasing Fair Labor Standards Act claims, underscoring a jurisdictional split and open questions that practitioners need to grapple with, say attorneys at Vedder Price.

  • Dewberry Ruling Is A Wakeup Call For Trademark Owners

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Dewberry v. Dewberry hones in on the question of how a defendant's affiliates' profits should be treated under the Lanham Act, and should remind trademark litigants and practitioners that issues involving monetary relief should be treated seriously, say attorneys at Finnegan.

  • A Look At The Student Loan Case Pending At Supreme Court

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    The Trump administration is likely to drop the U.S. Supreme Court case of U.S. Department of Education v. Career Colleges and Schools of Texas after its review of the 2022 borrower defense to repayment rule, but any outcome will be significant for institutions participating in programs covered by Title IV of the Higher Education Act, say attorneys at Duane Morris.

  • When Reincorporation Out Of Del. Isn't A Good Idea

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    While recent high-profile corporate moves out of Delaware have prompted discussion about the benefits of incorporation elsewhere, for many, remaining in the First State may be the right decision due to its deep body of business law, tradition of nonjury trials and other factors, say attorneys at Goodwin.

  • Perspectives

    11th Circ. Ruling Shows How AEDPA Limits Habeas Relief

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    The Eleventh Circuit's recent decision to uphold an Alabama man's death sentence reveals how the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act can prevent meaningful review and has eroded the power of habeas corpus petitions by forcing federal courts to pay extraordinary deference to state-level rulings, says Paul Shechtman at Yale Law School.

  • Navigating The Uncertain Future Of The Superfund PFAS Rule

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    The D.C. Circuit's recent grant of a pause in litigation while the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reviews the Biden-era designation of two per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances as "hazardous" under the Superfund law creates new uncertainty for companies — but more lawsuits are likely as long as the rule remains in effect, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.

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