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Appellate
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July 21, 2025
Feds Tell 3rd Circ. Gun Rights Not Automatic After Crime
The Third Circuit heard oral arguments Monday over whether the Second Amendment gives a man convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol the automatic right to own weapons after serving his time.
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July 21, 2025
Copyright And TM Cases To Watch In The Second Half Of 2025
The U.S. Supreme Court will evaluate contributory liability in a $1 billion copyright case involving internet service providers, and the Federal Circuit will assess the latest attempted trademark registration testing the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's comfort with profanity. Here are the copyright and trademark cases to watch for the rest of the year.
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July 21, 2025
Enterprise Need Only Check License, Conn. Panel Rules
Enterprise Rent-A-Car can not be held liable for renting a vehicle to a man who became intoxicated and struck a jogger and his dog later that day, a Connecticut appeals court ruled, saying the company was only required to inspect the driver's physical license and not to find out if the state had limited him to vehicles equipped with car breathalyzers.
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July 21, 2025
Mich. Justices Raise Bar For Prisoner Contraband Cases
The Michigan Supreme Court ruled Monday that possession of contraband in prison is not a strict liability offense, meaning prosecutors must prove that a prisoner was, at minimum, reckless in obtaining drugs or alcohol while behind bars.
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July 21, 2025
Guinea Tells DC Circ. $22M Award Can't Be Enforced
The Republic of Guinea has urged the D.C. Circuit not to revive a consulting company's bid to enforce a $22 million arbitration award, saying a lower court correctly found that it was unclear whether the country agreed to arbitrate the dispute in the first place.
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July 21, 2025
9th Circ. Narrows 'Remain In Mexico' Block During Appeal
A split Ninth Circuit panel ruled that a California federal judge's nationwide block of the Remain in Mexico program can only apply to the clients of the nonprofit that brought the underlying challenge while the Trump administration's appeal proceeds.
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July 21, 2025
Baseball Training Co. Must Face Suit Over Mom's Injury
Indiana's court of appeals ruled that a baseball training center cannot escape a lawsuit accusing the business of negligence after an admittedly unstable training screen fell over and caused a head injury to the mother of one of the trainees.
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July 21, 2025
Split 8th Circ. OKs Fed Charges In Cop Car Burning Case
A split Eighth Circuit panel has ruled that a man convicted in Arkansas federal court of firebombing three police vehicles must face his sentence, ruling that, because the departments to which the cars belonged received federal money, the U.S. government is allowed to bring charges against the man.
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July 21, 2025
Wash. Plastic Surgeon Can't Get $13M Jury Verdict Overturned
A Washington appeals court panel refused on Monday to undo a $13 million jury verdict against a plastic surgeon in a medical malpractice case, rejecting the doctor's argument that the lower court wrongly allowed evidence of state regulators' unrelated disciplinary proceedings against her.
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July 21, 2025
Justices Asked If Frontier Law Covers 'Corner Crossing' Case
A Wyoming ranch owner is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Tenth Circuit decision that four hunters who crossed over its property to reach public lands didn't trespass, arguing that state law prohibits "corner crossing" and that no federal easement exists across private land for public access.
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July 21, 2025
Ex-Judges Call SAP Hypocritical In 'Self-Serving' Fintiv Appeal
Retired Federal Circuit Judges Randall Rader and Kathleen O'Malley are urging their former court to reject SAP America Inc.'s challenge to how the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is implementing new policies, saying the agency is acting within its limits and that SAP is selfishly contradicting arguments it previously made at the U.S. Supreme Court.
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July 21, 2025
Calif. Court Orders Drug Deal Retrial Over Mistaken Admission
A California state appeals court on Monday demanded a new trial on drug dealing charges for a man who admitted to possessing cocaine while on probation, finding a trial court judge had erroneously admitted botched testimony the man gave in a probation hearing.
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July 21, 2025
How GOP Judges Teed Up 4th Circ.'s Supreme Court Shutout
No appeals court found the U.S. Supreme Court's latest term less endearing than the Fourth Circuit, where a supersize shutout accentuated a multiyear slump for the once-favored circuit and repeatedly vindicated conservative dissenters on the left-leaning bench.
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July 21, 2025
Board Says Salvadoran Women Not A Social Group Under INA
The Board of Immigration Appeals has dismissed a Salvadoran woman's attempt to revive her application for asylum and withholding of removal, ruling that a particular social group based solely on an individual's sex and nationality is "overbroad and insufficiently particular."
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July 21, 2025
Energy Litigation To Watch In The 2nd Half Of 2025
Courtroom showdowns between the Trump administration and blue states over U.S. energy and climate change policy will dominate the energy litigation landscape for the rest of 2025. Here is what the energy industry will be watching closely in the second half of the year.
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July 21, 2025
Pa. Hospital Can Shield Some Docs In Birth Injury Suit
A Pennsylvania state appeals panel won't force a hospital to turn over all of its internal reports in a suit by parents alleging that the hospital's negligence led to their son's injuries at birth, finding that the hospital sufficiently showed that two of the three contested files are privileged.
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July 21, 2025
Mich. Panel Upholds Atty Fee For Court-Appointed Counsel
A Michigan appellate panel has upheld a sentence requiring a defendant to pay a $400 attorney fee to her court-appointed counsel, rejecting her contentions that it was an unconstitutional fine and that the court failed to determine whether she had the ability to pay.
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July 21, 2025
Calif. High Court Says Biotech Investor Suit Belongs In Del.
The California Supreme Court on Monday ruled that a lawsuit pursued by a minority investor alleging San Diego-based EpicentRx and its officers bamboozled investors belongs in Delaware Chancery Court, rejecting arguments that enforcing the biopharmaceutical company's forum selection clause violated Golden State jury trial protections.
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July 21, 2025
Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court
Last week at the Delaware Court of Chancery, a major settlement between Meta Platforms Inc. and its investors reached on the proverbial courthouse steps during day two of a trial ended an $8 billion-plus suit accusing the company's directors and officers of breaching privacy regulations and corporate fiduciary duties tied to allegations dating to the Cambridge Analytica scandal more than a decade ago.
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July 21, 2025
Tax-Lien Biz Atty Tells Jury He Didn't Seek To Dupe Lender
Counsel for a former compliance lawyer accused of pilfering from a $20 million line of credit extended to his tax-lien investment firm told a Manhattan federal jury Monday that the defendant was "sloppy," but never intended fraud.
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July 21, 2025
DC Circ. Strikes Down Gag Order On X Corp. Subpoenas
A D.C. Circuit panel has struck down a lower court's sweeping order blocking X Corp. from informing users about government data requests, with the appeals court finding the district court failed to identify specific harm that would come from keeping users in the loop.
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July 21, 2025
11th Circ Says. Experian Not Liable For Credit Dispute Costs
The Eleventh Circuit upheld a win for Experian PLC when it held that a consumer's attempts to correct inaccurate information in a credit report can't constitute an injury without evidence that the data was published to a third party or some other actual or imminent harm.
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July 21, 2025
EPA Asks 9th Circ. To Reverse Calif. Judge In Fluoride Suit
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is asking the Ninth Circuit to reverse a California federal judge who ruled that the EPA's current "optimal" level of fluoride in drinking water poses an unreasonable risk of lowering children's IQ.
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July 21, 2025
Dentist Can't Shake $11.4M Verdict Over Patient's Cancer
A Pennsylvania Superior Court on Monday affirmed an $11.4 million verdict against a dentist who allegedly ignored signs of skin cancer during appointments, rejecting her argument that the evidence didn't support the verdict.
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July 21, 2025
4th Circ. Reverses Portion Of Railroads' Broadband Suit
The Fourth Circuit has ruled that the Association of American Railroads has standing to challenge a Virginia state law requiring railroads to allow for broadband crossings, reversing a trial court decision and dealing another blow to a law that the Virginia Supreme Court already gutted on state constitutional grounds in May.
Expert Analysis
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SpaceX Labor Suit May Bring Cosmic Jurisdictional Shifts
The National Mediation Board's upcoming decision about whether SpaceX falls under the purview of the National Labor Relations Act or the Railway Labor Act could establish how jurisdictional boundaries are determined for employers that toe the line, with tangible consequences for decades to come, say attorneys at Davis Wright.
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Opinion
The BigLaw Settlements Are About Risk, Not Profit
The nine Am Law 100 firms that settled with the Trump administration likely did so because of the personal risk faced by equity partners in today's billion‑dollar national practices, enabled by an ethics rule primed for modernization, says Adam Forest at Scale.
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Opinion
Courts Must Revitalize Robust Claim Construction
Two Federal Circuit decisions from earlier this year illustrate the rarity of robust claim construction and the underused reverse doctrine of equivalents — a dual problem that prevents courts from clearly delineating and correctly cabining the scope of rights conferred by patent claims, say attorneys at Klarquist Sparkman.
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State Tort Claims May Help Deter Bribes During FCPA Pause
As the U.S. pauses Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement, companies that lose business due to competitors' bribery should consider using state tortious interference suits to expose corruption, deter illegal practices and obtain compensation for commercial losses, says Jason Manning at Levy Firestone.
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2nd Circ. Arb. Ruling May Give Foreign Insurers An Edge
The Second Circuit's decision this month in Lloyds of London v. 3131 Veterans Blvd that international arbitration agreements take primacy over state anti-arbitration insurance laws opens a division between domestic and foreign insurers that could affect the surplus lines market, says attorney Rosanne Felicello.
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Buyer Beware Of Restrictive Covenants In Delaware
Based on recent Delaware Chancery Court opinions rejecting restricted covenants contained in agreements in the sale-of-business context, businesses need to craft narrowly tailored restrictions that have legitimate interests, say attorneys at Saul Ewing.
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Series
Brazilian Jiujitsu Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Competing in Brazilian jiujitsu – often against opponents who are much larger and younger than me – has allowed me to develop a handful of useful skills that foster the resilience and adaptability necessary for a successful legal career, says Tina Dorr of Barnes & Thornburg.
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Fed. Circ. Offers Lesson On Gov't Data Rights In Contracts
The Federal Circuit's recent decision in FlightSafety v. Air Force serves as a warning for U.S. Department of Defense contractors attempting to mark their commercial technical data developed at private expense, say attorneys at Butzel Long.
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Birthright Ruling Could Alter Consumer Financial Litigation
The U.S. Supreme Court’s upcoming decision about the validity of the nationwide injunctions in the birthright citizenship cases, argued on May 15, could make it much harder for trade associations to obtain nationwide relief from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's enforcement of invalid regulations, says Alan Kaplinsky at Ballard Spahr.
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Fed. Circ. In April: Introducing New Evidence During IPR
The Federal Circuit's decision in Sage Products v. Stewart last month upheld the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's decision to allow a petitioner to rely on case-dispositive evidence beyond prior art references, affording petitioners in inter partes review proceedings greater latitude in the timing of evidence presentation, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.
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1st Circ. Ruling Widens Split Over Sentencing Enhancements
In U.S. v. Salvador-Gutierrez, the First Circuit recently switched sides in a circuit split by holding that certain sentencing enhancements apply only where the defendant used a minor in the commission of the crime, deepening a divide over the scope of role adjustments, says Sarah Sulkowski at Gelber & Santillo.
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A Cautionary Fed. Circ. Tale On Design Patents
The Federal Circuit's decision last month in Floyd highlights a risk in design patent prosecution — attempting to claim priority to a utility application, says John Hemmer at Morgan Lewis.
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Series
Power To The Paralegals: An Untapped Source For Biz Roles
Law firms looking to recruit legal business talent should consider turning to paralegals, who practice several key skills every day that prepare them to thrive in marketing and client development roles, says Vanessa Torres at Lowenstein Sandler.
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Google Case Amicus Briefs Reveal Patent Damage Fault Lines
The 21 amicus briefs filed before the en banc rehearing of EcoFactor v. Google offer opposing viewpoints on important patent damages issues that extend beyond the specific question the Federal Circuit eventually ruled on, helping practitioners anticipate and address likely objections to future damages opinions, say attorneys at Stout.
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Using Federal Forum Provisions To Nix State Securities Cases
A California appeals court's recent decision in Bullock v. Rivian clarifies that underwriters may enforce federal forum provisions to escape state court Securities Act claims, marking progress in restoring such lawsuits to federal court and reducing the litigation costs arising from duplicative state court litigation, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.