Appellate

  • June 08, 2026

    7th Circ. Says Hotel Must Rehire Worker Fired Over Knife

    The Seventh Circuit on Friday affirmed an arbitration award requiring a Chicago hotel group to reinstate a union employee fired for displaying a knife at work, saying the arbitrator deemed the incident nonviolent and that courts can't second-guess an arbitrator's factual conclusions.

  • June 08, 2026

    Justices Pass On Mississippi Death Row Batson Dispute

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied a petition for certiorari from a Mississippi death row inmate, leaving in place a state court ruling rejecting his challenge tied to racially biased jury selection at his capital trial.

  • June 08, 2026

    Advocates Can't Bring Cocoa Labor Suit, Fed. Circ. Affirms

    A labor rights organization hasn't suffered the harm needed to bring a suit against U.S. Customs and Border Protection for not responding to a petition to ban U.S. chocolate producers from importing cocoa from the Ivory Coast, a Federal Circuit panel affirmed.

  • June 08, 2026

    Divided Supreme Court Nixes First Step Act Ruling

    A split U.S. Supreme Court on Monday threw out an appellate decision upholding a reduced sentence for a defendant in a drug trafficking and manslaughter case, adding to a string of recent decisions defining the scope of the First Step Act.

  • June 08, 2026

    Justices Won't Review Van Gogh Painting Recovery Dispute

    The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it will not review a decision affirming the dismissal of a suit brought by a German Jewish art collector's heirs who sought to recover Vincent van Gogh's "Sunflowers" painting from a Japanese insurance company.

  • June 08, 2026

    Trump Taps DC Appeals Court Picks To Fill Final Vacancies

    President Donald Trump has announced two picks for the D.C. Court of Appeals, which will fill the remaining vacancies on the District of Columbia's top court.

  • June 08, 2026

    Seattle Fights Uber, Instacart Bid To Undo 9th Circ. Gig Ruling

    The city of Seattle urged the Ninth Circuit not to revisit a panel decision backing its app-based worker deactivation ordinance against a First Amendment challenge from Uber and Instacart, arguing the companies are trying to turn an ordinary worker protection law into a speech case.

  • June 08, 2026

    Top Court Turns Away Sentencing Disparity Appeal

    The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to hear the appeal of a man seeking early release from a life sentence for a drug offense, after ruling last month that reductions to mandatory minimum sentences cannot be cited as a reason for compassionate release.

  • June 08, 2026

    High Court Won't Hear Ex-GM Worker's Disability Bias Suit

    The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to take up a former General Motors employee's suit alleging the company wouldn't move her to a different position after an on-the-job injury, leaving in place a Fifth Circuit ruling that found she hadn't shown she could perform an open role.

  • June 08, 2026

    Justices Uphold 10th Circ. Native American Assault Rulings

    The U.S. Supreme Court won't overturn a pair of Tenth Circuit decisions that found that two Native American men cannot be convicted of simple assault under the Major Crimes Act after the federal government argued that the "senseless result" can't be reconciled with the law's plain text.

  • June 08, 2026

    High Court Won't Hear Florida Takings Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to take up a long-running dispute between a city in the Florida Keys and landowners over increasingly restrictive zoning, leaving in place a decision that said the city failed to pay the owners properly after inversely condemning their property.

  • June 08, 2026

    High Court Won't Let Pa. AG Enter Grid Project Suit

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rebuffed a plea from Pennsylvania's attorney general to let him intervene in Third Circuit proceedings that allowed an electricity transmission project to proceed despite having been rejected by state utility regulators.

  • June 08, 2026

    High Court Reopens Review Of DOE Furnace Efficiency Rules

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday vacated a D.C. Circuit decision that upheld Biden-era energy efficiency standards for furnaces and water heaters and ordered the circuit court to take another look in light of the Trump administration's intent to revise the rules.

  • June 05, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Asks If Co. Argued Capability Equals Infringement

    The Federal Circuit appeared to have doubts Friday morning about patent-licensing outfit PACT XPP Schweiz's position it had argued below that an Intel product could violate its patent even if it never performed an infringing action but was capable of doing so.

  • June 05, 2026

    NY Appeals Court Tosses Gun, Drug Plea Over Illegal Search

    A man sentenced to 16 years in prison had his guilty plea for drug and gun charges vacated after a New York state appeals court found that a trooper who searched his jacket pocket and discovered a gun had no right to frisk him in this manner.

  • June 05, 2026

    DC Circ. Backs CFTC Denial Of $147M Whistleblower Award

    The D.C. Circuit Friday affirmed the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's decision denying a former trader's bid for a $147 million whistleblower incentive award after he tipped off the agency about foreign exchange market manipulation, saying there's no evidence he was the original source on which the commission relied.

  • June 05, 2026

    HHS Can Issue Medicare Fines Without Jury, 4th Circ. Says

    The Fourth Circuit ruled Friday that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services can seek monetary penalties from Medicare participants for violating program requirements without a jury trial, rejecting a Maryland nursing home operator's argument that Medicare participants are guaranteed that right.

  • June 05, 2026

    Rail Co. Loses DC Circ. Appeal Challenging State Forest Law

    The D.C. Circuit rejected Grafton & Upton Railroad Co.'s effort to preempt a Massachusetts town's claim over forest land the railroad wants to use for a new transloading facility, finding Friday that the federal Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act doesn't preempt a state right-of-first-refusal law.

  • June 05, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Unsure Where State 'Bad Faith' Patent Cases Belong

    At arguments Friday in a dispute between Micron Technology Inc. and Netlist Inc., a Federal Circuit panel appeared uncertain whether suits under state laws against "bad faith" patent infringement claims belong in state or federal courts, analyzing the impact on patent law of each approach.

  • June 05, 2026

    9th Circ. Revives TCPA Suit Against Keller Williams

    The Ninth Circuit reinstated a proposed class action against Keller Williams Realty and an Arizona real estate solutions company over phone calls and texts asking a woman about selling her home, ruling she sufficiently alleged the communications at issue constituted solicitations prohibited under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. 

  • June 05, 2026

    9th Circ. Revives Tribal Smoke Shop Owner's RICO Suit

    Officials with the Colorado River Indian Tribes must face a lawsuit brought by a smoke shop owner who claims they wrongfully evicted his business and stole its inventory, the Ninth Circuit ruled in a published opinion, saying tribal employees aren't automatically shielded by sovereign immunity.

  • June 05, 2026

    Wrong 'Social Distinction' Scope Upends Deportation Relief

    An immigration appeals board ruled Friday that the "social distinction" of a deportation relief seeker's proposed social group must be measured on a countrywide basis, vacating relief granted to a Honduran mother who claimed a gang threatened to kill her.

  • June 05, 2026

    Epic Fights Apple's Bid For High Court Sanctions Review

    Epic Games told the U.S. Supreme Court there's no need for high court review of a California federal court's contempt order against Apple for violating a ban on company policies that barred app developers from steering users to outside payment options.

  • June 05, 2026

    DLA Piper Urges 2nd Circ. To End 'Vexatious' Malpractice Suit

    The Second Circuit should uphold the dismissal of a Chinese software company's legal malpractice suit and $635,000 in sanctions against it and its lawyers, DLA Piper has argued, citing previous favorable rulings in the matter by a federal magistrate judge, district court judge, state justice and five-judge panel of the New York state appeals court.

  • June 05, 2026

    7th Circ. Says Ind. Can Bar Press From Attending Executions

    A divided Seventh Circuit panel on Friday ruled that an Indiana prison rule restricting journalists' access to inmate executions does not violate the First Amendment, as reporters are not actually prevented from covering executions.

Expert Analysis

  • 'Made In America' EO May Not Survive Section 230

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    President Donald Trump's recent executive order to combat fraudulent "Made in America" claims in advertising directs the Federal Trade Commission to deem online marketplaces' failure to verify third-party origin claims as unlawful, but such a rule would likely run into Section 230's publisher immunity doctrine, say attorneys at Blank Rome.

  • Assessing EcoFactor's Impact On Damages Experts' Opinions

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    Though the Federal Circuit's ruling in EcoFactor v. Google gave rise to concerns that damages experts would be forced to rely on undisputed facts, recent case law suggests that those concerns are unwarranted, says Christopher Loh at Venable.

  • High Court Cert Case Would Test Sovereign Award Immunity

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    The D.C. Circuit's July 2025 Amaplat Mauritius v. Zimbabwe Mining Development decision appears to create a circuit split while elevating form over substance in a manner that, if left unreviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court, could bar the courthouse doors for creditors holding arbitration awards against recalcitrant foreign sovereigns, says Jeff Newton at Omni Bridgeway.

  • CFTC Actions Show Prediction Market Insider Trading Risks

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    It is a myth that insider trading law does not apply in prediction markets, as the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's recent enforcement actions illustrate that it has full authority to pursue such cases federally — and intends to, says attorney Gregg Goldfarb.

  • 2nd Circ. Clarifies When Prior Good Acts May Be Admissible

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    The Second Circuit's recent ruling in U.S. v. Cardenas, vacating a drug conspiracy conviction over improperly excluded evidence, indicates that evidence of prior good acts may be admissible to corroborate a defendant's testimony about their understanding of events and intent, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • Opinion

    Apple Discovery Fight Could Revive DOJ's Antitrust Appetite

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    Winning discovery disputes in the ongoing federal antitrust litigation over Apple’s app store practices is a huge opportunity for the Justice Department to return to its once-vigorous pursuit of product tying by tech monopolies, catch up with foreign competition regulators and establish clear standards for digital markets, says Ediberto Roman at Florida International University.

  • Lockdown To Ledger: COVID Rulings Inform Crypto Coverage

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    As cryptocurrencies move deeper into mainstream financial markets, courts tasked with determining whether traditional insurance policies respond to digital asset losses have been evaluating coverage through the analytical framework of COVID-19 business interruption litigation, with one key recurring theme, say attorneys at Kennedys.

  • Opinion

    State Bars Need To Get Specific About AI Confidentiality

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    Lawyers need to put actual client information into artificial intelligence tools to get their full value, but they cannot confidently do so until state bars offer clear, formal authority on which plan tiers of the three most popular generative AI tools are safe to use when sharing specific client details, says attorney Nick Berk.

  • The Federal Circuit's Evolving View Of Trade Secrets

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    In recent years, the Federal Circuit's approach to defining "readily ascertainable" information and determining sufficiency of trade secret identification has shifted, trending away from other circuits and potentially presenting a higher bar for trade secrets plaintiffs, say attorneys at MoFo.

  • What Justices' Review Of Guam Case Will Mean For Permitting

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    In U.S. Department of the Air Force v. Prutehi Guahan, the U.S. Supreme Court will address whether a federal agency's permit application is a final decision that courts can review — a question whose answer could reshape the timing and strategy of environmental litigation across the federal permitting landscape, say attorneys at Foley Hoag.

  • Opinion

    Judicial Restraint Anchors Constitutional Order

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    Contrasting opinions in two recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings — Trump v. CASA and Bost v. Illinois State Board of Elections — demonstrate how the judiciary’s constitutionally entrusted role can easily be preserved or disrupted, and invite renewed attention to the enduring importance of judicial restraint, says Ninth Circuit Judge J. Clifford Wallace.

  • Human Authorship Is Still Central To Copyright Eligibility

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    In declining to review the D.C. Circuit's ruling in Thaler v. Perlmutter — holding that a work purely generated by artificial intelligence cannot be copyrighted — the U.S. Supreme Court has reinforced the human authorship requirement, so it is critical for creators of AI-assisted projects to document their involvement, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Resolving The Conflict In 2nd Circ. Foreign Discovery Rulings

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    The Second Circuit recently issued two seemingly inconsistent decisions regarding the federal statute that permits U.S. discovery for purposes of a foreign proceeding, but the unifying feature appears to be the broad scope for district court discretion under Section 1782, say attorneys at Katsky Korins.

  • How 2nd Circ. Gave Loper Bright Real Force In SEC Cases

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    The Second Circuit's recent decision in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Amah offers one of the first clear indications of how courts will operationalize Loper Bright, signaling that long-standing SEC enforcement theories resting on ambiguous definitional provisions are now subject to more rigorous judicial scrutiny, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Series

    Alpine Skiing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Skiing has shaped habits I rely on daily as an attorney — focus, resilience and the ability to remain steady when circumstances shift rapidly — and influences the way I approach legal strategy, client counseling and teamwork, says Isaku Begert at Marshall Gerstein.

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