Appellate

  • July 20, 2026

    NJ Justices Call Land Swap An Abuse Of Eminent Domain

    The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that a municipality violated state law and constitutional limits when it condemned two privately owned parcels of land to trade them to a developer, holding that the town never intended to put the seized properties to public use.

  • July 20, 2026

    4th Circ. Remands Models' Image-Misuse Coverage Fight

    An insurance company's coverage dispute with a Virginia Beach restaurant accused by a group of models of misappropriating their images was sent back to the district court Monday by the Fourth Circuit to determine if the lawsuit became moot when the restaurant settled with the models.

  • July 20, 2026

    Vanda's NDA Rejection Challenge Can't Be Heard At DC Court

    A D.C. federal judge has said he no longer has jurisdiction to hear Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s challenge alleging the FDA violated the Appointments Clause by allowing a non-officer to exercise "signatory authority" and reject its new drug application for tradipitant, since Vanda went to the D.C. Circuit raising the same argument already.

  • July 20, 2026

    3rd Circ. Clears Supplier Of Safety 'Duty' In Fatal Explosion

    The Third Circuit ruled in a precedential opinion Monday that an industrial equipment supplier did not have a duty to provide safety training to civilian workers who were killed or injured by an explosion in a paint-mixing facility at an army depot.

  • July 20, 2026

    Wis. Village Can't Void Tribal Land Trust Order, 7th Circ. Told

    The U.S. Department of the Interior is asking the Seventh Circuit to reject a Wisconsin village's appeal that seeks to undo the agency's decision to place 500 acres into trust for the Oneida Nation, arguing that the municipality can't overcome Congress' power to regulate Indian affairs.

  • July 20, 2026

    Insurers Seek Clarity On Arbitration Estoppel Rules

    Another group of insurers is pressing the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve whether state or federal law applies when deciding whether a nonsignatory to an international arbitration agreement can force arbitration of a property damage coverage dispute, an issue they say is "of national and international importance."

  • July 20, 2026

    Grocery Chain To Shell Out $225K To Settle 401(k) Fee Suit

    A supermarket chain agreed to pay $225,000 to settle a proposed class action claiming the company allowed its 401(k) plan to be weighed down by excessive fees, according to a motion filed in New York federal court Monday.

  • July 20, 2026

    Ga. Appellate Court Affirms Contempt Order Against Atty

    The Georgia Court of Appeals affirmed a state court's decision to hold a Georgia attorney in contempt of court for a late appearance at a hearing for his client's criminal case, rejecting the attorney's claims that he wasn't given due process and was discriminated against because he's Black.

  • July 20, 2026

    Legal Center Tells 4th Circ. To Reject FCC Campaign Ad Rule

    The Campaign Legal Center has asked the Fourth Circuit to set aside recent FCC guidance on political ads, saying it violates the Communications Act of 1934.

  • July 20, 2026

    2nd Circ. Keeps Drug Sentence After Flee Attempt, Proffer Lies

    The Second Circuit upheld a 12-year sentence for a New York man convicted of drug trafficking, finding that the sentence was correct after he chartered a private jet to flee the country and lied to federal investigators about his involvement as part of a proffer agreement. 

  • July 20, 2026

    Ga. Gov. Names US Magistrate Judge To State Appellate Court

    Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has appointed a U.S. magistrate judge for the Southern District of Georgia as a Georgia Court of Appeals judge, a move that came after the judge made the short list for a Georgia Supreme Court justice vacancy last year.

  • July 20, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Told Decision Clearing Sirius In Patent Case Flawed

    German research institute Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft has urged the Federal Circuit to revive its patent suit against SiriusXM, saying a lower court made various errors when deciding that the satellite radio giant relied on a delay in bringing the suit.

  • July 20, 2026

    2 More Whitmer Plot Convictions Reversed In Michigan

    Two men sentenced to prison for providing material support for terrorism and other crimes tied to the 2020 plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer had their convictions vacated Monday after a Michigan appellate panel ruled that a recent decision overturning a co-defendant's convictions required the same result.

  • July 20, 2026

    3rd Circ. Deems ADA Claims Untimely, Flags Misquotes

    A Pennsylvania hospital employee disclosed her diabetes too late and did not clearly ask for accommodation before she was fired for sleeping on the job, a Third Circuit panel ruled Monday, additionally sanctioning her attorney for filing a minor motion that possibly contained artificial intelligence hallucinations.

  • July 20, 2026

    7th Circ. Backs Arbitrator's Finding That Ill. Hotel Flouted CBA

    A Chicago hotel can't duck an arbitrator's finding that it needed to employ union workers while operating as a migrant shelter, a Seventh Circuit panel ruled, rejecting the hotel's argument that the arbitration award wasn't grounded in the terms of a collective bargaining agreement.

  • July 20, 2026

    CIT Judge Changes IEEPA Test Case But Retains Schedule

    The U.S. Court of International Trade has selected a new underlying case as the one to test the federal government's updates on its system for refunding duties charged under President Donald Trump's struck-down global tariff regime, though it otherwise kept in place certain reporting and hearing deadlines.

  • July 20, 2026

    4 Patent Cases To Watch In The Second Half Of 2026

    New limits on the ability to challenge patents tied to when they were issued, the invalidity standards for antibody patents and the test for design patent infringement are all at issue in cases patent attorneys will be monitoring for the rest of the year.

  • July 20, 2026

    AGs Say DOJ Suit Would 'Upend' Atty Discipline System

    Attorneys general in 20 states have raised alarms over the U.S. Department of Justice's "unprecedented effort" to halt a disciplinary case in D.C. against former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Clark, warning the Trump administration is trying to "upend a centuries-old system of attorney discipline" and put federal government lawyers beyond the reach of local disciplinary authorities.

  • July 20, 2026

    Microchip Co. Will Pay $13M To End Merger Severance Fight

    A microchip-maker will pay more than $13 million to settle a long-running class action alleging it illegally shut down a severance program following a 2016 merger, according to terms of the proposed deal filed in California federal court.

  • July 20, 2026

    Top Gov't Contracting Cases To Watch In The 2nd Half Of 2026

    Federal courts in the latter half of 2026 are expected to decide if the Trump administration overstepped by designating Anthropic a supply chain risk to national security and whether the False Claims Act's qui tam provisions pass constitutional muster, potentially affecting the government's ability to tackle fraud.

  • July 20, 2026

    Meet The Attys Vying For Position 1 On The Wash. High Court

    A civil rights litigator who left a top role at the Washington state attorney general's office last fall to step in for a retiring state Supreme Court justice is vying this election season to retain the seat for the next two years, drawing opposition from a Ballard Spahr LLP tax attorney and a longtime family law practitioner.

  • July 17, 2026

    Full 3rd Circ. Wipes Out New Jersey Assault Weapons Ban

    The full Third Circuit on Friday held that New Jersey's decades-long ban on semi-automatic firearms and high-capacity magazines is unconstitutional, though some judges said the way the weapons are now being used as well as recent technological advances couldn't have been foreseen by the Constitution's framers.

  • July 17, 2026

    9th Circ. Tosses Child Sex Abuse Conviction Over Bad Search

    A Ninth Circuit panel threw out the conviction of a man who pled guilty to recording himself raping his 7-year-old daughter in Washington, saying Friday that officers discovered the videos on his computer after going beyond the bounds of an unrelated search warrant.

  • July 17, 2026

    US Seeks Toss Of Arbutus Patent Suit Over Moderna Vaccine

    The federal government asked the U.S. Court of Federal Claims on Friday to dismiss much of a patent suit against it by Arbutus Biopharma tied to Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine, saying the court couldn't hear the bulk of the case because Arbutus and Moderna reached a multibillion-dollar consent judgment that is subject to appeal.

  • July 17, 2026

    Deutsche Bank Can Pursue Billionaire Vik Over $243M Order

    A Connecticut appeals court on Friday revived a Deutsche Bank lawsuit against billionaire Alexander Vik, concluding that the bank's prior litigation loss did not bar a second lawsuit accusing Vik and his daughter of disrupting a Norwegian software company's share sale designed to partially satisfy a $243 million English court judgment.

Expert Analysis

  • Decoding Arbitral Disputes: Tracing Paths To Award Recovery

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    Recent subpoenas to Adidas and Hilton deployed in Blasket Renewables v. Spain, pending in D.C. federal court, show arbitration award recovery to be a disciplined exercise in constructing visibility, applying pressure and sequencing procedural advantage, says Josep Galvez at 4-5 Gray's Inn Square.

  • 5 Key Questions Attys Should Ask About Statistical Analyses

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    Even attorneys without a background in statistics can effectively vet the general concepts of a statistical analysis by asking targeted questions and can thereby reinforce the credibility and relevance of expert testimony — or expose its weaknesses, say Katrina Schydlower and Christopher Cunio at Hunton and Kevin Cahill at FTI Consulting.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: April Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy identifies practice tips from three recent rulings involving allegations of racial discrimination in mortgage applications, health insurance networks and actual cash value losses.

  • '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.

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