Appellate

  • July 01, 2025

    Racist Jury Selection Affords Ala. Death Row Inmate New Trial

    A Black man sentenced to death by the state of Alabama for murdering a sheriff has been granted a new trial by the Eleventh Circuit, which found that the state violated his constitutional right to equal protection by habitually eliminating potential Black jurors from cases like his in a discriminatory manner.

  • July 01, 2025

    NYT Says Palin Can't Get New Defamation Trial, Recusal

    The New York Times urged a New York federal judge to refuse Sarah Palin's request for a new trial and judge after a jury rejected her defamation claims over a 2017 editorial, saying her arguments misunderstood circuit court rulings in the long-running case and skipped a procedural bar.

  • July 01, 2025

    Illinois Court Orders Additional Look At Shooting Conviction

    An appeals court in Illinois has ruled that a man accused of committing a drive-by shooting in Chicago must be given a second chance at a postconviction petition because his counsel had not properly made arguments about evidence that could exonerate him.

  • July 01, 2025

    4th Circ. Backs Order To Release Georgetown Academic

    The Fourth Circuit on Tuesday denied the Trump administration's attempt to halt a Virginia federal court order requiring it to release a Georgetown University fellow from immigration detention, rejecting the government's claim that his lawsuit was filed in the wrong venue.

  • July 01, 2025

    9th Circ. Won't Revive Detainee's CIA Torture Suit

    A Washington federal judge was right to dismiss a Guantánamo Bay detainee's tort claims against two psychologists who helped the CIA pioneer so-called enhanced interrogation techniques on him after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a Ninth Circuit panel ruled.

  • July 01, 2025

    Valve Can't Sue Firms Over Alleged Gamer Arbitration Scheme

    Valve Corp. cannot sue two law firms over a purported scheme to manipulate arbitration pacts between the video game seller and its customers, a Washington state appellate court has ruled, recognizing that the firms are shielded from liability because their actions were part of their work representing the consumers.

  • July 01, 2025

    Supreme Court Taps Latham Atty In Campaign Spending Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court has turned to Latham & Watkins LLP's Roman Martinez to defend caps on coordinated campaign spending as amicus counsel in a case on tap for next term.

  • July 01, 2025

    4th Circ. Urged To Rethink Decision Affirming $8M KBR Award

    A Kuwaiti construction company wants the Fourth Circuit to reconsider whether it missed a deadline to seek vacatur of an $8 million arbitral award favoring Kellogg Brown & Root International Inc. in a dispute over a U.S. Army contract, arguing Monday that its decision creates an "unworkable" rule.

  • July 01, 2025

    5th Circ. Backs Dallas Short-Term Lending Ordinance

    The Fifth Circuit denied a short-term lender's request for a court order blocking a Dallas city ordinance that created new hurdles for lenders, saying Tuesday the short-term lender did not demonstrate that the ordinance would shut down the industry.

  • July 01, 2025

    DC Circ. Tosses Mich. Utility's Grid Upgrade Challenge

    A D.C. Circuit panel Tuesday upheld the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's refusal to grant a Michigan transmission owner sole ownership of grid upgrades needed to serve a Michigan solar farm, rejecting arguments that existing agreements guaranteed it full ownership rights.

  • July 01, 2025

    DC Circ. OKs Trump Firing Of Privacy Board Dems, For Now

    The D.C. Circuit on Tuesday halted a lower court's order that blocked the Trump administration from firing two Democratic members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, suggesting in a per curiam order that members of the oversight board lacked adjudicatory functions that could shield them from termination.

  • July 01, 2025

    5 Federal Circuit Clashes To Watch In July

    The Federal Circuit's argument calendar this month includes Apple's bid to undo a ruling that caused a blood oxygen monitor feature to be pulled from the Apple Watch, and a challenge by Sonos to a decision that torpedoed its $32.5 million speaker patent verdict against Google.

  • July 01, 2025

    Apple Backers Raise Price, Privilege Concerns At 9th Circ.

    Trade groups and advocacy organizations have raised a series of concerns with the Ninth Circuit about a federal district court mandate blocking Apple from charging commissions on iPhone app purchases made outside its systems, arguing an Epic Games Inc. injunction redux improperly compels speech, imperils price-setting autonomy and threatens legal privilege.

  • July 01, 2025

    DC Circ. Says NLRB Rightly Axed Claim Of Union Betrayal

    A split D.C. Circuit has upheld the National Labor Relations Board's dismissal of allegations that a transportation union betrayed a member by suggesting that he be fired after a spat with a co-worker, with the majority saying Tuesday that the NLRB properly determined that the suggestion wasn't serious.

  • July 01, 2025

    ACLU Wants To Oppose Ex-Yale Student's Defamation Suit

    Saying the issue is too important to sit out, the ACLU's Connecticut litigation arm and other nonprofits have asked a state appeals court's permission to file a friend-of-court brief to support different organizations that filed a rejected amicus brief in a separate case and were sued for defamation.

  • July 01, 2025

    4th Circ. Affirms CVS Win In Vaccine Injury Suit

    CVS Pharmacy can't be held liable for the chronic neurological injuries a woman suffered due to the allegedly improper injection of two vaccines, the Fourth Circuit ruled Tuesday in a published opinion, noting that federal law shields the company for one of the shots, and it's unclear which caused the harm.

  • July 01, 2025

    The Sharpest Dissents From The Supreme Court Term

    The term's sharpest dissents often looked beyond perceived flaws in majority reasoning to raise existential concerns about the role and future of the court, with the justices accusing one another of rewarding executive branch lawlessness, harming faith in the judiciary and threatening democracy, sometimes on an emergency basis with little briefing or explanation.

  • July 01, 2025

    Full Fed. Circ. Rejects Mylan Rehearing Bid In Patent Case

    The full Federal Circuit on Tuesday shot down Mylan's request for the court to reconsider a March ruling that the company's planned generic version of schizophrenia drug Invega Trinza would cause physicians to infringe a Janssen patent.

  • July 01, 2025

    Calif. Panel Backs Warner Bros.' Win In Writer's Film Theft Suit

    A California appeals court refused to revive a writer's lawsuit alleging Warner Bros.' film "Life of the Party" was a "cinematic clone" of her concept about a mother going to college with her daughter, ruling Monday the evidence shows the film was independently created without knowledge of the plaintiff's ideas.

  • July 01, 2025

    Mich. Judge Probes Conflict In Ex-GC's Whistleblower Suit

    A Michigan appellate judge Tuesday pressed an attorney representing a town's former general counsel for proof that his client was fired for reporting what he described as corruption, suggesting his role as both human resources director and general counsel may have created inherent conflicts justifying the dismissal.

  • July 01, 2025

    All Eyes On Congress After FCC Subsidy's High Court Win

    Supporters of the Federal Communications Commission's subsidies for phone and broadband service notched a clear win at the U.S. Supreme Court last week when justices upheld the Universal Service Fund's levy on telecom companies, but lawmakers now face pressure to beef up the $9 billion program's revenue sources.

  • July 01, 2025

    RI Urges 1st Circ. To Toss Challenge To Pot License Regs

    Rhode Island marijuana regulators told the First Circuit on Tuesday that a lower court federal judge was correct to toss a constitutional challenge to the state's cannabis regulations, which had not yet been published when the lawsuit was initially filed.

  • July 01, 2025

    Justices Face Busy Summer After Nixing Universal Injunctions

    The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to limit nationwide injunctions was one of its biggest rulings of the term — a finding the court is likely going to be dealing with all summer. Here, Law360 takes a look at the decision, how it and other cases on the emergency docket overshadowed much of the court's other work, and what it all means for the months to come.

  • July 01, 2025

    Hurricane Beryl Lawsuits Combined Into MDL

    The Texas Multi-District Litigation Panel has agreed to consolidate cases stemming from a July 2024 hurricane into an MDL.

  • July 01, 2025

    Compounding Restitution Is Unconstitutional, High Court Told

    Nonprofits, think tanks and legal scholars filed briefs this week urging the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that a federal law requiring criminals to continue paying restitution with compounding interest for decades after conviction is unconstitutional because it can exponentially increase punishment for a crime.

Expert Analysis

  • Calif. Smoke Claim Ruling Gives Insurers Support On Denials

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    Far from being an outlier among ash, soot and smoke coverage cases, a California appellate court's recent opinion in Gharibian v. Wawanesa General Insurance reinforces the principle that policyholders must establish entitlement to coverage as a threshold matter, while supporting denials of coverage for meritless claims, says Kyle Espinola at Zelle.

  • Cos. Face Enviro Justice Tug-Of-War Between States, Feds

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    The second Trump administration's sweeping elimination of environmental justice policies, programs and funding, and targeting of state-level EJ initiatives, creates difficult questions for companies on how best to avoid friction with federal policy, navigate state compliance obligations and maintain important stakeholder relationships with communities, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • Top 3 Litigation Finance Deal-Killers, And How To Avoid Them

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    Like all transactions, litigation finance deals can sometimes collapse, but understanding the most common reasons for failure, including a lack of trust or a misunderstanding of deal terms, can help both parties avoid problems, say Rebecca Berrebi at Avenue 33 and Boris Ziser at Schulte Roth.

  • 5th Circ. Ruling Is Latest Signal Of Shaky Qui Tam Landscape

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    In his recent concurring opinion in U.S. v. Peripheral Vascular Associates, a Fifth Circuit judge joined a growing list of jurists suggesting that the False Claims Act's whistleblower provisions are unconstitutional, underscoring that acceptance of qui tam relators can no longer be taken for granted, say attorneys at Miller & Chevalier.

  • How Attys Can Use A Therapy Model To Help Triggered Clients

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    Attorneys can lean on key principles from a psychotherapeutic paradigm known as the "Internal Family Systems" model to help manage triggered clients and get settlement negotiations back on track, says Jennifer Gibbs at Zelle.

  • Tracking The Evolution Of Liability Management Exercises

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    As liability management exercises face increasing legal scrutiny, understanding the history of these debt restructuring tools can help explain how the playbook keeps adapting — and why the next move is always just one ruling or transaction away, say attorneys at Weil.

  • Navigating Florida's Bad Faith Reforms After Appellate Ruling

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    A Florida appellate court's recent decision is among the first to interpret two significant amendments to the state's insurance bad faith law, and its holding that one of the statutes could not apply retroactively may affect insurers' interpretation of the other statute, say attorneys at Cozen O'Connor.

  • 3 Steps For In-House Counsel To Assess Litigation Claims

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    Before a potential economic downturn, in-house attorneys should investigate whether their company is sitting on hidden litigation claims that could unlock large recoveries to help the business withstand tough times, says Will Burgess at Hilgers Graben.

  • Series

    Teaching College Students Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Serving as an adjunct college professor has taught me the importance of building rapport, communicating effectively, and persuading individuals to critically analyze the difference between what they think and what they know — principles that have helped to improve my practice of law, says Sheria Clarke at Nelson Mullins.

  • A New Tool For Assessing Kickback Risks In Health Marketing

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    The Seventh Circuit's recent decision in U.S. v. Sorensen, reversing a conviction after trial of a durable medical equipment distributor, highlights two principle considerations for determining whether payments to marketers in healthcare are unlawful under the Anti-Kickback Statute, says Elisha Kobre at Sheppard Mullin.

  • Maximizing Employer Defenses After Calif. Meal Waiver Ruling

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    A California state appeals court's recent decision in Bradsbery v. Vicar Operating, finding that revocable meal period waivers prospectively signed by employees are enforceable, offers employers four steps to proactively reduce their exposure to meal period claims and bolster their defenses in a potential lawsuit, say attorneys at Fisher Phillips.

  • Series

    Adapting To Private Practice: From DOJ Enviro To Mid-Law

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    Practitioners leaving a longtime government role for private practice — as when I departed the U.S. Department of Justice’s environmental enforcement division — should prioritize finding a firm that shares their principles, values their experience and will invest in their transition, says John Cruden at Beveridge & Diamond.

  • Independent Contractor Rule Up In The Air Under New DOL

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    In several recent court challenges, the U.S. Department of Labor has indicated its intent to revoke the 2024 independent contractor rule, sending a clear signal that it will not defend the Biden-era rule on the merits in anticipation of further rulemaking, say attorneys at Jackson Lewis.

  • Why Trade Cases May Put Maple Leaf Deference On Review

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    When litigation challenging the president’s trade actions reaches the Federal Circuit, the court will have to reevaluate the Maple Leaf standard in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2024 Loper Bright decision limiting Chevron-like deference to cases involving statutory provisions in which Congress delegated discretionary authority to the executive branch, say attorneys at Wiley.

  • A Look At Probabilistic Tracing After High Court's Slack Ruling

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    Recent decisions following the U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 ruling in Slack v. Pirani have increased the difficulty of pleading Securities Act claims for securities issued in direct listings by rejecting the use of statistical probabilities to establish that share purchases were traceable to a challenged registration statement, says Jonathan Richman at Brown Rudnick.

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