Appellate

  • July 08, 2025

    Split 9th Circ. Axes Illegal Reentry-After-Removal Conviction

    A split Ninth Circuit on Tuesday undid a Dominican man's conviction for unlawfully re-entering the U.S. after previously being removed, saying the federal government failed to prove he ever escaped border agents' surveillance near the U.S.-Mexico border.

  • July 08, 2025

    Breaking Down Stewart's Nonstop Discretionary Denial Orders

    Acting U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Coke Morgan Stewart inundated the patent community in May and June with dozens of rulings altering the landscape of discretionary denials at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. Here, Law360 goes through what you should know.

  • July 08, 2025

    Top Supreme Court Atty Touts AI Version Of Own Argument

    You're not hallucinating — a tech-savvy U.S. Supreme Court advocate generated a near-facsimile of his voice, had an artificial intelligence chatbot use it to argue the same case he recently argued, and told Law360 on Tuesday that "many of its answers were as good or better than mine."

  • July 08, 2025

    5th Circ. Wary To Let Surety Stick Chevron With $11M Bill

    A Fifth Circuit panel seemed skeptical of a surety company's argument that BP and Chevron need to pony up $11 million to pay for decommissioning costs, asking Tuesday what to do with contractual language that seemingly absolved them of having to pay that bill.

  • July 08, 2025

    Product Liability Cases To Watch In 2nd Half Of 2025

    The fate of a $2.5 billion punitive damages award against Ford and looming bench verdicts in the first PFAS trials brought by a state are among the cases that product liability attorneys will be following closely in the second half of 2025.

  • July 08, 2025

    Split 9th Circ. Revives Journos' Hacking Suit Against NSO

    A divided Ninth Circuit reinstated a lawsuit by El Salvadoran journalists alleging Israeli spyware maker NSO Group hacked their iPhones when covering human rights abuses, ruling Tuesday the California federal court abused its discretion when dismissing their suit based on its conclusion that the district wasn't the appropriate forum. 

  • July 08, 2025

    Pot Smell May Be Hemp So No Probable Cause, 4th Circ. Told

    A North Carolina man urged the Fourth Circuit on Monday to revive his challenge of a police officer's search of his car based on the smell of marijuana, saying the government is wrongly asserting the search was legal because there are legal forms of hemp with an indistinguishable odor. 

  • July 08, 2025

    Trump, Iowa AG Back Florida's Push To Enforce Migrant Law

    The Trump administration, the state of Iowa and the Immigration Reform Law Institute told the Eleventh Circuit they support Florida's push to enforce a law criminalizing the entry of unauthorized immigrants into the state, arguing the law isn't preempted by federal statutes. 

  • July 08, 2025

    11th Circ. Rejects Fla. Jurisdiction In $17M Cheese Fraud Case

    The Eleventh Circuit declined Tuesday to revive a lawsuit accusing Savencia Cheese USA LLC and its executives of fraudulently selling two Florida companies a worthless cheese distribution company for $17 million, finding that the presence of deal counsel in Miami is not enough to keep the suit in Florida federal court.

  • July 08, 2025

    Copter Pilot's Death Suit Revived By 4th Circ. After Rehearing

    The Fourth Circuit has once again reinstated a lawsuit by the widow of a crop-dusting pilot whose helicopter became tangled in a steel cable stretched over the property, causing him to crash, ruling that a jury must be the one to decide whether the landlord should have known that the wire posed a danger, according to a published opinion issued Tuesday following a rehearing.

  • July 08, 2025

    8th Circ. Strikes Down FTC's Click-To-Cancel Rule

    An Eighth Circuit panel on Tuesday vacated the Federal Trade Commission's planned "click-to-cancel" rule, which would have required companies to allow customers to ditch their subscriptions with a single click, finding that the commission did not follow the proper procedures once a judge determined the rule change would cost over $100 million. 

  • July 08, 2025

    Teva Challenge To J&J Antipsychotic Patent Fails At Fed. Circ.

    The Federal Circuit on Tuesday rejected Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc.'s challenge to the validity of claims in a Johnson & Johnson unit's patent covering a lucrative schizophrenia drug, disagreeing with the generic-drug maker that one of the patent's claims should be presumed obvious.

  • July 08, 2025

    VA Worker Can't Revive Scooter Storage Accommodation Suit

    The Seventh Circuit upheld the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' defeat of a lawsuit claiming the agency unlawfully revoked a disabled employee's reserved parking space during the COVID-19 pandemic, saying the VA's offer of an alternative spot wasn't unreasonable just because he couldn't lock his mobility scooter overnight.

  • July 08, 2025

    Aviation Co. Asks Justices To Clarify TM Jury Trial Rights

    A personal airplane manufacturer involved in a trademark dispute with a luxury charter-plane company has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to determine whether parties in infringement cases forfeit their right to a jury trial when seeking an accounting of profits as the monetary remedy instead of damages.

  • July 08, 2025

    Trump Tariff Fights Put Spotlight On Major Questions Doctrine

    Challenges to President Donald Trump's global tariffs have brought renewed attention to the U.S. Supreme Court's major questions doctrine, including observations that lower courts have so far inconsistently applied this approach when scrutinizing a range of agency actions.

  • July 08, 2025

    Poultry Farm Urges NC Justices To Reject Animal Cruelty Case

    A North Carolina poultry farm lambasted a chicken welfare group as allegedly seeking a "third bite at the proverbial apple" by petitioning the state's highest court to revive its animal cruelty case, saying the state's animal protection statute doesn't apply to commercial farmers.

  • July 08, 2025

    11th Circ. Asked To Rehear Carnival Cruise Sex Assault Case

    A teenage passenger has urged the Eleventh Circuit to reconsider its ruling absolving Carnival Corp. of liability for her onboard sexual assault, arguing that the cruise line knew of over 100 prior passenger-on-passenger assaults but failed to take simple steps like implementing curfews or adding security to protect minors.

  • July 08, 2025

    4th Circ. Revives Medical Device Co.'s Claim In Contract Suit

    The Fourth Circuit on Tuesday revived a medical device maker's breach of contract claim alleging a company it hired to manage its patents globally overcharged for services, sending the case back to a Virginia federal court.

  • July 08, 2025

    NC Atty Says Mistrial Order Puts Career At Risk In Appeal Bid

    A property restoration company and its trial attorney told the North Carolina Court of Appeals that the attorney did not engage in "serious misconduct," and urged it to toss components of a lower court's mistrial order.

  • July 08, 2025

    4th Circ. Won't Pause Ex-Naval Engineers' No-Poach Ruling

    The Fourth Circuit on Tuesday sent a revived class action alleging that shipbuilding military contractors used no-poach agreements to suppress wages back to district court, rejecting the contractors' motion for a stay while they prepare to send a certiorari petition to the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • July 08, 2025

    FinCEN To Appeal Block Of Trump's Border Cash Biz Order

    The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, its director and others on Tuesday filed a notice of their plan to appeal a California federal judge's decision to temporarily block the Trump administration's order singling out cash-moving businesses along the southwest border for heightened anti-money laundering reporting.

  • July 08, 2025

    Exclusion's Use Of 'The' Supports Alt. Reading, 5th Circ. Says

    The Fifth Circuit said an exclusion barring coverage for intellectual property infringement claims didn't necessarily relieve an insurer from covering defense expenses an oil and gas company incurred in an IP theft lawsuit, finding the exclusion's use of "the" led to a pro-coverage, reasonable meaning.

  • July 08, 2025

    BCBS Of Mich. Wants Yacht Company's ERISA Fight Tossed

    A Michigan Blue Cross Blue Shield affiliate urged a federal court to toss a yacht company's suit alleging mismanagement of its employee health plan, arguing its allegations that out-of-network claims were mishandled were time-barred and failed to state a claim for violating federal benefits law.

  • July 08, 2025

    DEA Tells DC Circ. To Toss Ayahuasca Church's Petition

    Federal drug enforcers urged the D.C. Circuit on Tuesday to toss a petition brought by an Iowa church seeking a religious exemption to use a psychedelic in its rites, saying there was no legal basis to the organization's allegations that the agency took too long to process its application.

  • July 08, 2025

    Pa. Panel Grants Immunity To Nursing Board In Exam Dispute

    A Pennsylvania appellate court on Tuesday narrowly rejected a lawsuit filed by an ex-nurse who contends a state board violated her rights by ordering her to undergo a mental health exam, finding instead that the board members are entitled to quasi-judicial immunity.

Expert Analysis

  • The State Of Play In Copyright Protection For Floor Plans

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    With questions over copyright protections for floor plans potentially teed up in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, attorneys in the real estate industry should take steps to clarify and strengthen clients' rights and reduce the risk of litigation, says Dylan I. Scher at Quinn Emanuel.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Teaching Yourself Legal Tech

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    New graduates often enter practice unfamiliar with even basic professional software, but budding lawyers can use on-the-job opportunities to both catch up on technological skills and explore the advanced legal and artificial intelligence tools that will open doors, says Alyssa Sones at Sheppard Mullin.

  • Opinion

    Legacy Of 3 Justices Should Guide Transgender Rights Ruling

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    Three Republican-appointed U.S. Supreme Court justices — Anthony Kennedy, Sandra Day O'Connor and David Souter — gave rise to a jurisprudence of personal liberty that courts today invoke to protect gender-affirming care, and with the court now poised to decide U.S. v. Skrmetti, it must follow the path that they set, says Greg Fosheim at McDermott.

  • How IPR Estoppel Ruling May Clash With PTAB Landscape

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    Though the Federal Circuit's narrowing of inter partes review estoppel in Ingenico v. Ioengine might encourage more petitions, tougher standards for discretionary denial established by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office could be a counterbalancing factor, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

  • Texas Ruling Emphasizes Limits Of Franchisors' Liability

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    The Texas Supreme Court's recent ruling in Massage Heights Franchising v. Hagman, holding that a franchisor was not liable to a customer for the actions of a franchisee's employee, helps clarify the relative roles and responsibilities of the parties in such situations — and the limits of franchisors' duty of care, say attorneys at Polsinelli.

  • How AI May Reshape The Future Of Adjudication

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    As discussed at a recent panel at Texas A&M, artificial intelligence will not erase the human element of adjudication in the next 10 to 20 years, but it will drive efficiencies that spur private arbiters to experiment, lead public courts to evolve and force attorneys to adapt, says Christopher Seck at Squire Patton.

  • Justices' Charter School Tie Delays Church-State Reckoning

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent deadlock in Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board v. Drummond, blocking the creation of the nation’s first religious charter school, preserved the separation of church and state for now, but offered little reassurance about its continued viability, says Jeffrey Sultanik at Fox Rothschild.

  • When Legal Advocacy Crosses The Line Into Incivility

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    As judges issue sanctions for courtroom incivility, and state bars advance formal discipline rules, trial lawyers must understand that the difference between zealous advocacy and unprofessionalism is not just a matter of tone; it's a marker of skill, credibility and potentially disciplinary exposure, says Nate Sabri at Perkins Coie.

  • Florida Case Could Redefine Construction Defect Damages

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    If a Florida appellate court overturns the trial court in a pending construction contract dispute, the state could experience a seismic shift in construction defect damages, effectively leaving homeowners and developers with an incomplete remedy, says Andrew Gold at Akerman.

  • 2 NY Rulings May Stem Foreign Co. Derivative Suits

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    In recent decades, shareholders have challenged the internal affairs doctrine by bringing a series of derivative actions in New York state court on behalf of foreign corporations, but the New York Court of Appeals' recent rulings in Ezrasons v. Rudd and Haussmann v. Baumann should slow that trend, say attorneys at Cleary.

  • 8th Circ. Ruling Highlights Complicated Remote Work Analysis

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    The Eighth Circuit’s recent opinion in Kuklenski v. Medtronic USA demonstrates that the applicability of employment laws to remote workers is often a fact-driven analysis, highlighting several parameters to consider when evaluating what state and local laws may apply to employees who work remotely, say attorneys at Vedder Price.

  • Class Standing Issues Still Murky After Justices Punt LabCorp

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    While litigants and district courts had hoped the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in LabCorp v. Davis would provide much-needed clarity on the interplay between Article III standing and class certification, the court's failure to rule on the issue leaves disagreement, confusion and uncertainty for stakeholders, says Erica Rutner at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Indemnity Lessons From Mass. Construction Defect Ruling

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    The Massachusetts high court's decision in Trustees of Boston University v. CHA, holding that a bespoke contractual indemnity provision means that a construction defect claim is not subject to Massachusetts' statute of repose, should spur design and construction professionals to negotiate limited provisions, says Christopher Sweeney at Conn Kavanaugh.

  • Series

    Volunteering At Schools Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Speaking to elementary school students about the importance of college and other opportunities after high school — especially students who may not see those paths reflected in their daily lives — not only taught me the importance of giving back, but also helped to sharpen several skills essential to a successful legal practice, says Guillermo Escobedo at Constangy.

  • Justices' Ruling Lowers Bar For Reverse Discrimination Suits

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's unanimous opinion in Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services, lowering the evidentiary burden for plaintiffs bringing so-called reverse discrimination claims, may lead to more claims brought by majority group employees — and open the door to legal challenges to employer diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, say attorneys at Ice Miller.

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