Appellate

  • October 07, 2025

    No Coverage For Smoke Shop Over Fatal Crash, Insurer Says

    A smoke shop's insurer told a North Carolina state appeals court the shop shouldn't receive coverage for a lawsuit alleging it's liable for a fatal auto collision because it sold nitrous oxide products to the at-fault driver, arguing its policy covered bodily injury only on the shop's premises.

  • October 07, 2025

    Cuban Cigar Co. Not Entitled To 'Cohiba' TMs, 4th Circ. Told

    General Cigar Co. has asked the Fourth Circuit to overturn a Trademark Trial and Appeal Board decision to grant a Cuban state-owned cigar producer's request to cancel two trademark registrations for the term "Cohiba," contending that the decision conflicts with U.S. law governing the embargo against Cuba.

  • October 07, 2025

    1st Circ. Left In Limbo Over FCC's Prison Phone Rate Caps

    First Circuit judges Tuesday questioned the Federal Communications Commission's turnabout in defense of its Biden-era prison phone rate caps and were unsure how to construct a legal ruling with the FCC poised to vote on a policy makeover within weeks.

  • October 07, 2025

    4 Oral Argument Sessions Benefits Attys Should Watch In Oct.

    The Second Circuit will hear from Teamsters looking to revive a proposed class action alleging mismanagement of a multiemployer pension plan, while Alcoa will ask the Seventh Circuit to overturn a ruling requiring the aluminum maker to cover union retirees' healthcare for life. Here, Law360 looks at four arguments that benefits attorneys should have on their radar this month.

  • October 07, 2025

    6th Circ. OKs Contested Deal In Foreclosure Class Action

    The Sixth Circuit on Monday affirmed the approval of a contested settlement to resolve claims that 43 Michigan counties illegally kept the proceeds from the sales of tax-foreclosed properties, although one judge's concurrence said he did so "with the greatest reluctance."

  • October 07, 2025

    DC, 18 States Back Campaign Spending Caps At High Court

    The District of Columbia and 18 states urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday not to lift caps on the amount political parties may spend in coordination with candidates for federal office, saying state-level campaign finance regulations could be destabilized.

  • October 07, 2025

    Drug Tax Outdoes Biblical Punishment, 5th Circ. Judge Says

    A Fifth Circuit panel pressed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to justify the basis for the Medicare drug pricing program's steep excise tax, asking Tuesday whether the government had ever levied a higher tax in the nation's history.

  • October 07, 2025

    NY Appeals Court Nixes Chris Cuomo's Arbitrator Bias Claim

    Ex-CNN anchor Chris Cuomo on Tuesday could not convince a New York appeals court to revive his bid to disqualify the JAMS arbitrator overseeing his $125 million unlawful termination claim against CNN due to the arbitrator's representation of the news network more than two decades ago.

  • October 07, 2025

    Developer Wants Permit Fee Suit Against Miami Revived

    A developer on Tuesday asked a Florida appeals court to revive its claims against the city of Miami for allegedly overcharging builders permit and inspection fees, saying the city's unlawful carrying forward of the excess funds violates a state law limiting these actions.

  • October 07, 2025

    9th Circ. Rejects 'Kitchen Sink' Challenge To Vaccine Mandate

    A Ninth Circuit panel on Monday upheld a lower court's rejection of a lawsuit brought by dozens of former employees of a nonprofit healthcare system who claimed Washington state's requirement that healthcare workers be vaccinated against COVID-19 violated their statutory and constitutional rights.

  • October 07, 2025

    DC Circ. Denies Biotech Co.'s Nasdaq Delisting Appeal

    Chinese biotech Shineco Inc. has lost its bid to block its delisting from the Nasdaq in the D.C. Circuit, which didn't buy its argument the federal government's shutdown prevented the company from petitioning the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission directly for relief.

  • October 07, 2025

    Colo. Panel Weighs School's Liability In 2019 Shooting

    Colorado appellate judges on Tuesday asked attorneys representing the parents of a student who was killed during a school shooting and the school itself how to interpret a state law that allows schools to be held liable for school shootings.

  • October 07, 2025

    9th Circ. Tosses Sporting Goods Co. Suit Against Ex-Landlord

    The Ninth Circuit on Tuesday backed the dismissal of a sporting goods retailer's suit against its former landlord, which was accused of wrongfully charging the retailer with monthly fee invoices even after the retailer left the location it was renting due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • October 07, 2025

    Senate Confirms 2 DOJ Nominees, 16 US Attys

    The U.S. Senate voted 51-47 Tuesday, along party lines, to confirm a slew of nominees for the U.S. Department of Justice.

  • October 07, 2025

    Lawmakers, States Back Tribes In Supreme Court Voting Case

    A bipartisan group of 10 current and former members of Congress and 22 states have supported two North Dakota tribes in their U.S. Supreme Court bid to overturn an Eighth Circuit order that prohibits suits against states for violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

  • October 07, 2025

    Fla. High Court Told Law Bars Insurer Suit Against Condo

    A condominium association told the Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday that an insurer can't sue for damages to an owner's unit, arguing a 2021 state law that went into effect provided immunity from a negligence lawsuit stemming from a policy claim brought afterward. 

  • October 07, 2025

    Ex-Executives' Payroll Tax Convictions Biased, 4th Circ. Told

    Two former software executives asked the Fourth Circuit to reverse their criminal convictions stemming from their failure to pay employment taxes, claiming the jury's instructions were biased.

  • October 07, 2025

    EMS Workers Tell 4th Circ. NC County Owes Them Wages

    Emergency medical services workers argued that a North Carolina county created a "mathematical impossibility" when it calculated their wages, urging the Fourth Circuit to flip a federal court's ruling that the county didn't owe them anything despite having violated federal law.

  • October 07, 2025

    10th Circ. Rejects Colombian Family's Asylum Appeal

    A Tenth Circuit panel said Tuesday that four Colombian family members failed to show that death threats made by allies of a narcotics trafficking group's leader amounted to persecution or stemmed from protected political activities, and refused to revisit rulings denying their bid for asylum.

  • October 07, 2025

    Justices Probe Standard Of Care In 'Conversion Therapy' Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday wrestled with whether gay "conversion" therapy banned by a Colorado law is a medical treatment that falls outside the accepted standard of care, or whether it's protected First Amendment speech.

  • October 07, 2025

    2nd Circ. Rules Inmates Not Entitled To Specific Gender Care

    A Second Circuit panel has overturned a transgender inmate's partial win in a lawsuit against prison officials in Connecticut over allegedly inadequate gender dysphoria treatment, holding that the defendants are entitled to qualified immunity and that "inmates have no clearly established right to be treated by gender-dysphoria specialists" or receive specific treatments for the condition.

  • October 07, 2025

    Gov't, Gun Defendant Urge Justices Not To 'Double-Punish'

    The government and a New York man convicted in a fatal robbery both asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to rule that subjecting defendants to separate sentences stemming from a single deadly federal firearm offense is a double-jeopardy violation.

  • October 07, 2025

    Calif. Court Has Change Of Heart On Juror Challenge Question

    A California state appeals court has changed its mind on its own precedent governing when prosecutors can use a peremptory challenge to dismiss a non-white juror from a case, finding a "lack of life experience" can be good reason to dismiss a juror and affirming a man's life sentence

  • October 07, 2025

    Texas Court Overturns Forfeiture Verdict For Lack Of Evidence

    A Texas appellate panel on Tuesday reversed a civil-forfeiture judgment and ordered state officials to return nearly $42,000 in cash that sheriff's deputies seized from a driver, saying there was no direct evidence that he would have spent the money on illegal drugs.

  • October 07, 2025

    3rd Circ. Won't Rehear J&J Investor Cert. Appeal

    The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit declined Tuesday to reconsider backing a New Jersey federal judge's class certification order in a Johnson & Johnson investor action alleging the company artificially inflated its stock price by failing to disclose cancer risks.

Expert Analysis

  • 9th Circ. Customs Ruling A Limited Win For FCA Plaintiffs

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    While the decision last month in Island Industries v. Sigma may be welcome news for False Claims Act relators, under binding precedent courts within the Ninth Circuit still do not have jurisdiction to adjudicate customs-based FCA claims pursued by the government, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Opinion

    4 Former Justices Would Likely Frown On Litigation Funding

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    As courts increasingly confront cases involving hidden litigation finance contracts, the jurisprudence of four former U.S. Supreme Court justices establishes a constitutional framework that risks erosion by undisclosed financial interests, says Roland Eisenhuth at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association.

  • Quantifying Trading-Based Damages Using Price Impact

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will likely increasingly rely on price impact analyses to demonstrate pecuniary harm from trading-related misconduct, meaning measuring price impact will be helpful in challenging SEC disgorgement, determining appropriate remedies, and assessing loss causation and damages in private litigation, says Vyacheslav Fos at Boston College and Erin Smith at Compass Lexecon.

  • How Attys Can Use AI To Surface Narratives In E-Discovery

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    E-discovery has reached a turning point where document review is no longer just about procedural tasks like identifying relevance and redacting privilege — rather, generative artificial intelligence tools now allow attorneys to draw connections, extract meaning and tell a coherent story, says Rose Jones at Hilgers Graben.

  • How McKesson Ruling Will Inform Interpretations Of The TCPA

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    Amid the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson, we can expect to see both plaintiffs and defendants utilizing the decision to revisit the Federal Communications Commission's past Telephone Consumer Protection Act interpretations and decisions they did not like, says Jason McElroy at Saul Ewing.

  • Justices Rethink Minimum Contacts For Foreign Entities

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    Two recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, Devas v. Antrix and Fuld v. Palestine Liberation Organization, suggest that federal statutes may confer personal jurisdiction over foreign entities that have little to no contact with the U.S. — a significant departure from traditional due process principles, says Gary Shaw at Pillsbury.

  • Opinion

    High Court Must Overrule Outdated Patent Eligibility Doctrine

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    A certiorari petition should directly ask the U.S. Supreme Court to correct its 1972 patent decision in Gottschalk v. Benson, the critical point where patent eligibility law veered from the statutory text toward judicial policymaking, says Robert Greenspoon at Dunlap Bennett.

  • Examining TCPA Jurisprudence A Year After Loper Bright

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    One year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Chevron deference in Loper Bright v. Raimondo, lower court decisions demonstrate that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act will continue to evolve as long-standing interpretations of the act are analyzed with a fresh lens, says Aaron Gallardo at Kilpatrick.

  • Gauging The Risky Business Of Business Risk Disclosures

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    With the recent rise of securities fraud actions based on external events — like a data breach or environmental disaster — that drive down stock prices, risk disclosures have become more of a sword for the plaintiffs bar than a shield for public companies, now the subject of a growing circuit split, say attorneys at A&O Shearman.

  • How Justices' Ruling Limits Options To Challenge DHS Orders

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    In Riley v. Bondi, the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that a 30-day deadline for challenging deportation orders begins when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issues a final administrative review order, opening the door for the government to effectively bar circuit court review in future similar cases, says Kevin Gregg at Kurzban Kurzban.

  • Series

    Playing The Violin Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Playing violin in a string quartet reminds me that flexibility, ambition, strong listening skills, thoughtful leadership and intentional collaboration are all keys to a successful legal practice, says Julie Park at MoFo.

  • Purdue Case Could Transform Patent Obviousness Analyses

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    If accepted for review by the U.S. Supreme Court, Purdue Pharma v. Accord Healthcare — concerning whether Purdue's abuse-deterrent opioid formulation patents were invalid as obvious — could significantly shift how courts weigh secondary considerations in patent obviousness analyses, say attorneys at Lathrop.

  • NM Cyber Ruling Will Spur Litigation As Coverage Remedy

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    In Kane v. Beazley, the New Mexico Court of Appeals recently found that a cyber liability provision insuring security breaches included coverage for funds transfer fraud, implicitly and incorrectly motivating policyholders to commence litigation to avoid contractual limitations on cyber coverages, say attorneys at Zelle.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Practicing Self-Care

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    Law schools don’t teach the mental, physical and emotional health maintenance tools necessary to deal with the profession's many demands, but practicing self-care is an important key to success that can help to improve focus, manage stress and reduce burnout, says Rachel Leonard​​​​​​​ at MG+M.

  • Texas' Cactus Ruling Clarifies 'Produced Water' Rules

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    The Texas Supreme Court's decision in Cactus Water Services v. COG Operating, holding that mineral interest lessees have the rights to water extracted alongside oil and gas, should benefit industry players by clarifying the rules — but it leaves important questions about royalties unresolved, say attorneys at Yetter Coleman.

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