Appellate

  • August 19, 2025

    9th Circ. Backs Approval Of LoanDepot Investor Settlement

    The Ninth Circuit has dismissed a challenge brought by a LoanDepot shareholder to a $3.5 million settlement ending a lawsuit that accused the company of misleading investors ahead of its initial public offering, saying the district court applied proper scrutiny when approving the settlement last year.

  • August 19, 2025

    OAN Owner Looks To Depose UMich Expert In Dominion Case

    One America News Network's owner has asked the Sixth Circuit to force a University of Michigan cybersecurity expert to testify in Dominion Voting Systems' defamation case over the network's coverage of the 2020 presidential election, saying a judge erred when he blocked the deposition.

  • August 19, 2025

    West Texas A&M Can't Ban Drag Shows, 5th Circ. Says

    A split Fifth Circuit has reversed a decision that allowed West Texas A&M University to ban drag shows on its campus, writing that art does not need to be like "works of Picasso, Schöenberg, and Carroll" to be protected by the First Amendment.

  • August 19, 2025

    11th Circ. Bars Salvage Claim Over Historic French Shipwreck

    The Eleventh Circuit ruled Tuesday that an underwater salvage outfit cannot recover payment for locating la Trinité, a French ship sunk off the coast of Florida in 1565, because the Sunken Military Craft Act blocks salvage rights without France's consent.

  • August 19, 2025

    3rd Circ. Upholds Conviction After Traffic Stop 'Small Talk'

    A man sentenced to 10 years in prison after police found guns and drugs in his car during a traffic stop can't have the evidence suppressed even though the police engaged him in small talk unrelated to the stop, the Third Circuit affirmed Tuesday, finding that the rapport-building conversation was warranted.

  • August 19, 2025

    Dredging Vehicle Patent Sinks Over On-Sale Bar At Fed. Circ.

    The Federal Circuit on Tuesday affirmed a Louisiana federal court's axing of claims in a Wilco Marsh Buggies and Draglines Inc.'s excavator and dredging vehicle patent, saying they were invalid because the product detailed in the patent was sold in the 1990s.

  • August 19, 2025

    Texas Court Unwinds Dismissals In Border Crackdown Cases

    An en banc Texas appeals court on Tuesday reversed the habeas corpus dismissals of trespassing charges against nine men arrested during state immigration enforcement operations, citing a Court of Criminal Appeals ruling that rejected claims of prosecutorial sex discrimination in a similar case.

  • August 19, 2025

    2nd Circ.: Judge Erred In Remanding Vermont-3M PFAS Row

    The Second Circuit on Tuesday agreed with 3M Co. that a federal judge wrongly sent Vermont's lawsuit against the company over "forever chemicals" contamination back to state court, finding 3M moved the case to federal court in time.

  • August 19, 2025

    Ute Tribe Says 1880 Act Proves Land Ownership Claim

    The Ute Indian Tribe asked the D.C. Circuit on Tuesday to reverse a lower court decision refusing to hand over ownership of federally managed land, saying a law dating back to 1880 required the U.S. executive branch to "set apart" lands for a new reservation.

  • August 19, 2025

    Ex-Copyright Chief Says Trump Overstepped Role In Firing Her

    The fired leader of the U.S. Copyright Office urged the D.C. Circuit to reject the Trump administration's arguments that her dismissal was lawful, asking the appeals court on Tuesday to return her to her job before Congress returns from recess Sept. 2.

  • August 19, 2025

    Bad Citations Aren't Always Sanctionable, Wash. Atty Argues

    An attorney in Washington state vowed on Tuesday to appeal harsh sanctions an Arizona federal judge meted out Thursday over fake and misleading citations she included in an opening brief, releasing a statement arguing that the court's order "treats the mere existence of AI-hallucinated citations as an automatic violation" but "that is not what Rule 11 requires."

  • August 19, 2025

    Panel Weighs Ga. High Court Ruling In Sham Donor Suit

    Customers who accused a sperm bank of selling sperm without disclosing the true medical and criminal histories of donors urged the Georgia Court of Appeals to revive their lawsuits Tuesday, arguing the dismissals were based on a misreading of a 2020 decision from the state's high court.

  • August 19, 2025

    4th Circ. Revives Habeas Bid Over Attorney-Client Evidence

    The Fourth Circuit has ordered a lower court to conclusively determine whether a Maryland woman's rights were violated after prosecutors retried her for murder using information they gathered from her successful ineffective assistance of counsel motion during the first trial.

  • August 19, 2025

    Sacramento Says 2nd Circ. Erred In Cannabis Ruling

    The city of Sacramento has told the Ninth Circuit that the Second Circuit erred when it applied the U.S. Constitution's dormant commerce clause to marijuana, and urged the appellate court not to follow suit in a similar pending case.

  • August 19, 2025

    DOJ Asks Full 4th Circ. To Rehear Judges' Speech Dispute

    The U.S. Department of Justice petitioned the full Fourth Circuit to rehear a June panel decision reviving a free speech suit from an immigration judges union, saying it flouts U.S. Supreme Court precedent and implements a novel legal requirement.

  • August 19, 2025

    NJ Panel Upholds Use Of Phone Passcode Seen By Police

    A man sentenced to 60 years in prison after kidnapping and sexually assaulting another man can be resentenced due to recent precedent concerning persistent offenders, but can't suppress evidence gained after police saw his cellphone passcode and used it to read his texts, a New Jersey appellate panel ruled Tuesday.

  • August 19, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Won't Revisit Steel Duties On German Companies

    The Federal Circuit denied Tuesday a request for it to reconsider a precedential opinion upholding steel duties on German companies imposed after the U.S. Department of Commerce applied adverse facts available in an antidumping investigation.

  • August 19, 2025

    Nantucket Civil Rights Case Partially Revived On Appeal

    A Massachusetts intermediate-level appeals court ruled Tuesday that "hostile" responses by Nantucket's longtime town manager to a Black resident's comments about a hate crime investigation could reasonably be found by a jury to violate the resident's state civil rights.

  • August 19, 2025

    FERC Grid Project Carveouts Are Unjustified, DC Circ. Told

    The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission can't justify its decision to exempt a Kansas electricity cooperative's transmission projects from a regional grid operator's process to determine how project costs are divided before they're approved, the D.C. Circuit heard Monday.

  • August 19, 2025

    Google, Samsung Join Fed. Circ. Fight Against Fintiv Policy

    Google and Samsung are urging the Federal Circuit to stop the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office from applying new Patent Trial and Appeal Board guidance to cases that were already pending, in a mandamus petition authored by the agency's former solicitor.

  • August 19, 2025

    Alcoa Retirees Ask 7th Circ. To Back Lifetime Benefits Order

    A group of retirees and the United Steelworkers urged the Seventh Circuit not to pause a lower court's order requiring Alcoa USA Corp. to reinstate lifetime access to a healthcare plan, raising concerns about elderly retirees dying and not receiving benefits.

  • August 19, 2025

    Trump Tariff Suit Belongs In Trade Court, Gov't Tells DC Circ.

    Suits challenging President Donald Trump's imposition of emergency tariffs belong in the U.S. Court of International Trade and a D.C. federal judge improperly considered a case lodged by Illinois-based toy makers in his court, the government told the D.C. Circuit.

  • August 19, 2025

    Ex-Judge Gets Law License Back After Bribery Suspension

    A former Philadelphia Municipal Court judge can practice law in Pennsylvania again following a split state Supreme Court decision to reinstate his license that had been suspended after he admitted to accepting $90,000 to drop out of a congressional election.

  • August 19, 2025

    Pa. Justices OK Lower Court's Test For When Posts Are Public

    A split Pennsylvania Supreme Court endorsed a lower court's proposed test for whether an elected official's personal social media messages are subject to the state's open records law, with the majority agreeing the posts should only be considered public if they have the "trappings" of a government record.

  • August 19, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Backs PTAB Ax Of DexCom Glucose Patent Claims

    The Federal Circuit won't disturb a Patent Trial and Appeal Board finding that a DexCom patent on glucose monitoring systems is unpatentable, saying the medical device company misread the board's decision.

Expert Analysis

  • 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.

  • ABA Opinion Makes It A Bit Easier To Drop A 'Hot Potato'

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    The American Bar Association's recent ethics opinion clarifies when attorneys may terminate clients without good cause, though courts may still disqualify a lawyer who drops a client like a hot potato, so sending a closeout letter is always a best practice, say attorneys at Thompson Hine.

  • How Political Divisions Are Stalling Pa. Energy Development

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    Despite possessing the nation's second-largest natural gas reserves and a legacy of energy infrastructure, Pennsylvania faces a fragmented and politically charged path to developing the energy resources it will need in the future, thanks to legislative gridlock, divided public opinion and competing energy interests, says Andrew Levine at Stradley Ronon.

  • How High Court Ruling Can Aid Judgment Enforcement In US

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    In CC/Devas (Mauritius) v. Antrix, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that only two steps are required to keep a foreign sovereign in federal court, making it a little easier for investors to successfully bring foreign states and sovereign-owned and -controlled entities into U.S. courts, says Kristie Blase at Felicello Law.

  • What High Court's Tenn. Trans Care Ruling Means Nationally

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in U.S. v. Skrmetti, upholding a Tennessee ban on gender-affirming medical care for minors, is fairly limited in scope and closely tailored to the specific language of Tennessee's law, but it may have implications for challenges to similar laws in other states, say attorneys at Hall Render.

  • Justices Rewrite Rules For Challenging Enviro Agency Actions

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    Three recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings — Nuclear Regulatory Commission v. Texas, Oklahoma v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and EPA v. Calumet Shreveport Refining — form a jurisprudential watershed in administrative and environmental law, affirming statutory standing and venue provisions as the backbone of coherent judicial review, say attorneys at GableGotwals.

  • Series

    My Opera And Baseball Careers Make Me A Better Lawyer

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    Though participating in opera and the world of professional baseball often pulls me away from the office, my avocations improve my legal career by helping me perform under scrutiny, prioritize team success, and maintain joy and perspective at work, says Adam Unger at Herrick Feinstein.

  • High Court ACA Ruling May Harm Preventative Care

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Kennedy v. Braidwood last week, ruling that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services secretary has authority over an Affordable Care Act preventive care task force, risks harming the credibility of the task force and could open the door to politicians dictating clinical recommendations, says Michael Kolber at Manatt.

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