Appellate

  • August 10, 2026

    9th Circ. Backs Unum Win In Worker's Long-COVID Fight

    The Ninth Circuit on Monday affirmed an insurance company's win in an ex-worker's suit alleging his long-term disability benefits stemming from his bout with long COVID were wrongfully denied, upholding a district court's decision to back the insurer's denial based on the medical evidence. 

  • August 10, 2026

    9th Circ. Won't Revisit Kids' Suit Over Trump's Energy EOs

    The full Ninth Circuit on Monday declined to rehear a group of youths' legal challenge of President Donald Trump's executive orders spurring the use of fossil fuels to meet the country's energy needs.

  • August 10, 2026

    CREXi Can't Stay CoStar Case For Quinn Emanuel DQ Appeal

    A California federal court rejected a bid Monday from Commercial Real Estate Exchange Inc., or CREXi, for a stay in CoStar's copyright case while CREXi looks to undo the disqualification of its attorneys from Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP.

  • August 10, 2026

    9th Circ. Backs City Of Tacoma In Pension Liability Rate Fight

    A Ninth Circuit panel sided with the city of Tacoma, Washington, in a pension fund dispute Monday, holding that a lower court correctly upheld an arbitrator's reassessment of the city's liability after it withdrew from the Western Metal Industry Pension Fund following the expiration of underlying collective bargaining agreements.

  • August 10, 2026

    9th Circ. Backs FDA's Denial Of Fruit-, Candy-Flavored Vapes

    The Ninth Circuit on Monday affirmed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's denial of Drip More LLC's applications to sell candy- and fruit-flavored vapes, saying the company didn't show those flavors provide an additional benefit to adult smokers that justifies the added risks that young people will use the products.

  • August 10, 2026

    6th Circ. Says Police Chief Immune From Hemp Farmer's Suit

    A panel of the Sixth Circuit has ruled that qualified immunity shielded a small-town police chief from civil rights claims lodged by an Ohio man who had dreams of farming hemp, finding the officer had probable cause to search and impound the man's car and arrest him.

  • August 10, 2026

    Michel, Startups Back Injunction Bid In Samsung Patent Case

    Former Chief Federal Circuit Judge Paul Michel, patent law professors and a group of startup companies on Monday backed Collision Communications Inc.'s bid for a permanent injunction on Samsung products found to infringe its patents, saying courts have misread U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

  • August 10, 2026

    9th Circ. Backs Wash. In PacifiCorp Carbon Law Regs Fight

    A divided Ninth Circuit panel declined on Friday to reinstate PacifiCorp's claims that Washington's carbon emissions cap-and-invest program unconstitutionally increases electricity prices for its out-of-state customers, concluding that the power company has not plausibly alleged the targeted regulations discriminate against interstate commerce.

  • August 10, 2026

    Mexico Urges Justices To Take Up $47M Award Suit

    Mexico has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take another look at the D.C. Circuit's opinion refusing to vacate a $47 million arbitral award issued to a Canadian lender, saying the justices need to establish a uniform standard to determine when a tribunal exceeded its powers.

  • August 10, 2026

    Okla. Co. Says Rig Seizure Claims Don't Need Redo

    An Oklahoma-based oil drilling company urged the U.S. Supreme Court not to disturb a D.C. Circuit ruling ordering Venezuela's state-owned oil company to face long-pending expropriation allegations, saying an underlying circuit split is too narrow to warrant the high court's attention.

  • August 10, 2026

    IBM Defeats Software Co. In Copyright Fight At 2nd Circ.

    A software company failed to persuade the Second Circuit to undo a federal judge's decision allowing IBM to dodge a copyright suit, with the appellate court on Monday agreeing the case was time-barred.

  • August 10, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Backs Axing Of Digital Chart Patents Under Alice

    The Federal Circuit on Monday said a California federal court was right to find that patents covering digital interactive charts are invalid under the U.S. Supreme Court's Alice decision, saying the patents "provide no meaningful limitation to the abstract idea" of creating charts.

  • August 10, 2026

    Ex-Altria Worker Gets Partial 4th Circ. Win In 401(k) Fight

    The Fourth Circuit revived part of an ex-Altria worker's suit claiming the company didn't move quick enough to liquidate his 401(k) assets so he could invest the cash in anticipation of a stock market bump, finding Monday he was improperly denied a contract document for the plan's record keeper.

  • August 10, 2026

    School Board Wins Appeal Over Football Game Fatal Shooting

    A New Jersey appellate court on Monday held that the Pleasantville Board of Education can't be held civilly liable for the death of a 10-year-old boy who was shot at a high school football game, ruling that the boy's estate was unable to demonstrate that the school board acted with deliberate indifference to any foreseeable danger.

  • August 10, 2026

    Meta Loses Appeal Days Before Social Media Trial Begins

    The Ninth Circuit said Monday it lacks jurisdictional authority over Meta's appeal in a social-media-addiction multidistrict litigation at this stage, saying Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act can provide a defense to liability but not immunity from a lawsuit.

  • August 10, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Won't Hit Refresh On Patent Claims Against Netflix

    The Federal Circuit on Monday refused to restore a content streaming patent Netflix was accused of infringing, agreeing with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board that an earlier patent rendered the claims of the patent invalid.

  • August 10, 2026

    11th Circ. Backs Unions In Members' Race Bias Suit

    The Eleventh Circuit upheld a win Monday for a pipe fitters union in a lawsuit alleging it routinely passing over Black journeyman pipe fitters for work assignments in favor of white workers, finding the claims failed to show that the unions had established discriminatory referral practices.

  • August 10, 2026

    11th Circ. Affirms Ga. University System's Win In Bias Suit

    The Eleventh Circuit on Monday upheld a win for the University System of Georgia in a disability discrimination case brought by a former respiratory therapy student who alleged he was improperly found to be endangering patients' safety and given a failing grade as punishment.

  • August 10, 2026

    Mich. Transit Authority Can Call County Atty In Board Dispute

    The Bay Area Transportation Authority may call a Grand Traverse County attorney as a witness in a dispute over appointments to its board, a Michigan appellate panel ruled, finding the attorney's late addition to the witness list would not prejudice the county.

  • August 10, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Reverses PTAB On Prior Art Issue Over Dental IP

    The Federal Circuit on Monday reversed a Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision that invalidated a group of claims in a Dental Monitoring SAS dental imaging patent, finding that a previous provisional patent application was missing a written description and thus can't be used as prior art.

  • August 10, 2026

    8th Circ. Nixes Native American Worker's Race Bias Suit

    The Eighth Circuit on Monday upheld a clinical research institute's defeat of a lawsuit from a former manager who said she was laid off because she's Native American, siding with the institute's assertion that she was let go for budgetary reasons because her position was funded with internal money.

  • August 10, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Reverses Ax Of Commerce Duty Review Deadline

    The U.S. Department of Commerce's 15-day preliminary deadline for indicating interest in a sunset review of duty orders is within the department's statutory authority, a Federal Circuit panel ruled, reversing a U.S. Court of International Trade ruling spiking the deadline.

  • August 10, 2026

    Mich. Panel Revives Sewage Damage Suits Over Service Fight

    Minor procedural variations in service do not warrant dismissal of a case as long as defendants are adequately informed of the pending litigation, a Michigan Court of Appeals panel said in a published opinion Thursday.

  • August 10, 2026

    Conn. Justices Order New Murder Trial Over Cell Data Flub

    The Connecticut Supreme Court on Monday said a lower court was correct to vacate a felony murder conviction based on a defense lawyer's failure to question a police expert about an animation that purported to pinpoint a defendant's cellphone movements based on tower location data.

  • August 10, 2026

    Mass. Court Says Insurer Must Defend Doctor In Stalking Case

    Massachusetts' highest court has ruled that an insurance company must defend a doctor in disciplinary proceedings for allegedly stalking and harassing a patient to whom he prescribed an addictive medication for several years.

Expert Analysis

  • A Fed. Circ. Blueprint For Drafting Medical Device Patents

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    The Federal Circuit's decision in Constellation Designs v. LG last month, among other recent rulings, underscores the importance of emphasizing engineering, rather than clinical goals, when drafting patent claims for medical devices and software as a medical device, says Brandon Theiss at Volpe Koenig.

  • Decoding Arbitral Disputes: EU's Arb. Defense From Russia

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    The EU's latest package of restrictive measures against Russia marks a significant shift from merely resisting Russian jurisdictional tactics to proactively protecting arbitration and exclusive jurisdiction agreements, elevating the procedural importance of dispute resolution clauses, says Josep Galvez at 4-5 Gray's Inn Square.

  • Becoming The Biz-Savvy GC That Portfolio Companies Need

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    Candidates for general counsel roles at private equity-backed portfolio companies should prioritize proving their sector-specific experience, commercial judgment and ease with uncertainty — and attorneys hoping to be candidates in five to 10 years should start working on those skills now, says Dimitri Mastrocola at Major Lindsey.

  • Nielsen Appeal Tests Antitrust Limits Of Pricing And Bundling

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    In Cumulus v. Nielsen, the Second Circuit is considering a structural pattern in which a monopolist exploits upstream market power to foreclose downstream competition, which could potentially offer broad insight into how courts will assess exclusionary bundling and pricing defenses under antitrust law, says Luke Hasskamp at Bona Law.

  • Series

    Judges On AI: How Courts Can Survive The Tech Revolution

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    Colorado Supreme Court Justice Maria Berkenkotter and Colorado Court of Appeals Judge Lino Lipinsky de Orlov discuss how artificial intelligence has already fundamentally altered the legal system and offer tips for courts navigating deepfakes, hallucinations and a gap in access to AI tools.

  • 'Skinny Label' Arguments Spotlight Induced Infringement Risk

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    Recent oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in Hikma Pharmaceuticals v. Amarin Pharma highlight the uncertain boundary between lawful generic competition through so-called skinny labels and induced patent infringement, with potential implications for patent holders’ communication, enforcement and causation strategies across industries, says Anton Hopen at Trenam.

  • A Framework For Habeas Relief After 5th Circ. Bond Ruling

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    Following the Fifth Circuit’s recent Buenrostro-Mendez v. Bondi decision foreclosing statutory bond for detained nonimmigrants not deemed admitted to the U.S., lawyers should adopt a framework that requests habeas relief pursuant to the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause, says Kemal Hepsen at Mandamus Lawyers.

  • 4th Circ. Ruling Will Rewrite Class Action Litigation Strategies

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    The Fourth Circuit's recent decision in Oliver v. Navy Federal Credit Union is the first from a federal circuit court to hold that motions to strike are inappropriate vehicles for challenging class allegations at the pleading stage, invalidating a tactic that had been used for decades, says Jim Francis at Francis Mailman.

  • Startup Founder Disputes Increasingly Turn On Governance

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    Recent Delaware developments suggest that as courts place increasing emphasis on board process, independence and oversight in founder-led startups, the growing intersection of governance, technology risk and investor oversight is accelerating both the emergence and escalation of founder disputes, says mediator Frank Burke.

  • 3 AI Adoption Mistakes GCs Should Avoid

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    The pressure in-house legal teams face to quickly adopt artificial intelligence tools, combined with budget constraints and the need to evaluate a crowded market of options, sets the stage for implementation mistakes that are often difficult to undo, says former 23andMe general counsel Guy Chayoun.

  • Series

    Playing Basketball Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My grandfather used to say "I wear your jersey" as shorthand for wholly committing to support someone with loyalty and integrity — ideals that have shaped my life on the basketball court and in legal practice, says Tracy Schimelfenig at Schimelfenig Legal.

  • Salt-N-Pepa Suit May Shake Up Music Copyright Issue

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    James v. UMG Recordings is a copyright termination rights case that provides an opportunity for the Second Circuit to make concrete choices about grant language, authorship, work-for-hire status and survival of derivative works, says attorney Abdul Abdullahi.

  • Opinion

    5th Circ.'s Abortion Pill Order Is Shaky On Multiple Grounds

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    The Fifth Circuit's recent order in Louisiana v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, reinstating an in-person dispensing requirement for the abortion medication mifepristone, seems to turn federalism upside-down, and is also questionable for several other reasons, says Gregory Curtner at Curtner Law.

  • Series

    The Biz Court Digest: Georgia Court Has Business On Its Mind

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    Thanks to recent legislation, the Georgia State-wide Business Court will soon offer business litigants greater access to the court than ever before, further enhancing the court's emphasis on efficiency, predictability and accessibility for sophisticated commercial disputes, says former GSBC judge Walt Davis at Jones Day.

  • 5 Takeaways From Justices' Subpoena Fight Ruling

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in First Choice v. Davenport fortifies a line of First Amendment associational privacy cases stretching back nearly 70 years, and ensures that organizations subject to government demands for donor information have a meaningful federal forum in which to defend their constitutional rights, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

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