Appellate

  • August 26, 2025

    Brewer Can't Challenge Home Distilling Ban, US Tells 6th Circ.

    A brewery owner who wants to make his own whiskey can't bring a suit challenging the tax code's prohibition on home distilleries because he hasn't shown that he's likely to start making spirits or that the government would come knocking if he does, the U.S. Treasury Department told the Sixth Circuit.

  • August 26, 2025

    Ga. Disbars Atty After Arrest In Inmate Drug Smuggling Case

    The Georgia Supreme Court has disbarred an Alabama attorney who was arrested in the Peach State for allegedly smuggling drugs and other banned items to inmates under the guise of an attorney visit, a move that comes after he was disbarred over the arrest in his home state.

  • August 26, 2025

    3rd Circ. Says Tossing Undated Mail Votes Is Unconstitutional

    The Third Circuit ruled Tuesday that Pennsylvania discarding mail-in ballots with missing or incorrect dates violates voters' constitutional rights, reasoning that preventing the loss of votes outweighed any claimed benefits of enforcing the state's date requirement.

  • August 26, 2025

    Clause Not Unconscionable In Jet Damage Row, 9th Circ. Says

    A "limitation of liability" provision that an aircraft services company used in a "landing card" agreement for arriving aircraft wasn't unconscionable under Nevada law, the Ninth Circuit ruled, siding against an insurer demanding that the company reimburse it for damage to a private jet stored at a Las Vegas airport.

  • August 26, 2025

    NLRB Defends Injunction Order Against Hospital At 6th Circ.

    The National Labor Relations Board asked the Sixth Circuit to uphold a district court injunction requiring a Michigan hospital to recognize a Service Employees International Union affiliate, telling the appeals court that evidence shows the hospital's withdrawal of recognition led to a drop in union support.

  • August 26, 2025

    3rd Circ. Affirms Toss Of NJ-Pa. Transit Line Death Suit

    The Third Circuit on Tuesday refused to revive an estate's wrongful death suit against Port Authority Transit Corp. and Delaware River Port Authority, saying the trial court rightly found that the line on which the decedent was killed is not a railroad subject to the Federal Employers' Liability Act.

  • August 26, 2025

    1st Circ. Says Insurer Owes No Defense In Eviction Suits

    A Liberty Mutual unit has no duty to defend a commercial real estate loan provider in underlying suits over the eviction of residents from a Massachusetts senior care facility, the First Circuit ruled, finding the insurer's denial of coverage to be reasonable.

  • August 26, 2025

    Conn. Justices Say Witness With Memory Loss Was 'Available'

    The Connecticut Supreme Court has upheld a man's murder conviction while declining to adopt a rule that would deem a witness "unavailable" for cross-examination if medical issues compromised their memory, finding the defendant's constitutional right to confrontation was not violated since the witness was cross-examined.

  • August 26, 2025

    TikTok Takes State's Addictive App Case To NC Top Court

    TikTok and its Chinese parent company are taking the state of North Carolina's lawsuit accusing it of intentionally designing the app to addict young users to the state's highest court after a Business Court judge rejected their early exit bid.

  • August 26, 2025

    Atty's Comments Don't Warrant A New Trial In Crash Suit

    A Florida appeals panel has reversed an order for a new trial in a suit over a car accident, saying that the trial court abused its discretion in finding that the defense attorney's comments warranted a redo in the case.

  • August 26, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Faults Tribunal Over F-Word TM Denial

    A split Federal Circuit panel on Tuesday vacated a trademark tribunal's refusal to register the F-word, saying in a precedential opinion that the decision below lacked sufficient clarity regarding why some commonplace words can function as trademarks while others cannot.

  • August 25, 2025

    Lion Air Plaintiffs Say High Court Ruling Allows RICO Claims

    An Illinois federal judge seemed skeptical Monday that a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling opened the door for an entrepreneur's family to add civil racketeering claims to their lawsuit stemming from a 2018 Lion Air crash that destroyed cargo they say is necessary to continue doing business in Italy.

  • August 25, 2025

    Del. Justices Won't Revive Hunter Biden Defamation Suit

    Delaware's highest court on Monday affirmed a lower court's decision to toss defamation claims a computer repair shop owner lodged against Hunter Biden and others over media reports he asserted tied him to Russian disinformation, saying no reasonable person would have concluded that statements he alleged were defamatory concerned him.

  • August 25, 2025

    9th Circ. Will Hear New Args In $1.3B India Award Suit

    The Ninth Circuit on Monday agreed to consider issues left open by the U.S. Supreme Court following its decision earlier this year to revive an Indian satellite communications company's bid to enforce a decade-old $1.3 billion arbitral award against India.

  • August 25, 2025

    Fla. ICE Official Warns Detention Center Closure Risks Safety

    The field office director for U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement in Miami urged a Florida federal court to keep a temporary detention center in the Everglades in operation, saying in a motion to pause an injunction that closing the facility will endanger the community. 

  • August 25, 2025

    Fed. Court Can't Halt FDIC Enforcement Order, 5th Circ. Says

    The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. can move forward with in-house enforcement proceedings against a former bank CEO, the Fifth Circuit ruled Monday, finding that a Texas district court did not have jurisdiction to block the agency from issuing a final decision over the bank executive's constitutional claims.

  • August 25, 2025

    NC Justices Serve State 2 Blows In Bars' COVID Closure Suits

    The North Carolina Supreme Court served bars dual victories in lawsuits against the state Friday, finding that the businesses had colorable claims under the state's constitution that COVID-19 closures violated their fundamental rights, thus permitting the cases to unfold in state trial court.

  • August 25, 2025

    Ill. Panel Won't Revive Race Bias Suit Against AT&T Unit

    An Illinois appeals court has dashed the hopes of a Black former telecom employee who says he was singled out for layoffs because of his race, ruling that he failed to prove that non-Black Illinois Bell Telephone Co. employees were treated better than him.

  • August 25, 2025

    Unions Urge 9th Circ. To Uphold Order Halting Bargaining EO

    The American Federation of Government Employees and other unions defended a lower court injunction halting several federal agencies from enforcing an executive order focused on eliminating labor contracts covering agencies that have "national security" aims, arguing the president's directive was retaliatory.

  • August 25, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Overbroad In Hip Joint Implant Suit, High Court Told

    A German medical supplier wants the U.S. Supreme Court to take up its appeal of the Federal Circuit's refusal to revive its trade dress protections for the color pink in a hip joint implant part, saying a circuit split warrants the justices' review.

  • August 25, 2025

    Epic Says Google Ought To Pay Up For Play Store Fight

    While Google is busy appealing a ruling mandating that it open up its Play store, Epic Games isn't waiting to ask a California federal judge to order the technology titan to pay the $180 million in legal bills it racked up over the course of the five-year court battle.

  • August 25, 2025

    Right-To-Work Dooms Worker's THC Firing Suit, 8th Circ. Says

    A Peco Foods' employee who claims he was wrongfully fired when he tested positive for marijuana after using a CBD oil for back pain cannot get his job back, the Eighth Circuit ruled Monday, finding he was an at-will employee at the Arkansas company and made an untimely retaliation argument.

  • August 25, 2025

    4th Circ. Rejects CEO's Bid To Toss Wire Fraud Guilty Plea

    The Fourth Circuit has upheld the conviction of web hosting company Micfo and its chief executive on charges that he fraudulently obtained IPv4 addresses from the American Registry for Internet Numbers, rejecting a challenge that CEO Amir Golestan would not have taken a plea deal if he'd been warned of denaturalization risks.

  • August 25, 2025

    Google, Samsung Tell Fed. Circ. To Reject USPTO Extension

    Google and Samsung urged the Federal Circuit on Monday to reject the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office acting director's request for an extra month to address their challenge to her discretionary denial practices.

  • August 25, 2025

    Pa. Worker Who Quit After Public Insults Can Get Benefits

    A Pennsylvania township supervisor's verbal abuse of an employee and her husband at an open meeting was harsh enough that the employee's resignation did not disqualify her from getting state unemployment benefits, a split Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court panel has ruled.

Expert Analysis

  • 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.

  • 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.

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