Appellate

  • 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.

  • August 19, 2025

    9th Circuit Pauses Oak Flat Land Transfer Pending Appeals

    A Ninth Circuit panel has hit pause on the federal government's scheduled transfer of a centuries-old Indigenous worship site within Arizona's Tonto National Forest to a copper mining company while challenges to a multibillion-dollar proposed project play out in the appellate court.

  • August 19, 2025

    Trump's 'Abnormal' Use Of FCA Could Get Tricky In Court

    The Trump administration is wielding the False Claims Act in unusually narrow ways to drive policies on social and cultural issues — including gender-affirming care and diversity, equity and inclusion programs — but the government's potential theories of liability under the federal law remain largely untested and might not hold up in court, experts say.

  • August 19, 2025

    5th Circ. Says NLRB Structure Likely Unconstitutional

    The Fifth Circuit on Tuesday upheld injunctions barring the National Labor Relations Board from prosecuting unfair labor practice cases against SpaceX and two other companies, saying the removal protections that federal labor law gives board members and agency judges likely violate the U.S. Constitution.

  • August 18, 2025

    Ex-NY AG Immune From Malicious Prosecution Suit

    Former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has immunity from a suit by a former New York City Council member claiming wrongful prosecution, a federal judge has ruled.

  • August 18, 2025

    Williams-Sonoma Loses Bid To Narrow Thread-Count Class

    A California federal judge on Monday denied Williams-Sonoma's bid to exclude certain class members from a suit alleging it misled consumers about the thread count of its bedding, finding the company did not meet its burden to establish the consumers agreed to arbitrate their claims.

  • August 18, 2025

    9th Circ. Splits Over Ore.'s Denial Of Christian Youth Grants

    A split Ninth Circuit panel on Monday largely upheld a lower court's refusal to preliminarily block Oregon's requirement that recipients of certain youth grants agree not to discriminate on the basis of religion, though it also said the rule is unconstitutional if it restricts any initiatives that aren't tied to the grants.

  • August 18, 2025

    Monsanto Reaches Terms To Settle Wash. School PCB Torts

    Monsanto has come to tentative settlement terms to end claims from roughly 200 people who say they developed various health problems from chemical contamination at a Washington state school site, parent company Bayer AG said Monday.

  • August 18, 2025

    Farmer Didn't Own Cow Woman Crashed Into, Panel Says

    An Illinois state appeals court has affirmed the dismissal of a suit seeking to hold a farmer and his farm liable for injuries suffered by a motorist who hit a stray cow, saying the evidence showed that the farmer did not own the cow in question.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Playing Mah-Jongg Makes Me A Better Mediator

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    Mah-jongg rewards patience, pattern recognition, adaptability and keen observation, all skills that are invaluable to my role as a mediator, and to all mediating parties, says Marina Corodemus.

  • How Latest High Court Rulings Refine Employment Law

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    The 2024-2025 U.S. Supreme Court term did not radically rewrite employment law, but sharpened focus on textual fidelity, procedural rigor and the boundaries of statutory relief, say attorneys at Krevolin & Horst.

  • Calif. Air Waivers Fight Fuels Automakers', States' Uncertainty

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    The unprecedented attempt by Congress and the Trump administration to kill the Clean Air Act waivers supporting California's vehicle emissions standards will eventually end up in the U.S. Supreme Court — but meanwhile, vehicle manufacturers, and states following California's standards, are left in limbo, says John Watson at Spencer Fane.

  • Diversity, Equity, Indictment? Contractor Risks After Kousisis

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Kousisis v. U.S. decision, holding that economic loss is not required to sustain wire fraud charges related to fraudulent inducement, may extend criminal liability to government contractors that make false diversity, equity and inclusion certifications, say attorneys at Moore & Van Allen.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Navigating Client Trauma

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    Law schools don't train students to handle repeated exposure to clients' traumatic experiences, but for litigators practicing in areas like civil rights and personal injury, success depends on the ability to view cases clinically and to recognize when you may need to seek help, says Katie Bennett at Robins Kaplan.

  • 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.

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