Appellate

  • June 08, 2026

    High Court Reopens Review Of DOE Furnace Efficiency Rules

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday vacated a D.C. Circuit decision that upheld Biden-era energy efficiency standards for furnaces and water heaters and ordered the circuit court to take another look in light of the Trump administration's intent to revise the rules.

  • June 05, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Asks If Co. Argued Capability Equals Infringement

    The Federal Circuit appeared to have doubts Friday morning about patent-licensing outfit PACT XPP Schweiz's position it had argued below that an Intel product could violate its patent even if it never performed an infringing action but was capable of doing so.

  • June 05, 2026

    NY Appeals Court Tosses Gun, Drug Plea Over Illegal Search

    A man sentenced to 16 years in prison had his guilty plea for drug and gun charges vacated after a New York state appeals court found that a trooper who searched his jacket pocket and discovered a gun had no right to frisk him in this manner.

  • June 05, 2026

    DC Circ. Backs CFTC Denial Of $147M Whistleblower Award

    The D.C. Circuit Friday affirmed the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's decision denying a former trader's bid for a $147 million whistleblower incentive award after he tipped off the agency about foreign exchange market manipulation, saying there's no evidence he was the original source on which the commission relied.

  • June 05, 2026

    HHS Can Issue Medicare Fines Without Jury, 4th Circ. Says

    The Fourth Circuit ruled Friday that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services can seek monetary penalties from Medicare participants for violating program requirements without a jury trial, rejecting a Maryland nursing home operator's argument that Medicare participants are guaranteed that right.

  • June 05, 2026

    Rail Co. Loses DC Circ. Appeal Challenging State Forest Law

    The D.C. Circuit rejected Grafton & Upton Railroad Co.'s effort to preempt a Massachusetts town's claim over forest land the railroad wants to use for a new transloading facility, finding Friday that the federal Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act doesn't preempt a state right-of-first-refusal law.

  • June 05, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Unsure Where State 'Bad Faith' Patent Cases Belong

    At arguments Friday in a dispute between Micron Technology Inc. and Netlist Inc., a Federal Circuit panel appeared uncertain whether suits under state laws against "bad faith" patent infringement claims belong in state or federal courts, analyzing the impact on patent law of each approach.

  • June 05, 2026

    9th Circ. Revives TCPA Suit Against Keller Williams

    The Ninth Circuit reinstated a proposed class action against Keller Williams Realty and an Arizona real estate solutions company over phone calls and texts asking a woman about selling her home, ruling she sufficiently alleged the communications at issue constituted solicitations prohibited under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. 

  • June 05, 2026

    9th Circ. Revives Tribal Smoke Shop Owner's RICO Suit

    Officials with the Colorado River Indian Tribes must face a lawsuit brought by a smoke shop owner who claims they wrongfully evicted his business and stole its inventory, the Ninth Circuit ruled in a published opinion, saying tribal employees aren't automatically shielded by sovereign immunity.

  • June 05, 2026

    Wrong 'Social Distinction' Scope Upends Deportation Relief

    An immigration appeals board ruled Friday that the "social distinction" of a deportation relief seeker's proposed social group must be measured on a countrywide basis, vacating relief granted to a Honduran mother who claimed a gang threatened to kill her.

  • June 05, 2026

    Epic Fights Apple's Bid For High Court Sanctions Review

    Epic Games told the U.S. Supreme Court there's no need for high court review of a California federal court's contempt order against Apple for violating a ban on company policies that barred app developers from steering users to outside payment options.

  • June 05, 2026

    DLA Piper Urges 2nd Circ. To End 'Vexatious' Malpractice Suit

    The Second Circuit should uphold the dismissal of a Chinese software company's legal malpractice suit and $635,000 in sanctions against it and its lawyers, DLA Piper has argued, citing previous favorable rulings in the matter by a federal magistrate judge, district court judge, state justice and five-judge panel of the New York state appeals court.

  • June 05, 2026

    7th Circ. Says Ind. Can Bar Press From Attending Executions

    A divided Seventh Circuit panel on Friday ruled that an Indiana prison rule restricting journalists' access to inmate executions does not violate the First Amendment, as reporters are not actually prevented from covering executions.

  • June 05, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Thinking About EcoFactor In TP-Link's $38M Appeal

    A Federal Circuit panel on Friday seemed skeptical of a challenge by a pair of wireless networking device companies to the damages calculation supporting a $37.5 million patent infringement verdict against them, with one judge wondering if the court's EcoFactor decision did not "clean up" the issue of damages experts.

  • June 05, 2026

    EPA Asks 4th Circ. To Back 'Streamlined' Haze Plan Reviews

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency urged the Fourth Circuit to deny a petition challenging its approval of West Virginia's regional haze plan, saying it reasonably accepted the plan after proposing to reject it based on a new policy to streamline reviews.

  • June 05, 2026

    Texas Justices Say Cities Sued Wrong Party In Telecom Row

    The Texas Supreme Court on Friday tossed a group of cities' challenge to state laws limiting what they can charge telecommunications companies to use public rights-of-way, finding the cities sued the wrong defendant and leaving the constitutional fight unresolved.

  • June 05, 2026

    DC Circ. Backs FERC In Midwest Grid Rate Refund Fight

    The D.C. Circuit on Friday affirmed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's order of refunds in a long-running dispute over rates charged by Midwest transmission owners, saying the agency heeded instructions the court gave in 2022 when it nixed previous FERC orders in the rate case.

  • June 05, 2026

    Justices Signal Openness To Future SEC Disgorgement Cases

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's victory before the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday is likely to give the agency a leg up in settlement negotiations, but attorneys say that some defendants will continue to press judges to review the agency's disgorgement requests based on questions that the high court still hasn't answered.

  • June 05, 2026

    Builders Seek Redo On Biden-Era Labor Mandate Ruling

    An association of builders has urged the en banc Eleventh Circuit to rethink a panel's decision rejecting its attempt to secure an injunction blocking a Biden-era executive order requiring labor agreements for all federal contracts exceeding $35 million.

  • June 05, 2026

    Texas Justices To Weigh Timeliness Of Railcar Damage Suit

    The Texas Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge to a roughly $10 million verdict issued against a company that let corrosion deteriorate railcars it had rented, with the court set to weigh whether the suit was filed in time.

  • June 05, 2026

    Texas Justices To Hear AI-Aided Deposition Transcript Fight

    The Texas Supreme Court has agreed to hear a dispute over whether a nonstenographic deposition transcript generated using artificial intelligence-driven voice recognition technology can be used in litigation after a court struck the transcript and barred future depositions using the same method.

  • June 05, 2026

    Ga. Panel Affirms Anti-SLAPP Award In Atty Defamation Row

    A Georgia appellate court affirmed the awarding of legal fees under the state's anti-Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation statute to two attorneys who were sued for defamation by another attorney after he was accused of Fair Debt Collection Practices Act violations in federal court.

  • June 05, 2026

    Trade Court Backs Off Making CBP Chief Testify On Refunds

    The U.S. Court of International Trade judge handling the tariff refund cases for importers seeking refunds of unlawful duties amended his order that instructed the head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection to appear at a hearing.

  • June 05, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Backs Melinta Patent Win In Injections Case

    Nexus Pharmaceuticals lost its appeal of an Illinois federal judge's finding that it infringed a pair of patents relating to a line of injections that treat infections, after the Federal Circuit on Friday shot down the drugmaker's challenge to the lower court's interpretation of key patent terms.

  • June 05, 2026

    Ex-Mich. Hockey Team Exec Loses Appeal In Team Sale Suit

    A Michigan appeals court panel has declined to revive former Muskegon Lumberjacks executive Michael McCall's lawsuit seeking a cut of the minor league hockey team's sale, reasoning that McCall did not actually broker the deal. 

Expert Analysis

  • 5 Welcome Changes To Texas' Summary Judgment Rule

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    Following recent amendments to the Texas rule for summary judgment motions,​​​​​​ practitioners adjusting to the new framework will likely benefit from a more streamlined process that focuses attention on substantive legal arguments rather than procedural uncertainty, say attorneys at Hunton.

  • 2nd Circ. Ruling Reinforces Securities Act Limits Post-Slack

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    The Second Circuit's recent decision to limit treatment of mandatory reverse splits as actionable sales in Knapp v. Barclays is narrow but important, offering issuers a stronger basis to challenge expansive Securities Act theories and reinforcing the post-Slack v. Pirani discipline of tracing, says Elisha Kobre at Sheppard.

  • 2 Discovery Rulings Break With Heppner On AI Privilege Issue

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    While a New York federal court’s recent ruling in U.S. v. Heppner suggests that some litigants’ communications with AI tools are discoverable, two other recent federal court decisions demonstrate that such interactions generally qualify for work-product protection under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, says Joshua Dunn at Brown Rudnick.

  • Opinion

    BNP Paribas Case Could Upend Global Banking Norms

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    If upheld on appeal, a New York federal jury's multimillion-dollar verdict against BNP Paribas would create an unpredictable liability landscape for global financial institutions in which fully lawful services in foreign countries can give rise to civil liability in U.S. courts, in a manner contrary to federal law, say attorneys at White & Case.

  • Series

    Isshin-Ryu Karate Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My involvement in martial arts, specifically Isshin-ryu, which has principles rooted in the eight codes of karate, has been one of the most foundational in the development of my personality, and particularly my approach to challenges — including in my practice of law, says Kaitlyn Stone at Barnes & Thornburg.

  • Opinion

    CBP's $166B Tariff Refund Portal Needs 4 Safeguards

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    Before launching its automated web portal to process tariff-refund disbursements on April 20, U.S. Customs and Border Protection should apply the expensive lessons learned from the pandemic-era employee retention credit, says Peter Gariepy at RubinBrown.

  • Decoding Arbitral Disputes: Tracing Paths To Award Recovery

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    Recent subpoenas to Adidas and Hilton deployed in Blasket Renewables v. Spain, pending in D.C. federal court, show arbitration award recovery to be a disciplined exercise in constructing visibility, applying pressure and sequencing procedural advantage, says Josep Galvez at 4-5 Gray's Inn Square.

  • 5 Key Questions Attys Should Ask About Statistical Analyses

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    Even attorneys without a background in statistics can effectively vet the general concepts of a statistical analysis by asking targeted questions and can thereby reinforce the credibility and relevance of expert testimony — or expose its weaknesses, say Katrina Schydlower and Christopher Cunio at Hunton and Kevin Cahill at FTI Consulting.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: April Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy identifies practice tips from three recent rulings involving allegations of racial discrimination in mortgage applications, health insurance networks and actual cash value losses.

  • 'Made In America' EO May Not Survive Section 230

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    President Donald Trump's recent executive order to combat fraudulent "Made in America" claims in advertising directs the Federal Trade Commission to deem online marketplaces' failure to verify third-party origin claims as unlawful, but such a rule would likely run into Section 230's publisher immunity doctrine, say attorneys at Blank Rome.

  • Assessing EcoFactor's Impact On Damages Experts' Opinions

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    Though the Federal Circuit's ruling in EcoFactor v. Google gave rise to concerns that damages experts would be forced to rely on undisputed facts, recent case law suggests that those concerns are unwarranted, says Christopher Loh at Venable.

  • High Court Cert Case Would Test Sovereign Award Immunity

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    The D.C. Circuit's July 2025 Amaplat Mauritius v. Zimbabwe Mining Development decision appears to create a circuit split while elevating form over substance in a manner that, if left unreviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court, could bar the courthouse doors for creditors holding arbitration awards against recalcitrant foreign sovereigns, says Jeff Newton at Omni Bridgeway.

  • CFTC Actions Show Prediction Market Insider Trading Risks

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    It is a myth that insider trading law does not apply in prediction markets, as the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's recent enforcement actions illustrate that it has full authority to pursue such cases federally — and intends to, says attorney Gregg Goldfarb.

  • 2nd Circ. Clarifies When Prior Good Acts May Be Admissible

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    The Second Circuit's recent ruling in U.S. v. Cardenas, vacating a drug conspiracy conviction over improperly excluded evidence, indicates that evidence of prior good acts may be admissible to corroborate a defendant's testimony about their understanding of events and intent, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • Opinion

    Apple Discovery Fight Could Revive DOJ's Antitrust Appetite

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    Winning discovery disputes in the ongoing federal antitrust litigation over Apple’s app store practices is a huge opportunity for the Justice Department to return to its once-vigorous pursuit of product tying by tech monopolies, catch up with foreign competition regulators and establish clear standards for digital markets, says Ediberto Roman at Florida International University.

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