Appellate

  • August 14, 2025

    11th Circ. Looks For Immunity Line In $40M Taser Case

    An Eleventh Circuit panel appeared conflicted Thursday over whether to toss a $40 million verdict against the city of Atlanta and a cop who left a man a quadriplegic after shocking him with a Taser over suspicions of panhandling, struggling with whether the officer should have foreseen the injuries he caused.

  • August 14, 2025

    Renewable Energy Investors Fight Spain's Supreme Court Bid

    Renewable energy investors awarded some €357.5 million ($416 million) in arbitration against Spain urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday not to disturb a D.C. Circuit ruling nixing the country's jurisdictional objections to enforcement, arguing that the country's sovereign immunity defense shouldn't be revived.

  • August 14, 2025

    Ponzi Scheme Trial Not Tainted By Video Depo, 7th Circ. Says

    A Seventh Circuit panel upheld the conviction and 17-year sentence of an alleged Ponzi schemer, rejecting a "host of challenges," including that he was denied his Sixth Amendment confrontation rights when the government presented a key witness's testimony through a videotaped foreign deposition neither he nor his counsel attended.

  • August 14, 2025

    Fla. Juror Misconduct Claim Stymied By 'Lack Of Diligence'

    A new trial ordered in an auto collision case was wrongly granted based on juror misconduct, a Florida appeals court has ruled, saying a juror's involvement in injury litigation was disclosed on his questionnaire but wasn't explored in court due to a "lack of diligence" by defense counsel.

  • August 14, 2025

    11th Circ. Partly Revives Day Labor Protections Suit

    A Florida federal court erred by dismissing a worker protections suit against a staffing company instead of first addressing a subject matter jurisdiction dispute, the Eleventh Circuit ruled, although it affirmed the dismissal of two individual defendants for lack of personal jurisdiction.

  • August 14, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Upholds Hoverboard Co.'s Design Patent Loss

    An Illinois federal judge properly followed the Federal Circuit's orders when throwing out an infringement suit over hoverboard designs, the appeals court affirmed Thursday.

  • August 14, 2025

    5th Circ. Tosses Challenge To Texas Gas Terminal Permit

    The Fifth Circuit has dismissed an environmental group's petition challenging a permit issued by Texas regulators for a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal, finding that a previous permit for another project, which stipulated a lower emissions rate, has no bearing on the permit at issue here.

  • August 14, 2025

    Mich. Panel Greenlights 911 Dispatcher's Whistleblower Suit

    A Michigan appellate panel said Wednesday that a former 911 operator may be protected by a whistleblower law for criticizing a supervisor's handling of a 911 call, clearing the way for his lawsuit to move forward.

  • August 14, 2025

    Fla. Bar Fights Demand For Bondi Ethics Probe

    The Florida Bar has again pushed back on a request to investigate U.S. Attorney Pam Bondi for alleged unethical conduct, telling the Supreme Court of Florida that a group of complainants can't bulldoze past its policy of not investigating sitting government officials.

  • August 14, 2025

    Senate Democrats Urge 'Robust' Funding For US Defenders

    Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday implored congressional appropriators to ensure that the federal public defender program has adequate funding for fiscal year 2026 after budget shortfalls. 

  • August 14, 2025

    4th Circ. Won't DQ Judge From Church Mass Shooting Case

    Hearsay evidence and conclusory allegations of impartiality are not enough to cause the Fourth Circuit to remove the federal judge presiding over white supremacist mass shooter Dylann Roof's criminal case in South Carolina, a panel of out-of-circuit judges determined in a nonprecedential ruling.

  • August 14, 2025

    Rising Star: Hogan Lovells' Katie Wellington

    Hogan Lovells' Katie Wellington was one of the chief architects of an argument that resulted in a win for a voting rights group in a dispute over the so-called independent state legislature theory before the U.S. Supreme Court, preventing state legislatures from changing election rules and maps without being subject to judicial review, earning her a spot among the appellate law practitioners under age 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.

  • August 14, 2025

    Biz Rips Law Firm Over Arbitration Push After Filing Suit

    A former client of Herman Jones LLP urged a Georgia state appeals court to overturn a trial judge's decision to send a lawsuit over legal fees to arbitration, arguing that if the law firm wanted to stay out of court, it should have filed an arbitration demand, not a lawsuit.

  • August 14, 2025

    Pa. Tax Board Must Revisit Denial Of Calif. Co.'s $4.9M Refund

    The Pennsylvania Board of Finance and Revenue must review its denial of a California corporation's request for a refund of an overpayment of Pennsylvania income tax following a federal audit, the Commonwealth Court ruled Thursday.

  • August 14, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Won't Revive RFCyber Mobile Data Patent

    The Federal Circuit on Thursday refused to revive a mobile payment patent owned by RFCyber Corp., backing a Patent Trial and Appeal Board finding that a prior patent application rendered it obvious.

  • August 14, 2025

    NC Lawmaker's Judicial Campaign Returns Lobbyists' Money

    A Republican state lawmaker in North Carolina has returned lobbyists' donations to her judicial campaign after the contributions came under scrutiny for potentially violating state campaign finance laws, her campaign adviser confirmed Thursday to Law360.

  • August 14, 2025

    Anthropic Asks 9th Circ. To Halt AI Copyright Trial For Appeal

    Artificial intelligence developer Anthropic has urged the Ninth Circuit to overturn a California federal judge's refusal to delay trial in a copyright lawsuit from authors who allege their works were illegally obtained to train the company's large language model, Claude.

  • August 14, 2025

    2nd Circ. Publicly Reprimands Ghosting NY Attorney

    The Second Circuit has rebuked a New York attorney who was removed from a case for disappearing on his client while appealing criminal migrant smuggling charges, and then failing to respond to a court order for years.

  • August 14, 2025

    3rd Circ. Clarifies 'New Evidence' In Immigration Cases

    The Third Circuit on Thursday declined to stop the deportation of a Guatemalan citizen, determining that although the Board of Immigration Appeals erred in finding the birth of his daughter was introduced too late in his appeal, the error was ultimately harmless.

  • August 14, 2025

    Justices Allow Mississippi's Social Media Age Verification Law

    The U.S. Supreme Court said Thursday that social media giants like Facebook, X, YouTube and Reddit must comply with a Mississippi law that requires platforms to verify users' ages and obtain parental consent before minors can create accounts, while the companies challenge its constitutionality.

  • August 14, 2025

    Pa. Court Rejects Challenge To Alternative Energy Regs

    A state appeals court swatted down challenges to Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission regulations that put grid improvement and connection costs onto customers with solar and other alternative energy systems that generate excess power for sale to distribution companies.

  • August 14, 2025

    2nd Circ. Denies NFL Arbitration In Flores Case

    Fired Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores won efforts to keep his racial discrimination claims against the NFL in federal court, with the Second Circuit finding Thursday that the league cannot force him into arbitration because the organization has unilateral control over the process.

  • August 14, 2025

    Fla. Court Says Developer Can Build On Contested Property

    A Florida appellate court has partially reversed a man's lower court win in his easement dispute with a developer that wanted to build a single-family home and install a seawall on the company's purchased Santa Rosa County property, ruling that the developer was wrongfully barred by the lower court from working on the property.

  • August 14, 2025

    2nd Circ. Affirms Sanctions In Abandoned Suit Against Dylan

    In a precedential ruling, the Second Circuit upheld limited fee sanctions imposed by a Manhattan federal judge against attorneys found to have violated a discovery order and committed other wrongs, despite having been warned, in a now-abandoned sexual assault suit against Bob Dylan.

  • August 13, 2025

    DC Circ. Upholds Toss Of Video Privacy Suit Against Paper

    The D.C. Circuit has refused to revive a proposed class action accusing the Washington Examiner of illegally sharing website visitors' video-viewing information with Meta, finding that the plaintiff had failed to show that she "subscribed" to the content that she accessed online rather than through her newsletter subscription.

Expert Analysis

  • 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.

  • Opinion

    Subject Matter Eligibility Test Should Return To Preemption

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    Subject matter eligibility has posed challenges for patentees due to courts' arbitrary and confusing reasoning, but adopting a two-part preemption test could align the applicant, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the courts, says Manav Das at McDonnell Boehnen.

  • 8 Ways Lawyers Can Protect The Rule Of Law In Their Work

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    Whether they are concerned with judicial independence, regulatory predictability or client confidence, lawyers can take specific meaningful actions on their own when traditional structures are too slow or too compromised to respond, says Angeli Patel at the Berkeley Center of Law and Business.

  • Kousisis Concurrence Maps FCA Defense To Anti-DEI Suits

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    Justice Clarence Thomas' recent concurrence in Kousisis v. U.S. lays out how federal funding recipients could use the high standard for materiality in government fraud cases to fight the U.S. Justice Department’s threatened False Claims Act suits against payees deviating from the administration’s anti-DEI policies, say attorneys at Miller & Chevalier.

  • Justices' Review Of Fluor May Alter Gov't Contractor Liability

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to review Hencely v. Fluor, a case involving a soldier’s personal injury claims against a government contractor, suggests the justices could reconsider a long-standing test for determining whether contractors are shielded from state-tort liability, says Lisa Himes at Rogers Joseph.

  • Google Damages Ruling Offers Lessons For Testifying Experts

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    The Federal Circuit's recent decision in EcoFactor v. Google represents a shift in how courts evaluate expert testimony in patent cases, offering a practical guide for how litigators and testifying experts can refine their work, says Adam Rhoten at Secretariat.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Communicating With Clients

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    Law school curricula often overlook client communication procedures, and those who actively teach this crucial facet of the practice can create exceptional client satisfaction and success, says Patrick Hanson at Wiggam Law.

  • One Year On, Davidson Holds Lessons On 'Health Halo' Claims

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    A year after the Ninth Circuit's Davidson v. Sprout Foods decision — which raised the bar for so-called health halo claims — food and beverage companies can draw insights from its finding, subsequently expanded on by other courts, that plaintiffs must be specific when alleging fraud in healthfulness marketing, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Justices' NRC Ruling Raises New Regulatory Questions

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    In Nuclear Regulatory Commission v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court avoided ruling on the NRC's authority to license private, temporary nuclear waste storage facilities — and this failure to reach the merits question creates new regulatory uncertainty where none had existed for decades, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • Rocket Mortgage Appeal May Push Justices To Curb Classes

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    Should the U.S. Supreme Court agree to hear Alig v. Rocket Mortgage, the resulting decision could limit class sizes based on commonality under Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Evidence as opposed to standing under Article III of the U.S. Constitution, say attorneys at Carr Maloney.

  • 3 Judicial Approaches To Applying Loper Bright, 1 Year Later

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    In the year since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Chevron deference in its Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision, a few patterns have emerged in lower courts’ application of the precedent to determine whether agency actions are lawful, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.

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