Appellate

  • November 04, 2025

    Ill. ICE Processing Facility Has 'Become A Prison,' Judge Says

    An Illinois federal judge said Tuesday that attorneys representing a proposed class of individuals detained at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in suburban Chicago had presented a "disturbing record" of the conditions at the facility that likely justifies a temporary restraining order in some form, but held off ruling until Wednesday.

  • November 04, 2025

    Ga. Panel Mulls Courts' Leeway To Alter Restrictive Covenants

    A Georgia appeals court pressed attorneys Tuesday for answers on how trial judges should determine how or when to modify restrictive covenants, during oral arguments on a motorcycle dealership chain's push to enforce a noncompete against its former chief operating officer.

  • November 04, 2025

    Removal Push Defies Century Of Legal Precedent, Court Told

    An immigrant rights organization has told the D.C. Circuit that the Trump administration's push for the expedited removal of noncitizens who entered the U.S. without authorization has already led to unlawful removals and "an intolerable risk of erroneous deportations" for others.

  • November 04, 2025

    Feds Tell 11th Circ. Delta, Aeromexico Can't Halt JV Split Order

    The Trump administration fired back at Delta Air Lines and Aeromexico's Eleventh Circuit bid to freeze a U.S. Department of Transportation order directing them to scuttle their joint venture by Jan. 1, saying the airlines' contention that it'd be too burdensome to disentangle their networks is overblown.

  • November 04, 2025

    DC Circ. Affirms Gun Conviction Despite Anxious Juror Note

    A D.C. Circuit panel affirmed a man's nearly five-year sentence for being a felon in possession of a gun, finding on Tuesday that although a juror told the court after the verdict that her anxiety may have deprived the defendant of justice, this couldn't be considered.

  • November 04, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Stands By Undoing Mondis Patent In LG Fight

    The Federal Circuit said Tuesday it won't rethink a panel's decision that scrapped a $14 million judgment against LG Electronics Inc. regarding allegations that it infringed a Mondis Technology Ltd. patent covering a computer display technology.

  • November 04, 2025

    Mass. Attys Split As Punitive Damages Rules Go To Top Court

    A case before Massachusetts' top appellate court over whether more safeguards are needed to cap runaway punitive damage awards has divided attorneys, with some saying the big-dollar verdicts can be skewed by improper evidence and others calling the matter a solution in search of a problem.

  • November 04, 2025

    10th Circuit Revives Atty's Free Speech Retaliation Case

    A Colorado water attorney's First Amendment case against her former employer was revived by the Tenth Circuit after a three-judge panel found the attorney's comments were not made as an ordinary part of her duties.

  • November 04, 2025

    Chem Cos. Urge 3rd Circ. To Scrap ERISA Ruling Over Spinoff

    Chemical companies Corteva Inc. and DuPont urged the Third Circuit Tuesday to upend a verdict in favor of employees who claimed they were misled about how a merger and spinoff would affect their retirement benefits, arguing plan participants' confusion and disappointment can't be remedied under federal benefits law.

  • November 04, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Denies VA Surgeon's Wrongful Termination Appeal

    The Federal Circuit on Tuesday affirmed the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board's decision to uphold the firing of a general surgeon by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs after he raised concerns about compromised patient care.

  • November 04, 2025

    Fla. Law Banning Lab Meat Is Preempted, 11th Circ. Hears

    A California company urged the Eleventh Circuit Tuesday to reverse a lower court's decision denying a preliminary injunction against a Florida state law banning lab-grown meat, arguing the Sunshine State's prohibition is federally preempted.

  • November 04, 2025

    9th Circ. Revives Ore. Right To Life Suit: 3 Things To Know

    A divided Ninth Circuit panel sided with an Oregon anti-abortion group last week and reinstated its lawsuit challenging a state law that requires health plans to cover abortion and contraceptives.

  • November 04, 2025

    'Chinese Military' Tag Is Unlawful, Drone Maker Tells DC Circ.

    Drone maker DJI has taken its arguments that the Pentagon unlawfully labeled it a "Chinese military company" to a higher court.

  • November 04, 2025

    2nd Circ. Revives Habeas Petition Over Counsel's Mistake

    A divided Second Circuit panel ruled Tuesday that because a convicted sex trafficker's counsel during his first criminal appeal made an admittedly "inexcusable" mistake, the convict should be granted a second chance via a habeas petition to challenge his sentence.

  • November 04, 2025

    Passenger Blameless For Car Contraband To Be Resentenced

    A Connecticut state appeals court said Tuesday that a man convicted of drug offenses who had his probation revoked and was sentenced to eight years in prison after a 2022 police altercation should be resentenced since the drugs and weapon inside a vehicle he was in weren't clearly his.

  • November 04, 2025

    5th Circ. Leery Of Tossing Search After Driver Had Gun

    A Fifth Circuit panel seemed skeptical of an argument that a Mississippi police officer lacked probable cause to search a disabled passenger during a traffic stop after he found a gun on the car's driver, saying Tuesday the court must consider the totality of circumstances.

  • November 04, 2025

    3rd Circ. Won't Rethink Reversing Union's $3.5M Pension Win

    The Third Circuit on Tuesday refused to rethink its earlier decision to reverse a $3.5 million win for a pipe fitters and plumbers union in a dispute with a commercial real estate company over pension contributions related to overtime hours.

  • November 04, 2025

    Ga. Justices Disbar Atty Over Abandonment Of Six Cases

    The Georgia Supreme Court disbarred a suspended attorney on Tuesday for accepting a total of $33,900 from six clients but failing to handle their cases, finding that the attorney also failed to respond to the disciplinary process.

  • November 04, 2025

    Confirmation Ends Dem-Appointed Judges' Lock On 1st Circ.

    The Senate voted 52-46 on Tuesday to confirm Joshua D. Dunlap, a partner at Pierce Atwood LLP, to the First Circuit.

  • November 04, 2025

    NC University Fights Ex-Football Player's Negligence Appeal

    A North Carolina university could not foresee an on-campus altercation between students, and therefore had no duty to protect one of those students who later sued the school for negligence, a North Carolina state appeals court was told.

  • November 04, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Backs Samsung PTAB Victory Over Noise Control IP

    The Federal Circuit on Tuesday refused to revive claims in a patent covering an earpiece that muffles background noise, backing a Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision that sided with patent challenger Samsung.

  • November 04, 2025

    DC Circ. Skeptical Of IRS Data Leaker's Qualms About Judge

    The D.C. Circuit seemed unlikely Tuesday to grant a request for resentencing by an IRS contractor serving prison time for leaking the tax returns of President Donald Trump and others to the media, suggesting his judge did nothing wrong in giving him the maximum term.

  • November 04, 2025

    Ga. Justices Uphold Ex-Atty's Matricide Conviction

    The Supreme Court of Georgia on Tuesday upheld the murder conviction of a disbarred Peach State attorney who was found guilty of killing his mother on the day he was due to report to prison for stealing clients' money, ruling that "ample" circumstantial evidence tied him to the scene of the crime.

  • November 04, 2025

    2nd Circ. Hints Bankman-Fried's $11B Forfeiture Is Overkill

    The Second Circuit suggested Tuesday that the government's $11 billion forfeiture order against Sam Bankman-Fried may be unconstitutionally large, noting that the staggering amount tops the raft of cases tasking the court with determining if such money judgments pass Eighth Amendment muster.

  • November 04, 2025

    Approach The Bench: Justice McKenna On Earning Her Master's

    Sabrina McKenna, acting chief justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court, had been on the bench for about three decades before she decided to go back to school to study the work of judging.

Expert Analysis

  • Attys Beware: Generative AI Can Also Hallucinate Metadata

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    In addition to the well-known problem of AI-generated hallucinations in legal documents, AI tools can also hallucinate metadata — threatening the integrity of discovery, the reliability of evidence and the ability to definitively identify the provenance of electronic documents, say attorneys at Law & Forensics.

  • How 9th Circ. Ruling Deepens SEC Disgorgement Circuit Split

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    The Ninth Circuit's recent decision in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Sripetch creates opposing disgorgement rules in the two circuits where the SEC brings a large proportion of enforcement actions — the Second and Ninth — and increases the likelihood that the U.S. Supreme Court will step in, say attorneys at Cahill Gordon.

  • Calif. Justices Continued Anti-Arbitration Trend This Term

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    In the 2024-2025 term, the California Supreme Court justices continued to narrow arbitration's reach under state law, despite state courts' extreme caseload backlog and even as they embraced contractual autonomy in other contexts, says Josephine Petrick at The Norton Law Firm.

  • DC Circuit Charts Path On FERC Orders In Loper Bright Era

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    The D.C. Circuit's recent decision in Solar Energy Industries Association v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, upholding the agency's assessment of a power production facility's output, laid out an approach for addressing statutory interpretation in FERC appeals in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's game-changing Loper Bright decision, say attorneys at Bracewell.

  • Lessons From Fed. Circ. On Expert Testimony In Patent Cases

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    Several recent decisions from the Federal Circuit are notable for their treatment of expert testimony, with relevance to the three pillars of every patent case — infringement, invalidity and damages — and offer lessons on ensuring that expert testimony is both admissible and sufficient to support the jury's verdict, say attorneys at Honigman.

  • When Atty Ethics Violations Give Rise To Causes Of Action

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    Though the Model Rules of Professional Conduct make clear that a violation of the rules does not automatically create a cause of action, attorneys should beware of a few scenarios in which they could face lawsuits for ethical lapses, says Brian Faughnan at Faughnan Law.

  • Fed. Circ. In September: The Printed Matter Doctrine Expands

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    The Federal Circuit’s recent decision in Bayer v. Mylan represents an extension of the doctrine that adding new words to an existing product or method will not support patentability unless there is a functional relationship, bringing new considerations for both patent holders and challengers, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.

  • Justices' LabCorp Punt Leaves Deeper Class Cert. Circuit Split

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    In its ruling in LabCorp v. Davis, the U.S. Supreme Court left unresolved a standing-related class certification issue that has plagued class action jurisprudence for years — and subsequent conflicting decisions among federal circuit courts have left district courts and litigants struggling with conflicting and uncertain standards, say attorneys at Cozen O'Connor.

  • State Of Insurance: Q3 Notes From Pennsylvania

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    Todd Leon at Marshall Dennehey discusses three notable Pennsylvania auto insurance developments from the third quarter, including the Third Circuit weighing in on actual cash value, a state appellate court opining on the regular use exclusion and state legislators introducing a bill to increase property damage minimums.

  • Opinion

    Courts Must Continue Protecting Plaintiffs In Mass Arbitration

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    In recent years, many companies have imposed onerous protocols that function to frustrate plaintiffs' ability to seek justice through mass arbitration, but a series of welcome court decisions in recent months indicate that the pendulum might be swinging back toward plaintiffs, say Raphael Janove and Sasha Jones at Janove Law.

  • Series

    Practicing Stoicism Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Practicing Stoicism, by applying reason to ignore my emotions and govern my decisions, has enabled me to approach challenging situations in a structured way, ultimately providing advice singularly devoted to a client's interest, says John Baranello at Moses & Singer.

  • Series

    The Biz Court Digest: Texas, One Year In

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    A year after the Texas Business Court's first decision, it's clear that Texas didn't just copy Delaware and instead built something uniquely its own, combining specialization with constitutional accountability and creating a model that looks forward without losing touch with the state's democratic and statutory roots, says Chris Bankler at Jackson Walker.

  • What's At Stake In High Court Pension Liability Case

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s upcoming decision in M&K Employee Solutions v. Trustees of the IAM National Pension Fund will determine how an employer’s liability for withdrawing from a multiemployer retirement plan is calculated — a narrow but key issue for employer financial planning and collective bargaining, say attorneys at Thompson Hine.

  • Contract Disputes Recap: Formation, Performance, Certainty

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    Three recent decisions offer helpful takeaways about addressing potential obstacles to contract formation, liability for specific performance and requirements for claiming a sum certain, says Ken Kanzawa at Seyfarth Shaw.

  • Border Czar Bribery Probe Spotlights 'Public Official' Scope

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    Reports that border czar Tom Homan allegedly accepted cash from a federal agent prior to his appointment raise important questions for government contractors about when a private citizen can be prosecuted as a public official under federal bribery laws, say Gregory Rosen at Rogers Joseph and Jason Manning at Levy Firestone.

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