Appellate

  • August 11, 2025

    4th Circ. Revives Union Member's Bid To Sue Machinists

    A divided Fourth Circuit panel has given a union member another shot at accusing the International Association of Machinists' president and secretary-treasurer of misusing IAM funds on personal travel, saying Monday that she took the necessary steps to raise the matter internally before filing suit.

  • August 11, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Reverses Alice Ax Of Dumbbell Patent In IFit Case

    The Federal Circuit decided on Monday that a Utah federal judge wrongly declared a PowerBlock Holdings Inc. dumbbell patent asserted against iFit Inc. to be invalid for claiming only an abstract idea, holding it instead covers a specific type of dumbbell that is patent eligible.

  • August 11, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Drops Co.'s $1.5B Commerce Award Challenge

    A Virginia company voluntarily dropped a Federal Circuit appeal related to a U.S. Department of Commerce procurement for IT services valued at up to $1.5 billion, though a second company will continue to press its challenge.

  • August 11, 2025

    Licensing Co. Seeks Revival Of Leibovitz Photo Dispute

    The licensing firm for photographer Annie Leibovitz urged the Eleventh Circuit Monday to revive its suit alleging that an online magazine used her photos without permission, arguing that carveouts in the agreement letting Leibovitz use her work for select purposes doesn't undermine the exclusivity of the company's rights.

  • August 11, 2025

    NC Legislator's Judicial Campaign Scrutinized Over Donations

    The former director of a voting rights nonprofit has filed a complaint with the North Carolina State Board of Elections challenging certain donations to a Republican state lawmaker's campaign for a seat on the state Supreme Court that he says flout state campaign finance laws.

  • August 11, 2025

    Split 8th Circ. Revives Minn. Suit Over Union Leave

    The Eighth Circuit on Monday revived a First Amendment challenge to a Minnesota school district policy that allows teachers to take paid leave to work for their union, saying the district spending public funds on benefits for teachers engaged in political actions gave residents standing to sue as taxpayers.

  • August 11, 2025

    Data Co. Asks DC Circ. To Revive $22M Guinea Award Bid

    A data consulting company has again urged the D.C. Circuit to reverse a lower court order denying its bid to enforce a $22 million arbitral award against Guinea, saying the country wrongly wants the appeals court to ignore long-standing precedent and nix enforcement on jurisdictional grounds.

  • August 11, 2025

    9th Circ. Says LA Men Have Ammo In Gun Rights Class Action

    The Ninth Circuit found Monday that a Los Angeles gun licensing policy that allowed only judges or law enforcement agents to carry concealed weapons was unconstitutional in light of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, reviving a proposed class action brought by three men who were arrested for violating the policy.

  • August 11, 2025

    Tulsa Says Settlement Moots High Court Jurisdiction Bid

    Tulsa is asking the Supreme Court to deny a petition by an Oklahoma attorney that looks to undo his conviction stemming from a speeding ticket issued on tribal lands, arguing it seeks review of a broader jurisdictional question that the municipality and the Creek Nation have already resolved.

  • August 11, 2025

    Ex-Ill. Speaker's 'False Hope' Won't Delay Prison Sentence

    Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan must begin serving his seven-year bribery and wire fraud prison sentence as ordered in October, a federal judge has ruled, finding that Madigan "clings to false hope" in arguing his forthcoming appeal to the Seventh Circuit will present an issue substantial enough to overturn his entire conviction.

  • August 11, 2025

    Pa. Court Finds Man Who Wasn't Driving Can Still Get DUI

    A man found intoxicated in the driver's seat of his running truck in a parking lot had his sentence for driving under the influence affirmed by the Pennsylvania Superior Court, which found it was fair to assume the man had driven there.

  • August 11, 2025

    4th Circ. Affirms $2M Insurer Car Crash Payout, Plus Interest

    An excess insurer for a construction company must pay a woman and her two children its full $2 million limit after they suffered severe injuries in a head-on collision, the Fourth Circuit ruled, further finding the insurer must also pay both pre- and post-judgment interest.

  • August 11, 2025

    Posner Accuser Wants Roberts To Pick Judges For Wage Case

    The pro se plaintiff seeking to revive wage claims against retired Seventh Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner has filed an opposed motion asking the circuit's chief judge to request U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts assign out-of-circuit judges to preside over the case, arguing the circuit judges cannot be impartial.

  • August 11, 2025

    IP Atty Asks High Court To Hear 'US Space Force' TM Case

    An intellectual property lawyer has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his case to register the trademark "US Space Force," seeking a reversal of a trademark board decision that denied him registration of the mark even though he applied for it before the creation of the military branch with the same name.

  • August 11, 2025

    Rising Star: McGuireWoods' Brian Schmalzbach

    Brian Schmalzbach of McGuireWoods LLP argued a civil rights case addressing attorney fees before the U.S. Supreme Court last fall, earning him a spot among appellate law practitioners under age 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.

  • August 11, 2025

    6th Circ. Bucks EEOC With Strict View On Client Harassment

    An employer can only be held liable for a customer's harassment of an employee if the company intended for the misconduct to happen, the Sixth Circuit ruled, a strict stance that breaks with long-standing U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission guidelines and other circuit case law.

  • August 11, 2025

    NY Judge Won't Unseal 'Redundant' Maxwell Grand Jury Docs

    A New York federal judge on Monday denied the Trump administration's bid to unseal grand jury transcripts and exhibits in the prosecution of Ghislaine Maxwell, who is appealing a 20-year prison sentence for trafficking teenage girls for sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, concluding that the materials contain almost nothing new.

  • August 08, 2025

    9th Circ. Grounds Lufthansa Refund Deal On Atty Fee Question

    The Ninth Circuit on Friday vacated an order that granted class certification and gave final approval to a $56.6 million settlement reached between Lufthansa and customers in a dispute concerning refunds for flights canceled due to COVID-19, saying a district court's calculation gave class counsel a disproportionate distribution.

  • August 08, 2025

    8th Circ. Revives Floyd Protestor's Arson Case Challenge

    A protester convicted of arson at a Minneapolis pawn shop during 2020 protests over the murder of George Floyd — and where the dead body of another man was later found — will get another shot at vacating his sentence after the Eighth Circuit ruled Friday that a district court miscalculated the deadline to challenge his sentence.

  • August 08, 2025

    3rd Circ. Affirms Toss Of GameStop Website Tracking Suit

    The Third Circuit refused to revive a proposed class action accusing GameStop of violating Pennsylvania's wiretap law through its use of third-party software to record website visitors' browsing activities, finding that the plaintiff failed to show that the alleged interception of her non-personal data caused a sufficiently concrete injury.

  • August 08, 2025

    Ripple Exits SEC Case With An Injunction Still Over Its Head

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's long-running case against Ripple Labs has finally come to an end with both sides agreeing to drop competing appeals, but the crypto firm's inability to shake a court-ordered judgment leaves it potentially vulnerable to future enforcement actions.

  • August 08, 2025

    Wash. Justices Won't Touch Builder Seattle Condo Tower Win

    The Washington State Supreme Court will not take up a case involving a $19.2 million jury trial verdict for a construction company in a dispute with the owner and developer of a 41-story Seattle condo tower project, according to recent filings.

  • August 08, 2025

    9th Circ. Says Ex-Atty Sued By CFPB Still On Hook For $243M

    The Ninth Circuit refused to free a disbarred attorney from a $243 million order that included civil penalties to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for his role in a student loan scam, finding no genuine dispute whether the former lawyer violated consumer protection law.

  • August 08, 2025

    Fired Copyright Office Director Takes Fight For Job To DC Circ.

    The ousted head of the U.S. Copyright Office brought the fight over President Donald Trump's termination of her to the D.C. Circuit on Thursday, where she asked for an emergency injunction to reinstate her while she challenges her "patently unlawful removal."

  • August 08, 2025

    6th Circ. Revives Dodge Ram Drivers' Emissions Fraud Claims

    The Sixth Circuit signaled Friday that federal law doesn't preempt a group of drivers' claims alleging Fiat Chrysler and engine manufacturer Cummins deceptively marketed Dodge Ram trucks as being more environmentally friendly than they actually were, punting the dispute back to Michigan federal court.

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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