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Appellate
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June 24, 2024
9th Circ. Won't Reconsider Or Sanction In Kari Lake Vote Suit
The Ninth Circuit has rejected Arizona Republican Kari Lake's attempt to revive her 2022 suit over the state's voting machines, issuing a two-sentence order that also rejects a sanctions bid Maricopa County officials filed in response to the former gubernatorial candidate's attempt to restart her failed suit.
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June 24, 2024
Illinois, Other States Back FTC Bid To Affirm Intuit Ad Ruling
Illinois, along with 20 other states and the District of Columbia, defended the Federal Trade Commission in tax software giant Intuit's Fifth Circuit constitutional challenge to the agency's findings that the company engaged in deceptive advertising, saying in an amicus brief that the FTC's conclusion was correct.
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June 24, 2024
Colo. Justices Send Back 'Rare' Atty Conflict Criminal Case
The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday found that an appeals court panel used an outdated analysis when reversing the sexual assault conviction of a man because his defense attorney was being prosecuted at the same time by the same district attorney's office, remanding the case for another look.
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June 24, 2024
Justices Undo Terror Victims' Win, Citing Twitter Decision
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday swept aside a D.C. Circuit ruling that threatened to expose major pharmaceutical companies to liability for terrorist attacks that injured or killed hundreds of U.S. soldiers and civilians in Iraq.
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June 24, 2024
LA Schools Says Pseudoscience Infected 9th Circ. Vax Ruling
The Los Angeles Unified School District said Friday that a split Ninth Circuit panel leaned on pseudoscience when ruling that a rescinded employee COVID-19 vaccination mandate implicated the right of district employees to refuse medical treatment, urging an en banc panel to correct the "fatally flawed" decision.
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June 24, 2024
Mars Beats Dove Chocolate False Ad Suit At 9th Circ.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal Monday of a proposed class action claiming that a Mars subsidiary falsely advertised its Dove dark chocolate products as being made without using child slave labor or contributing to rainforest deforestation, finding that the candy packages' "Rainforest Alliance Certified farms" labeling isn't misleading.
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June 24, 2024
Mich. Justices Take Up Young Adults' Life Sentence Challenge
Michigan's top court will weigh whether the state's mandatory life sentence for murder is unconstitutional when applied to young adults, after 19- and 20-year-olds argued that a 2022 precedent banning the punishment for 18-year-olds should extend to them.
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June 24, 2024
8th Circ. Sides With Minn. DOT In Injured Worker's ADA Suit
The Eighth Circuit on Monday backed the Minnesota Department of Transportation in a suit by a former mechanic who alleged the agency discriminated against him after an on-the-job injury, finding MNDOT reasonably showed that he could not do the work of his prior position.
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June 24, 2024
Pipe Co. Seeks Full Fed. Circ. Redo Of Thai Pipe Duty Review
A pipe company asked the full Federal Circuit to unwind a panel ruling broadening a decades-old anti-dumping duty order on Thai pipe, saying the panel mistakenly expanded the levy to cover more imports than allowed under federal trade law.
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June 24, 2024
9th Circ. Asks Wash. Justices If Uber Had Duty To Slain Driver
The Ninth Circuit urged Washington's highest court Monday to determine whether Uber had a duty to use reasonable care to protect one of its drivers who was murdered in a carjacking, in an order that paused an appeal brought by the driver's family.
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June 24, 2024
9th Circ. Won't Revive Ex-Uber Driver's Bias Suit
An Asian man who previously drove for Uber didn't provide enough information in his proposed class action to support his claim that the ride-hailing platform's use of customer ratings when making decisions to drop drivers had a "significant disparate impact" on non-white drivers, the Ninth Circuit said Monday.
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June 24, 2024
Wage Law Doesn't Apply To $32M In PPE Sales, NJ Panel Says
An employee who sold more than $32 million in personal protective equipment during three months of the COVID-19 pandemic is not entitled to $1.3 million in commissions under the New Jersey Wage Payment Law, because the sales did not fall under her normal role and are instead "supplementary incentives," a state appeals panel ruled Monday.
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June 24, 2024
DC Circ. Backs Gov't Contractor Win In Fight With Ex-Worker
The D.C. Circuit has backed a ruling that a former senior technical manager for government contractor Apprio Inc. breached a proprietary information agreement giving the rights of certain software he created over to the company.
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June 24, 2024
Ex-NJ Corrections Official Can't Revive Demotion Bias Suit
A New Jersey state appellate court on Monday refused to reinstate a lawsuit against the state's Department of Corrections alleging it demoted a former deputy commissioner because she was in her 60s and underwent a hip replacement, saying the agency's commissioner was free to make personnel decisions.
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June 24, 2024
Julie Chrisley To Be Resentenced, But Convictions Stand
The Eleventh Circuit on Friday upheld the tax evasion and fraud convictions of former reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, but ordered a Georgia federal judge to resentence Julie Chrisley after finding that the judge failed to fully explore her discrete role in the $36 million scheme.
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June 24, 2024
NC Justice's Politician Dad Doesn't Merit DQ, Lawmakers Say
North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Phil Berger Jr. should not recuse himself from a constitutional challenge concerning the governor's appointment powers merely because his father is president pro tem of the state Senate, top lawmakers argue.
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June 24, 2024
Suit Over Medical Screws Filed Too Late, Texas Panel Finds
A Texas appeals court won't revive a woman's suit against BioPro Inc. alleging that surgical screws used in her feet were defective, saying the evidence establishes that she filed her suit after the two-year statute of limitations had expired.
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June 24, 2024
NJ Atty Suspended 3 Years For Unauthorized Practice Of Law
A New Jersey attorney has been suspended from practicing law for three years after she continued to represent clients and mishandle sensitive matters while she was suspended for similar conduct in 2019, according to a New Jersey Supreme Court order.
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June 24, 2024
Mich. High Court Denies Officers' Judge-Shopping Appeals
A divided Michigan Supreme Court has rejected the appeals of three police officers facing charges related to a traffic-stop assault who complained that their cases should not have been handed to a new judge mid-prosecution.
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June 24, 2024
High Court Won't Take Up Michigan Tribal Tag Dispute
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up a petition by a Native American man seeking to overturn a Michigan Supreme Court order that denied him the chance to appeal his traffic stop convictions stemming from a dispute over tribal-licensed tags.
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June 24, 2024
Pa. Court OKs $3.65M Deal On Student Loan 'Pay-To-Pay' Fees
A Pennsylvania federal judge said Monday that she would give her final approval to a $3.65 million settlement of claims that loan servicer Educational Computer Systems Inc. had improperly charged payment fees on hundreds of thousands of federally-backed student loans.
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June 24, 2024
No Coverage For $3M Logging Injury Verdict, 4th Circ. Affirms
The Fourth Circuit has affirmed that an insurer doesn't have to cover a $3 million jury verdict over a man's logging injuries, finding that a North Carolina federal court correctly decided that a broad worker injury exclusion was applicable.
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June 24, 2024
Justices' Removal Notice Decision Unwinds 3 Migrants' Wins
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent endorsement of multipart removal notices resulted in the Monday vacatur of three circuit court decisions offering migrants another chance at fighting deportation after receiving notices that initially omitted important information about their removal hearings.
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June 24, 2024
High Court Passes On Religious Webcasters' Royalty Hike Suit
The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to review the federal Copyright Royalty Board's latest hike in royalty rates webcasters must pay to play audio recordings, turning away a radio trade group's appeal challenging one of the increases on religious freedom and administrative procedure grounds.
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June 24, 2024
Justices Pass On Conn. School Vaccine Mandate Fight
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review a Second Circuit decision that largely upheld the dismissal of a suit challenging a Connecticut law passed during the COVID-19 pandemic that revoked religious exemptions to student vaccine mandates.
Expert Analysis
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What High Court Ruling Means For Sexual Harassment Claims
In its recent Smith v. Spizzirri decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a district court compelling a case to arbitration is obligated to stay the case rather than dismissing it, but this requirement may result in sexual harassment cases not being heard by appellate courts, says Abe Melamed at Signature Resolution.
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Trademark In Artistic Works 1 Year After Jack Daniel's
In the year since the U.S. Supreme Court's Jack Daniel's v. VIP Products ruling, courts have applied Jack Daniel's inconsistently to deny First Amendment protection to artistic works, providing guidance for dismissing trademark claims relating to film and TV titles, say Hardy Ehlers and Neema Sahni at Covington.
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9th Circ. Ruling Broadens Sweep Of Securities 'Solicitation'
The Ninth Circuit's recent revival of a putative securities fraud class action against Genius Brands for hiring a stock promoter to write favorable articles about it shows that companies should view "solicitation" broadly in considering whether they may have paid someone to urge an investor to purchase a security, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.
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Why Jurors Balk At 'I Don't Recall' — And How To Respond
Jurors often react negatively to a witness who responds “I don’t remember” because they tend to hold erroneous beliefs about the nature of human memory, but attorneys can adopt a few strategies to mitigate the impact of these biases, say Steve Wood and Ava Hernández at Courtroom Sciences.
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Series
Fishing Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Atop the list of ways fishing makes me a better lawyer is the relief it offers from the chronic stress of a demanding caseload, but it has also improved my listening skills and patience, and has served as an exceptional setting for building earnest relationships, says Steven DeGeorge at Robinson Bradshaw.
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5th Circ. Venue-Transfer Cases Highlight Mandamus Limits
Three ongoing cases filed within the Fifth Circuit highlight an odd procedural wrinkle that may let district courts defy an appellate writ: orders granting transfer to out-of-circuit districts, but parties opposing intercircuit transfer can work around this hurdle to effective appellate review, says Charles Fowler at McKool Smith.
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A Healthier Legal Industry Starts With Emotional Intelligence
The legal profession has long been plagued by high rates of mental health issues, in part due to attorneys’ early training and broader societal stereotypes — but developing one’s emotional intelligence is one way to foster positive change, collectively and individually, says attorney Esperanza Franco.
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PTAB Rulings Shed Light On Quantum Computing Patents
Recent Patent Trial and Appeal Board decisions on enablement rejections against quantum computing patent claims provide patent practitioners with valuable guidance on best practices for avoiding and overcoming enablement, say Fred Qiu and Alex Nie at Sheppard Mullin.
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To Make Your Legal Writing Clear, Emulate A Master Chef
To deliver clear and effective written advocacy, lawyers should follow the model of a fine dining chef — seasoning a foundation of pure facts with punchy descriptors, spicing it up with analogies, refining the recipe and trimming the fat — thus catering to a sophisticated audience of decision-makers, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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Circuit Judge Writes An Opinion, AI Helps: What Now?
Last week's Eleventh Circuit opinion in Snell v. United Specialty Insurance, notable for a concurrence outlining the use of artificial intelligence to evaluate a term's common meaning, is hopefully the first step toward developing a coherent basis for the judiciary's generative AI use, says David Zaslowsky at Baker McKenzie.
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Fed. Circ. Rulings Crystallize Polymorph Patent 'Obviousness'
A comparison of two recent Federal Circuit obviousness challenge decisions regarding polymorph patents provides helpful insight into the assessment of screening arguments, particularly the issue of reasonable expectation of success, say Michael Green and John Molenda at Steptoe.
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DC Circ. Ruling Heightens HHS Contract Pharmacy Challenges
The D.C. Circuit's recent ruling that the Section 340B program does not bar manufacturers from restricting deliveries of discounted drugs to contract pharmacies represents a second strike against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' current contract pharmacy policy and raises the stakes surrounding an upcoming Seventh Circuit ruling on the same issue, say attorneys at Foley Hoag.
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Series
In The CFPB Playbook: Regulatory Aims Get High Court Assist
Newly emboldened after the U.S. Supreme Court last month found that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding is constitutional, the bureau has likely experienced a psychic boost, allowing its already robust enforcement agenda to continue expanding, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.
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3 Infringement Defenses To Consider 10 Years Post-Nautilus
In the 10 years since the U.S. Supreme Court’s influential Nautilus ruling, the spirit of the “amenable to construction” test that the opinion rejected persists with many patent litigators and judges, so patent infringement defense counsel should always consider several key arguments, says John Vandenberg at Klarquist Sparkman.
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NY Ruling Paves A Court Payment Shortcut For More Creditors
A recent New York state appeals court ruling expands access to an expedited statutory procedure for court enforcement of promissory notes or unconditional guaranties, allowing more creditors to minimize the risk of potentially challenging litigation on threshold issues, says Alexander Levi at Friedman Kaplan.