Appellate

  • March 03, 2025

    Justices Evade Circuit Split On Student Speech, Thomas Says

    The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to wade into a free speech advocacy group's suit challenging Indiana University's processes for reporting and investigating controversial speech, but Justice Clarence Thomas complained that the high court missed a chance to address a circuit split over student challenges to schools' "bias response teams."

  • March 03, 2025

    Justices Turn Away Peru Mining Pollution Suit

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a bid by a mining company controlled by billionaire Ira Rennert to resolve whether the Eighth Circuit incorrectly denied the dismissal of claims raised by over 1,000 Peruvians alleging improper pollution.

  • March 03, 2025

    High Court Declines Souvenir Store's TM Fraud Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it will not consider a Florida souvenir store chain's challenge to a Second Circuit decision shutting down its case that a bankrupt beachwear company fraudulently procured a trademark registration to secure a $3.5 million settlement. 

  • March 03, 2025

    Justices Turn Down Suit By Worker Fired Over Online Post

    The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it would not review a Sixth Circuit decision holding that a former CSX Transportation Inc. engineer waited too long to try to revive his wrongful termination suit stemming from an online post he made about a fatal train accident.

  • March 02, 2025

    WH Appeals After Watchdog Chief Is Permanently Reinstalled

    A D.C. federal judge ruled Saturday that President Donald Trump's firing of the head of the Office of Special Counsel was illegal, finding that the federal employment watchdog can only be ousted for cause.

  • February 28, 2025

    9th Circ. Keeps Mass Starz Privacy Arbitration Consolidated

    The Ninth Circuit on Friday refused to allow a consumer whose video privacy arbitration claims against Starz Entertainment LLC have been merged with more than 7,000 similar allegations to break off from the pack, finding that the television network couldn't be blamed for the current "procedural stalemate" in the consolidated arbitration proceedings. 

  • February 28, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Orders Interest Recalculation In Hardware IP Row

    Halo Electronics' nearly two-decades-old dispute with a rival completed its fifth trip to the Federal Circuit, with the appeals court on Friday ordering a Nevada federal court to recalculate the amount of interest Halo could collect on a jury verdict.

  • February 28, 2025

    Texas Appeals Court Finds City Can't Take Oncor Streetlights

    A Texas appeals court found Killeen, Texas, can't claim sovereign immunity to evade a suit seeking to stop the city from taking possession of streetlights owned by a utility company, finding Friday the utility company had presented a viable constitutional claim.

  • February 28, 2025

    Ga. Can Cap Wrongful Death Damages, US Chamber Says

    The U.S. and Georgia chambers of Commerce have urged the Supreme Court of Georgia to find that its 2010 decision striking down a $350,000 cap on noneconomic medical malpractice damages as unconstitutional should not prevent the court from allowing a similar cap in wrongful death claims.

  • February 28, 2025

    Calif. Justices Revive Yacht Club Worker's Injury Suit

    The California Supreme Court has revived a suit brought by a yacht club maintenance worker seeking to hold his employer liable for his workplace injuries under federal maritime law, saying the law preempts California's workers' compensation statute.

  • February 28, 2025

    8th Circ. Backs Auto Co. Exec's Win In $5M Benefits Suit

    The Eighth Circuit declined Friday to overturn a former chief operating officer's win in his lawsuit accusing an automotive company of reneging on the terms of his deferred compensation plan when he left the firm, saying the company can't rely on nonexistent documents to deny his claim to the funds.

  • February 28, 2025

    5 Argument Sessions Benefits Attys Should Watch In March

    The Ninth Circuit will mull Express Scripts and OptumRx's bid to force a public nuisance suit brought by the state of California into federal court, and the Second Circuit will hear from pensioners who say that IBM's use of outdated mortality tables shrank their benefits payouts. Here, Law360 looks at these and other appellate arguments happening in March that should be on benefits lawyers' radar.

  • February 28, 2025

    Up Next At High Court: Gun Violence Liability & Nuclear Waste

    The U.S. Supreme Court will return to the bench Monday to consider Mexico's attempt to hold gun manufacturers and distributors liable for cartel-related gun violence and a nuclear waste site dispute that could determine who can challenge future agency actions.

  • February 28, 2025

    2nd Circ. Revives Electrical Worker's Union Pension Fight

    An electrical worker can try again to argue that two trustees of his union pension fund violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by paying themselves over $1 million in compensation from the fund's assets, with the Second Circuit ruling Friday that the worker has standing to sue.

  • February 28, 2025

    9th Circ. Says Risk Justified Firing Vax-Refusing Actor

    A split Ninth Circuit panel declined Friday to revive an actor's suit claiming she was illegally removed from a Starz Network show because she rejected its COVID-19 vaccine mandate on religious grounds, ruling her immunization status posed too much of a risk to the production.

  • February 28, 2025

    Presidents v. Courts: Lincoln, Trump & Judicial Power Limits

    Amid fears of President Donald Trump disobeying judges with impunity, debate has focused on famous instances of officials defying the U.S. Supreme Court. But some of the clearest insights into America's handling of White House disregard for courts exist in relatively obscure cases from the Civil War era, when unprecedented presidential actions provoked extraordinary responses from the judiciary — and underscored the limits of its powers.

  • February 28, 2025

    NJ Out-Of-State Wine Sale Limits Are Justified, 3rd. Circ. Says

    The Third Circuit on Friday upheld a New Jersey law barring out-of-state sellers to directly ship wine to in-state consumers, saying that to grant a New York retailer's challenge would "shake the foundations" of New Jersey's three-tiered system for regulating alcohol.

  • February 28, 2025

    9th Circ. Backs Developer's Conviction For Bribing LA Pol

    The Ninth Circuit upheld a developer's conviction for bribing former Los Angeles City Councilor Jose Huizar to foil a challenge to a downtown project, ruling Thursday the district court didn't have to instruct jurors that the government had to prove the developer bribed Huizar to take a specific, official act.

  • February 28, 2025

    Wash. Judge Picks Apart Parents' Hospital Data Privacy Suit

    A Washington appellate judge on Friday grilled parents seeking to revive their proposed privacy class action against a Seattle hospital, expressing frustration with their argument that state wiretapping law could apply to an individual's queries to a public-facing website.

  • February 28, 2025

    Mich. Justices Reject Credit Suisse's NOL Carryforward Bid

    The Michigan Supreme Court on Friday denied Credit Suisse's bid to appeal a lower court's decision that barred the bank from straying from the federal method of determining taxable income to carry forward $21.3 million in losses on its state returns.

  • February 28, 2025

    Ex-UBS Financial Adviser Must Pay $2M Back, 11th Circ. Told

    UBS urged the Eleventh Circuit on Friday to undo rulings in a bankruptcy adversary case precluding a former financial adviser from paying back the proceeds of a $2 million loan deposited in a joint account with his wife, saying the funds shouldn't be immune to creditors.

  • February 28, 2025

    Dartmouth Wants Fed. Circ. To Ax Fees After Vitamin IP Loss

    Dartmouth College is appealing a Delaware federal court's $9.1 million fee award after losing a fight over milk vitamins patented by a biochemist at the school, telling the Federal Circuit that there is no reason it should have presumed that the patents it asserted were "worthless."

  • February 28, 2025

    Justices Asked To Review IRS Crypto Doc Seizure Case

    A cryptocurrency investor who lost his challenge to the Internal Revenue Service's seizure of his account records has asked the U.S. Supreme Court for review, saying the 1976 legal doctrine that sank his case is outdated and fails to meet digital realities, including decentralized banking.

  • February 28, 2025

    Litigant Funding Co. Has No Claim To NFL Concussion Deal

    A special master overseeing the NFL's concussion settlement fund told a Pennsylvania federal court in a filing made public Friday that a company that funds litigants' healthcare expenses was correctly denied money from the fund because the rights assigned to it by former players' doctors counted as "prohibited assignments," not the liens the company claimed they were.

  • February 28, 2025

    Minn. Justices Send Golf Course Dispute Back To Tax Court

    The Minnesota Supreme Court booted a county's property tax fight with the former owner of a golf course back to the state's tax court, saying the lower court's decision to keep the case alive was not a final order subject to review by the justices.

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    Justices Should Squash Bid To Criminalize Contract Breaches

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    In Kousisis v. U.S., the U.S. Supreme Court should reject the sweeping legal theory that breaches of contract can satisfy the property element of the mail and wire fraud statutes, which, if validated, would criminalize an array of ordinary conduct and violate basic constitutional principles, say attorneys at The Norton Law Firm.

  • Racing Patents To The Fed. Circ.: Collateral Estoppel Lessons

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    As more and more parties find themselves in two different forums addressing the same issues and then competing in a race to the Federal Circuit, certain strategies can help despite unanswered questions on when Patent Trial and Appeal Board determinations trigger collateral estoppel, say attorneys at Akin.

  • Nvidia Supreme Court Case May Not Make Big Splash

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    The skeptical tenor of the justices' questioning at oral argument in Nvidia v. Ohman Fonder suggests that the case is unlikely to alter the motion to dismiss pleading standard in securities class actions, as some had feared, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

  • Series

    Circus Arts Make Me A Better Lawyer

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    Performing circus arts has strengthened my ability to be more thoughtful, confident and grounded, all of which has enhanced my legal practice and allowed me to serve clients in a more meaningful way, says Bailey McGowan at Stinson.

  • Purse-Case Scenarios: 'MetaBirkin' Appeal Tests TM Rights

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    A federal court's finding that "MetaBirkin" nonfungible tokens infringed on Hermes' iconic Birkin bag imagery is now on appeal in the Second Circuit, and the order will have a lasting effect on how courts balance trademark rights and the First Amendment, say attorneys at Venable.

  • 3 Ways To Train Junior Lawyers In 30 Minutes Or Less

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    Today’s junior lawyers are experiencing a skills gap due to pandemic-era disruptions, but firms can help bring them up to speed by offering high-impact skill building content in bite-sized, interactive training sessions, say Stacey Schwartz at Katten, Diane Costigan at Winston & Strawn and Lauren Tierney at Freshfields.

  • 6th Circ. Ruling Prevents Disability Insurer Overreach

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    The Sixth Circuit’s recent ruling in McEachin v. Reliance Standard Life Insurance offers disability insurance claimants guidance on how they might challenge misapplications of policy limitations for mental illness when a medical condition accounts for their disability, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Law.

  • Bid Protest Spotlight: Unclear Criteria, Data Rights, Conflicts

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    Liam Bowers at MoFo examines three recent decisions from the U.S. Government Accountability Office and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims examining the use of unstated evaluation criteria, an agency's investigation of its own data rights and unequal access to information about an organizational conflict of interest.

  • The Bar Needs More Clarity On The Discovery Objection Rule

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    Almost 10 years after Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 34 was amended, attorneys still seem confused about what they should include in objections to discovery requests, and until the rules committee provides additional clarity, practitioners must beware the steep costs of noncompliance, says Tristan Ellis at Shanies Law Office.

  • Foreclosing Lenders Still Floating In Murky Legal Waters In NY

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    The New York foreclosure landscape remains in disarray after the state's highest court last month declined to weigh in on whether legal changes from 2022 that severely curtailed lenders' ability to bring successive foreclosure cases were retroactive, says Brian Rich at Barclay Damon.

  • In Terror Case, DC Circ. Must Weigh Justices' Twitter Ruling

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    When the D.C. Circuit hears oral argument in AstraZeneca UK v. Atchley, how the court interprets the U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 ruling in Twitter v. Taamneh will have a significant impact on future claims brought under the Anti-Terrorism Act and Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, say attorneys at Lewis Baach.

  • Series

    Being A Navy Reservist Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Serving this country in uniform has not only been one of the greatest honors of my life, but it has also provided me with opportunities to broaden my legal acumen and interpersonal skills in ways that have indelibly contributed to my civilian practice, says Phillip Smith at Weinberg Wheeler.

  • So You Want To Move Your Law Practice To Canada, Eh?

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    Google searches for how to move to Canada have surged in the wake of the U.S. presidential election, and if you’re an attorney considering a move to the Great White North, you’ll need to understand how the practice of law differs across the border, says David Postel at Henein Hutchison.

  • 3 Policyholder Lessons From NY Bad Faith Ruling

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    A New York appellate court's recent decision finding that Rockefeller University alleged viable bad faith claims against its insurers reinforces the principle that insurers may not elevate their own economic interests over those of their insureds, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • In SF Water Case, Justices Signal How Loper May Be Applied

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    Skeptical questions from U.S. Supreme Court justices during oral argument in San Francisco v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency offer hints of how the court intends to apply limits on agency regulatory autonomy established last term in Loper Bright, says Karen Cullinane at Goldberg Segalla.

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