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Appellate
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September 30, 2024
Mich. Justices Won't Restore 1-800-Bathtub's $1.3M Award
The Michigan Supreme Court on Monday left in place an appellate ruling slashing most of a $1.3 million arbitration award for the owner of a toll-free number, 1-800-BATHTUB.
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September 30, 2024
Red States Urge Justices To Take Up $15 Min. Wage Dispute
Conservative-led states told the U.S. Supreme Court that President Joe Biden's administration misused the Procurement Act when it hiked federal contractors' hourly minimum wage to $15, throwing their support behind two outdoor groups hoping to overturn a Tenth Circuit ruling in favor of the federal government.
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September 30, 2024
Adams Asks To Toss Bribery Charge, Citing Top Court Ruling
New York City Mayor Eric Adams moved swiftly to dismiss the bribery charge from his federal indictment on Monday, arguing that evidence of Turkish officials' gifts to curry favor with him fails to meet a high legal standard laid out by the U.S. Supreme Court.
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September 27, 2024
1st Circ. Drops Bribery, Reinstates Extortion In Casino Case
The First Circuit on Friday reversed both convictions and acquittals in a high-profile bribery and extortion case involving a Rhode Island architect and a Massachusetts tribal official who had been found guilty of a quid pro quo exchange of pricey gifts related to a valuable design contract on the tribe's $1 billion casino development.
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September 27, 2024
7th Circ. Doubts Artist Proved French Montana Copied Work
Two Seventh Circuit judges seemed unsure Friday that they saw enough evidence of copying to reverse rapper French Montana's summary judgment win over claims that he infringed a California producer's sound recording copyright to make his song "Ain't Worried About Nothin'."
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September 27, 2024
SEC Drops Case Against Marcum CPA After High Court Ruling
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission quietly dropped an in-house proceeding Friday against a Marcum LLP accountant whose case was called into question by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that curtailed the agency's use of its administrative courts.
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September 27, 2024
Conn. Justice Can't Stomach Insurer's 'Omelet' Of Notices
The Connecticut Supreme Court on Friday seemed skeptical of workers' compensation carrier Ace American Insurance Co.'s assertion that one of two allegedly contradictory letters to a roofing contractor functioned as a legally sufficient policy cancellation notice one month before a worker's injury.
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September 27, 2024
Calif. Appeals Court Won't Revive Suit Targeting Zero Emission Reg
A California appeals court has refused to jump-start a natural gas vehicle coalition's lawsuit targeting an Advanced Clean Trucks regulation aimed at boosting the sale of electric zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, ruling state regulators properly considered alternatives and impacts.
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September 27, 2024
9th Circ. Says Stem Cell Treatment Not Exempt From FDA Rule
Two California clinics' experimental stem cell treatments are "drugs" subject to Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act regulations, the Ninth Circuit ruled Friday, reviving the federal government's bid to stop the clinic from marketing the products as cures for certain diseases without U.S. Food and Drug Administration review.
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September 27, 2024
Fed. Circ. Urged To Block Gov't Bid To Rehear AI Deal Dispute
An artificial intelligence company has asked the Federal Circuit not to revisit a high-profile decision reviving the firm's protest over its exclusion from a National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency procurement, saying the original ruling fit within the circuit court's precedent.
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September 27, 2024
Constitution Permits Blocked Anti-Laundering Law, Panel Told
The U.S. government urged the Eleventh Circuit on Friday to reinstate the Corporate Transparency Act passed in 2021, arguing that the anti-money laundering law is within Congress' powers to regulate economic activity and necessary to have businesses report beneficial ownership to combat crimes like tax evasion and terrorist financing.
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September 27, 2024
States Tell Justices They Belong In Asylum Settlement Talks
Five Republican-led states pressed the U.S. Supreme Court to let them participate in the Biden administration's settlement discussions with immigration groups challenging asylum restrictions, arguing their input is necessary to prevent the administration from ceding the policy at the table.
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September 27, 2024
Amazon Roped Back Into Ind. Truckers' Injury, Death Suits
An Indiana appeals court has reinstated claims against Amazon in two separate suits alleging a negligently designed warehouse entrance caused the death of a big-rig driver and seriously injured another, saying the company knew that confusing signage was prompting drivers to exit their tractor-trailers on a public road, putting them at risk.
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September 27, 2024
2nd Circ. Won't Revive Danimer Investors' 'Greenwashing' Suit
The Second Circuit on Friday upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit accusing Danimer Scientific Inc. of over-hyping the environmentally friendly nature of a plastics alternative it produced, with the appellate court saying that there was no proof that company executives purposefully misled investors.
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September 27, 2024
Group Says GOP Out 'To Sow Chaos' With NC Voter ID Appeal
The Democratic National Committee and others urged a North Carolina state appeals court to reject the Republican National Committee's effort to block student and faculty IDs from the University of North Carolina from being accepted as valid voter IDs, arguing the RNC is trying to undermine the presidential election.
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September 27, 2024
Energy Cases To Watch In This US Supreme Court Term
The new U.S. Supreme Court term could be just as action-packed as the previous term was for the energy industry, as the justices will weigh in on how federal agencies conduct environmental reviews and field petitions over climate change policies and lawsuits. Here's a list of energy-related cases to watch this term.
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September 27, 2024
DC Circ. Skeptical Of Transformer Co.'s Union Vote Objections
Judges on the D.C. Circuit pressed an attorney for power transformer company VTCU on why it believes a National Labor Relations Board-overseen vote authorizing a union for the company's workers was flawed when both sides agreed to how it would go down.
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September 27, 2024
A Jury Found Them Not Guilty. They're Still Serving Life
Despite a federal jury acquitting Terence Richardson and Ferrone Claiborne for the murder of a Virginia police officer nearly 25 years ago, the two men remain in prison for the crime. But with new evidence and a new lawyer, they're hoping to reverse the fraught, state-level guilty pleas that a federal judge later relied on to sentence them both to life behind bars.
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September 27, 2024
4th Circ. Judge Startled By 'Really Odd' $9M Wage Suit Win
A Fourth Circuit panel on Friday grappled with the degree of control nurses have over their work and if they automatically become employees by signing a noncompete, as it considered a medical staffing company's bid to overturn a $9 million misclassification suit judgment following a bench trial.
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September 27, 2024
Fed. Circ. Won't Revive $5.9M CMS Contingency Fee Suit
The Federal Circuit on Friday refused to revive a contractor's $5.9 million dispute over a Medicare recovery audit task order, saying the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reasonably terminated the deal and didn't owe the company any more money.
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September 27, 2024
Alaska Top Court Says No Coverage For COVID-19 Losses
The Alaska Supreme Court joined a number of state high courts Friday in finding that neither the presence of COVID-19 at a property nor government shutdown orders implemented in response to the pandemic constitute physical loss or damage in order to trigger insurance coverage.
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September 27, 2024
11th Circ. Rejects Initial En Banc Hearing For ERISA Appeal
The Eleventh Circuit denied an initial en banc hearing request from former employees of a seafood company who are pushing to revive a lawsuit alleging their employee stock ownership plan was overcharged by tens of millions of dollars after a Georgia federal judge dismissed the case in December.
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September 27, 2024
FCC's Latest Subsidy Fees Disputed Again In 5th Circ.
A free-market litigation group has filed another challenge in the Fifth Circuit to the Federal Communications Commission's quarterly calculation of fees to support an array of telecom subsidy programs.
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September 27, 2024
Mich. Justices Take Up Another Auto Reform Coverage Case
The Michigan Supreme Court agreed Friday to review a crash coverage dispute concerning whether changes to the state no-fault act's medical care reimbursement rates apply to post-reform treatment, weighing in on a case where the injury occurred after the June 2019 statutory amendment but before the July 2021 effective date.
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September 27, 2024
Calif. Atty's Fee Bid Against LegalMatch Denied At Appeal
A California state appeals court has affirmed a trial court ruling denying a Torrance-based lawyer's bid for $940,000 in attorney fees in his suit against attorney referral service LegalMatch.
Expert Analysis
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Fed. Circ. Ruling Creates New Rule For Certification Marks
The Federal Circuit's decision last month in Bureau National Interprofessionnel du Cognac v. Cologne & Cognac Entertainment is significant in that it establishes a new standard for assessing evidence of third-party uses of a certification mark in deciding whether the mark is famous, say Samantha Katze and Lisa Rosaya at Manatt.
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Series
After Chevron: Conservation Rule Already Faces Challenges
The Bureau of Land Management's interpretation of land "use" in its Conservation and Landscape Health Rule is contrary to the agency's past practice and other Federal Land Policy and Management Act provisions, leaving the rule exposed in four legal challenges that may carry greater force in the wake of Loper Bright, say Stacey Bosshardt and Stephanie Regenold at Perkins Coie.
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11 Patent Cases To Watch At Fed. Circ. And High Court
As we head into fall, there are 11 patent cases to monitor, touching on a range of issues that could affect patent strategy, such as biotech innovation, administrative rulemaking and patent eligibility, say Edward Lanquist and Wesley Barbee at Baker Donelson.
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Opinion
3rd. Circ. Got It Right On Cancer Warning Claims Preemption
The Third Circuit's recent, eminently sensible ruling in a failure-to-warn case against Roundup manufacturer Monsanto, holding that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act preempts state law claims, provides a road map that other courts should adopt, says Lawrence Ebner at the Atlantic Legal Foundation.
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How Methods Are Evolving In Textualist Interpretations
Textualists at the U.S. Supreme Court are increasingly considering new methods such as corpus linguistics and surveys to evaluate what a statute's text communicates to an ordinary reader, while lower courts even mull large language models like ChatGPT as supplements, says Kevin Tobia at Georgetown Law.
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7th Circ. Rulings Offer Employee Vaccine Exemption Guidance
Dawn Solowey and Samantha Brooks at Seyfarth explain how two recent Seventh Circuit rulings in Passarella v. Aspirus and Bube v. Aspirus could affect litigation involving employee vaccine exemptions, and discuss employer best practices for handling accommodation requests that include both religious and secular concerns.
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The Fed. Circ. In August: Secret Sales And Public Disclosures
Two recent Federal Circuit rulings — Sanho v. Kaijet and Celanese International v. ITC — highlight that inventors should publicly and promptly disclose their inventions, as a secret sale will not suffice as a disclosure, and file their patent applications within a year of public disclosure, say Sean Murray and Jeremiah Helm at Knobbe Martens.
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The State Law Landscape After Justices' Social Media Ruling
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent NetChoice ruling on social media platforms’ First Amendment rights, it’s still unclear if state content moderation laws are constitutional, leaving online operators to face a patchwork of regulation, and the potential for the issue to return to the high court, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.
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Employers Should Not Neglect Paid Military Leave Compliance
An August decision from the Ninth Circuit and the settlement of a long-running class action, both examining paid leave requirements under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, are part of a nationwide trend that should prompt employers to review their military leave policies to avoid potential litigation and reputational damage, says Bradford Kelley at Littler.
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Unpacking Jurisdiction Issues In 3rd Circ. Arbitration Ruling
The Third Circuit's recent ruling in George v. Rushmore Service Center could be interpreted to establish three principles regarding district courts' jurisdiction to enter arbitration-related orders under the Federal Arbitration Act, two of which may lead to confusion, says David Cinotti at Pashman Stein.
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Why Attorneys Should Consider Community Leadership Roles
Volunteering and nonprofit board service are complementary to, but distinct from, traditional pro bono work, and taking on these community leadership roles can produce dividends for lawyers, their firms and the nonprofit causes they support, says Katie Beacham at Kilpatrick.
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How NJ Temp Equal Pay Survived A Constitutional Challenge
The Third Circuit recently gave the New Jersey Temporary Workers' Bill of Rights a new lease on life by systematically dismantling multiple theories of the act's unconstitutionality brought by staffing agencies hoping to delay their new equal pay and benefits obligations, say attorneys at Duane Morris.
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Firms Must Offer A Trifecta Of Services In Post-Chevron World
After the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision overturning Chevron deference, law firms will need to integrate litigation, lobbying and communications functions to keep up with the ramifications of the ruling and provide adequate counsel quickly, says Neil Hare at Dentons.
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What We Know From Early Cyberinsurance Rulings
Recent cyber disruption incidents, like the Crowdstrike outage and the CDK Global cyberattack this summer, highlight the necessity of understanding legal interpretations of cyberinsurance coverage — an area in which there has been little litigation thus far, say Peter Halprin and Rebecca Schwarz at Haynes Boone.
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6th Circ. Ruling Highlights Complexity Of ERISA Preemption
The Sixth Circuit’s recent ruling in Standard Insurance v. Guy — that the defendant couldn't collect his mother’s life insurance after being convicted of murdering his parents — illustrates how courts must engage in mental gymnastics to avoid the broad reach of Employee Retirement Income Security Act preemption, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Law.