Appellate

  • August 06, 2026

    Judge Certifies Disney 'Toy Story 3' TM Fight For Appeal

    A California federal judge has certified for interlocutory appeal a ruling refusing to dismiss trademark claims over the "Toy Story 3" character Lotso, saying the long-running case raises an unresolved question about whether corporate affiliates' merchandising can deprive movie distributors of First Amendment protection for a character name used onscreen.

  • August 06, 2026

    NC House OKs Unpaid Suspensions For Judges Under Inquiry

    Republicans in the North Carolina House of Representatives have given the green light to a legislative proposal empowering the chief justice of the state Supreme Court to suspend trial court judges without pay if they're under investigation by the state Judicial Standards Commission.

  • August 06, 2026

    4th Circ. Says Mom Was Denied Fair Shot At Removal Relief

    A split Fourth Circuit panel said an immigration judge denied a Guinean woman's application for cancellation of removal without an adequate chance to show her removal would cause exceptional hardship for her two U.S. citizen daughters.

  • August 06, 2026

    11th Circ. Erases Worker's $800K Win In Dreadlock Bias Suit

    The Eleventh Circuit scrapped an $800,000 verdict in favor of a Black worker who claimed she was let go after complaining that she'd been racially targeted for wearing dreadlocks, ruling faulty jury instructions meant the security company she worked for should get a new trial.

  • August 06, 2026

    Ute Tribe Says Ex-Energy Manager Can't Evade Tribal Review

    A tribe in Utah is asking the Tenth Circuit to deny a former energy manager's bid to have a 13-year breach of contract dispute heard before a federal court, arguing that because of his "delay tactics," a trial in Ute Indian Tribal Courts has not concluded.

  • August 05, 2026

    3rd Circ. Backs Arbitrators' Change To Investment Fee Award

    The Third Circuit has upheld a doctrine under which arbitrators are barred from revisiting their prior decisions, in a dispute over the distribution of certain fees that resulted in a revised award expanding an asset manager's liability from $300,000 to nearly $7 million.

  • August 05, 2026

    Senate Dems Grill Trump's Judge Picks For 5th Circ., Alabama

    Senate Democrats on Wednesday dug into two judges nominated by the president to serve in Alabama district court and on the Fifth Circuit over their careful answers about who won the 2020 election and one's history of advocating against a ban on forced arbitration for workplace sexual harassment and assault claims.

  • August 05, 2026

    Unread Arbitration Emails Are Unenforceable, 9th Circ. Rules

    Arbitration agreements sent to workers aren't arbitration agreements assented to by workers, the Ninth Circuit held Wednesday, rejecting assertions from medical supplies giant Thermo Fisher Scientific that its arbitration-related emails — even if never read — sufficed to keep an ex-employee's proposed class action out of court.

  • August 05, 2026

    5th Circ. Wary Again Of FCC's Control Over Subsidy Program

    A panel of Fifth Circuit judges on Wednesday raised new questions about the Federal Communications Commission's oversight of the country's $9 billion annual telecom subsidy program after a U.S. Supreme Court decision kept the fund intact last summer.

  • August 05, 2026

    Texas Panel Cuts China Golf Cart-Maker From Fatal Crash Suit

    Litigation concerning a fatal golf cart rollover at a San Antonio country club that killed a passenger and severely injured another will have to proceed without the Chinese manufacturer as a defendant, a state appeals court ruled on Monday after finding Texas courts didn't have jurisdiction.

  • August 05, 2026

    Incumbent Wash. Justices On Top In Early Primary Results

    Three incumbent Washington State Supreme Court justices — including two governor appointees — led their respective primary races Wednesday, as a state trial judge edged ahead in the race for another open seat on the high court, according to preliminary election results.

  • August 05, 2026

    CREXi Wants 9th Circ. To Undo Quinn Emanuel CoStar Row DQ

    Commercial Real Estate Exchange Inc. doesn't want to replace Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP after a California federal judge disqualified the firm from defending a copyright infringement suit by CoStar, seeking Ninth Circuit intervention and a pause on the district court case.

  • August 05, 2026

    Stewart Says Patent System 'Crisis' Fueled USPTO Changes

    Coke Morgan Stewart, the deputy director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office who left the agency last week, said in an interview with Law360 this week that new limits on patent challenges and other policy changes she helped lead were driven by a sense that the patent system was in "a pretty significant crisis."

  • August 05, 2026

    Panel Rejects BMS Investor's Bid To 'Camouflage A Wolf'

    A New Jersey state appeals court said an investor's amended complaint over Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s $74 billion acquisition of Celgene Corp. was a wolf camouflaged in sheep's clothing, finding that the investor's claims of disclosure requirement shortfalls sounded more in fraud than negligence and failed to satisfy the heightened pleading standard required.

  • August 05, 2026

    NYC's Food Apps Data Law Goes Too Far, 2nd Circ. Says

    A New York City law that would require DoorDash, GrubHub and other delivery apps to share customer data with the restaurants fulfilling food orders violates the First Amendment, the Second Circuit ruled Wednesday.

  • August 05, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Backs Another Lululemon Win On Nike Patent

    The Federal Circuit on Wednesday refused to revive claims in a Nike fitness tracker patent challenged by Lululemon, affirming a Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision that the claims were invalid.

  • August 05, 2026

    Backing Penalty For 1st Misquote, Panel 'Stunned' By Another

    A solo practitioner in North Carolina sanctioned for misleading a trial court judge with a misquote in his pleadings "stunned" an appellate panel when he made yet another quotation blunder in his brief on appeal, according to a published opinion Wednesday affirming his punishment.

  • August 05, 2026

    Pa. Panel Says Screenshots Not Hearsay In Stolen Money Case

    A juvenile who was sentenced to be placed in a secure detention facility after stealing money electronically from his guardian cannot have his conviction overturned after a Pennsylvania appeals court ruled that screenshots showing money transfers in a banking app were not hearsay.

  • August 05, 2026

    9th Circ. Urged To Revisit Klamath Project ESA Ruling

    A water association is asking the Ninth Circuit to rethink a ruling that held the Endangered Species Act applies to the operation and management of an Oregon irrigation project, arguing that the appellate court left "an unworkable" framework to determine a threshold question over nondiscretionary federal agency actions.

  • August 05, 2026

    No Coverage For Assisted Living Death, Fla. Panel Says

    A Florida appellate court on Wednesday reversed a judgment that required National Assisted Living Risk Retention Group to provide coverage for a wrongful death suit from a resident's 2012 death, finding no claim was made during the relevant policy period.

  • August 05, 2026

    Ga. Panel Weighs Damages Law In $950K Walmart Fall Case

    The Georgia Court of Appeals on Wednesday considered if a new trial is warranted in a woman's slip-and-fall case against Walmart, grappling with whether her attorney's arguments to obtain a $975,000 verdict were improper under a state law amended in 2025.

  • August 05, 2026

    Netlist, Samsung Enter 5-Year Deal To End Extensive IP Feud

    Netlist and Samsung have resolved their multipronged patent fight after reaching a deal in which the South Korean electronics giant agreed to make multimillion-dollar payments to get access to a portfolio of Netlist's patents.

  • August 05, 2026

    Murdaugh Loses Jury Tampering Suit Against Ex-Court Clerk

    A South Carolina federal judge on Wednesday dismissed disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh's jury tampering suit against a former court clerk who was found to have interfered in his murder trial, ruling there was no connection between his alleged damages and the ex-clerk's misconduct.

  • August 05, 2026

    Pa. Court Wipes Out $19M Verdict In Nursing Home Death Suit

    A Pennsylvania appeals court has vacated $19 million in damages, including $15 million in punitive damages, in a suit against nursing home operators and managers over the death of a resident, finding the trial court should have reconsidered damages after negating liability against two of the four defendants.

  • August 05, 2026

    Atty Scolded Over Bogus Cases In San Antonio School Fight

    A Texas state appellate panel on Wednesday admonished counsel for submitting a brief with four bogus case citations likely generated by artificial intelligence in defending a parent's lawsuit against a school district for suspending her fifth-grade son.

Expert Analysis

  • Remote Work Rulings Show ADA Fights Hinge On Process

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    Two opposite outcomes in recent Fifth Circuit and D.C. federal court cases underscore that the legality of denying employees' disability accommodation requests for remote work depends less on broad policy and more on how it's applied, says Paul Sweeney at Ice Miller.

  • Fed Autonomy Rests On Narrow Exception After Justices Rule

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decisions in Trump v. Cook and Trump v. Slaughter expand presidential removal power while temporarily preserving the Federal Reserve’s independence, but there is uncertainty about which of the Fed’s authorities fall within the court’s narrow monetary-policy exception, says Keith Bradley at Squire Patton.

  • Series

    Being A Magician Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The skills I've developed as a lifelong magician have translated directly into tangible benefits in the courtroom because performing magic and trying cases both live at the intersection of psychology, storytelling, timing and disciplined rehearsal, says Mark Dombroff at Fox Rothschild.

  • How Litigants Are Testing Conversion Therapy Ruling's Scope

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    Litigants are already using the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Chiles v. Salazar ruling, which applied strict scrutiny to Colorado’s conversion therapy ban, to challenge laws limiting algorithmic rental pricing, artificial intelligence-based discrimination and anti-union employer speech, and courts must soon decide Chiles’ First Amendment limits, say attorneys at O'Melveny.

  • How Justices' TPS Ruling Affects Workforce Planning

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent holding in Mullin v. Doe that courts lack jurisdiction to review temporary protected status determinations greenlights the end of TPS for thousands of Syrian and Haitian nationals, and means employers must reevaluate TPS-designees' employability while avoiding discriminatory document practices, says attorney Richard Herman.

  • How Pfizer Won Fed. Circ. Patent Dispute By 1 Carbon Atom

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    The Federal Circuit's recent refusal to revive a patent in Enanta Pharmaceuticals v. Pfizer over an alleged typo creating a one-atom difference in a COVID-19 treatment application hands defendants a template for potentially converting a triable fact question into an early dispositive ruling, say attorneys at Polsinelli.

  • What To Know Before Justices Rule In Title IX Employee Case

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    The U.S. Supreme Court is poised to decide whether Title IX protections extend to employees alleging sex discrimination in Crowther v. Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, which could have significant implications for higher education institutions and their employees, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • Fed. Circ. Ruling Highlights The Cost Of Incorrect Inventorship

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    The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Fortress Iron v. Digger Specialties, affirming that a fencing company's patents were invalid due to a missing co-inventor, is a reminder that confirming correct inventorship should be a critical part of every patent invalidity workup, say attorneys at Neal Gerber.

  • Future Of Fed Independence Shaky After Justices' Ruling

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Trump v. Cook preserved the Federal Reserve's formal independence but could invite the president to remove board members with just modest protections, leaving the central bank's autonomy uncertain and potentially setting up fresh clashes over other agencies, says Steven Schwinn at the University of Chicago.

  • Series

    Mich. Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q2

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    The second quarter brought several notable financial services law developments to Michigan, including a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on state tax foreclosures, progress on a money transmission modernization bill package, and continued legislative momentum on cryptocurrency and mortgage lending, say attorneys at Dykema.

  • Justices' Ruling Alters Playing Field For State Subpoena Suits

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Davenport will spark more federal court challenges to state subpoenas, but procedural defenses will block some merits decisions, so plaintiffs must carefully time and manage parallel federal and state proceedings, say attorneys at Troutman.

  • Looking At Drake's Diss Track Appeal Through An IP Lens

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    Though Drake's pending Second Circuit appeal over UMG's promotion of Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us" is formally about defamation, it shows that IP considerations can help identify records showing how a work traveled, which may guide courts when deciding context, says attorney Abdul Abdullahi.

  • Series

    Bass Fishing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Landing a trophy striped bass and closing a big deal both require cultivating the patience to finesse — not force — your way to desired outcomes, changing course when your old approach isn’t working and learning from the ones that got away, says Jon Ruiss at Alston & Bird.

  • Series

    NY Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q2

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    The year's second quarter brought several notable banking law developments to New York, including a proposal to align state stablecoin rules with the federal Genius Act, fresh fair lending and cybersecurity guidance from state regulators, and a significant Second Circuit holding on preemption, say attorneys at Ashurst Perkins Coie.

  • PacifiCorp Ruling Shows Limits Of Aggregate Wildfire Loss Models

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    An Oregon appeals court's recent decision in James v. PacifiCorp illustrates that in litigation involving multiple wildfires, materially different causation theories, and evidence tied to particular fires and locations, a single undifferentiated damages model is vulnerable to attack, say Paige Van Oosten and Jason Kim at Hunton and Kevin Cahill at FTI Consulting.

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