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Circuit-By-Circuit Guide To 2024's Most Memorable Moments
One judge said a litigant's position would cause "an effing nightmare," and another decried the legal community's silence amid "illegitimate aspersions." Public officials literally trashed one court's opinion, and fateful rulings dealt with controversial politicians, social media and decades of environmental policy. Those were just a few appellate highlights in 2024, a year teeming with memorable moments both substantive and sensational.
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January 10, 2025
1st Circ. Questions Reach Of Anti-Torture Law In Civil Cases
The First Circuit on Friday hinted it may be considering limits on the jurisdiction of the Torture Victims Protection Act, during a hearing where former Justice Stephen Breyer recalled concerns he first raised on the Supreme Court that an overly broad reading could pave the way for other nations to arrest Americans for incidents on U.S. soil.
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January 10, 2025
Fani Willis Seeks Return To Trump Election Interference Case
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has asked the Georgia Supreme Court to reinstate her in the election interference case against President-elect Donald Trump, arguing she was the first Georgia DA to be ejected from a case "without the existence of an actual conflict of interest."
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January 10, 2025
Smith Appeals Injunction On Release Of Trump Report
Special counsel Jack Smith has notified the Eleventh Circuit that he is appealing a temporary injunction blocking the release of his final report on his investigations into President-elect Donald Trump for election meddling and retention of classified documents.
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January 10, 2025
11th Circ. Backtracks, Ends Ousted Fla. Atty's DeSantis Suit
Suspended Florida prosecutor Andrew Warren's yearslong legal battle against Gov. Ron DeSantis has all but come to an end after the Eleventh Circuit on Friday vacated a previous opinion and called the case moot after Warren's term in office expired.
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January 10, 2025
Butler Snow Grows In Austin With 14-Atty Boutique Pickup
Butler Snow LLP announced a major expansion of its Austin, Texas, office by hiring 14 attorneys from area boutique Enoch Kever PLLC, which the firm said increases its capabilities in areas such as advocacy and appellate.
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January 10, 2025
X Asks 9th Circ. To Back Dismissal Of $500M Severance Suit
Social platform X urged the Ninth Circuit to uphold the dismissal of a suit claiming it owes workers $500 million in severance after Elon Musk bought the business and conducted mass layoffs, arguing the lower court correctly found that the ex-employees couldn't sue under federal benefits law.
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January 10, 2025
Justices Seem Inclined To Uphold TikTok Sale-Or-Ban Law
The U.S. Supreme Court seemed likely Friday to generally uphold a federal law requiring TikTok to divest from its Chinese parent company over national security concerns or face a nationwide ban, despite the justices expressing some concerns about the law's effect on American users' First Amendment rights.
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January 10, 2025
Trump Avoids Jail As Judge Points To Presidential Status
A New York state judge on Friday spared President-elect Donald Trump any incarceration for his 34-count felony hush money conviction, citing the changed legal landscape, which affords the chief executive with "extraordinary legal protections."
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January 09, 2025
Fox Corp. Can't Ax Smartmatic's Defamation Suit, Panel Says
Fox Corp. will have to face a defamation claim in voting technology company Smartmatic's $2.7 billion lawsuit alleging the media company exercised control over allegedly harmful news coverage during the 2020 presidential election, a New York state appellate court ruled Thursday.
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January 09, 2025
Tort Report: Philadelphia Tops Annual 'Judicial Hellhole' List
Philadelphia's designation by a tort reform group as a top "judicial hellhole" and the nation's largest medical malpractice verdict ever lead Law360's Tort Report, which compiles recent personal injury and medical malpractice news that may have flown under the radar.
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January 09, 2025
Wonderful Pistachios Defeats Worker's Shed-Trapping Appeal
A California appellate court on Thursday refused to resurrect a former Wonderful Pistachios & Almonds worker's claims that former colleagues of hers trapped her in a shed during work, finding that her qualms with an arbitrator's determinations in Wonderful Pistachios' favor lack merit.
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January 09, 2025
Hotel Guest Death Suit Dismissal Back In Play, Fla. Court Says
A hotel chain sued for allegedly causing a guest's horseback riding death can get another shot at escaping the suit after a Florida state appeals court ruled that an evidentiary hearing must be held to sort out a jurisdiction issue.
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January 09, 2025
Wash. Seeks To Ease Legal Practice Path For Military Spouses
Washington's state courts are considering rule changes to make it easier for attorneys married to military members and graduates of law schools not accredited by the American Bar Association to practice law in the state, part of a series of moves to reduce barriers to the legal profession.
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January 09, 2025
Zillow Brings 'Goldman' Debate Over Class Cert. To 9th Circ.
Zillow Group Inc. is asking the Ninth Circuit to issue its first ruling on the correct application of a U.S. Supreme Court's Goldman decision to investor class certification bids, saying a lower court was wrong to certify a class of shareholders who alleged that the company misled them about the robustness of its now defunct home-flipping business.
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January 09, 2025
5th Circuit Wrong To Toss Subsidy Fund, FCC Tells High Court
The Federal Communications Commission urged the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn last year's Fifth Circuit decision gutting the FCC's multibillion-dollar subsidy fund, arguing the appeals court got it wrong in finding Congress unlawfully relinquished its taxing powers.
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January 09, 2025
ND Voting Laws May Be Undone In 8th Circ., Justices Told
Two local North Dakota Republican Party officials are urging the Supreme Court to take up their bid to reverse a lower court's ruling over newly created subdistricts for Native American voters, arguing that the "highly unusual" procedural posture of similar suits in the Eighth Circuit are likely to be overturned.
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January 09, 2025
Pharma Co. Says Ex-CEO's Bias Allegations Come Up Short
Canadian biopharmaceutical company FSD Pharma Inc. is urging the Third Circuit to affirm the enforcement of a $2 million arbitral award against its ex-CEO, arguing Wednesday that the former executive's allegations of bias against the arbitrator have already been rejected.
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January 09, 2025
Wash. Justices Won't Review $160M Seattle Property Tax Win
Seattle can keep $160 million in property taxes for waterfront improvements, after Washington's Supreme Court declined to review a lower appellate court's ruling rejecting property owners' bid to recalculate the tax to reflect the hit property values had taken from COVID-19.
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January 09, 2025
4th Circ. Asked To Pause NC High Court Ballot Challenge
North Carolina election officials have asked the Fourth Circuit to press pause on a Republican judge's efforts to plow ahead with his state Supreme Court challenge seeking to throw out votes in his race for an associate justice seat, while his Democratic challenger called for expediency.
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January 09, 2025
Airlines Say 9th Circ. Should Mull Seattle Airport Pollution Suit
Delta Air Lines and Alaska Airlines have told a Washington federal court that the Ninth Circuit should immediately consider the jurisdictional and preemption issues raised in a proposed class action from property owners and residents over alleged flight-path pollution near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
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January 09, 2025
Grieving Parents Urge Court To Discern Fraud From Med Mal
A North Carolina trial court failed to acknowledge that fraud and breach of fiduciary duty are distinct claims from medical malpractice, a couple whose toddler died during heart surgery told the Tar Heel State appeals court, arguing that the doctors misrepresented their program quality and outcomes.
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January 09, 2025
DOJ Wants Time At 9th Circ. In Zillow, NAR Antitrust Case
The U.S. Department of Justice has asked the Ninth Circuit for permission to appear at oral arguments in an appeal looking to revive antitrust claims from a defunct brokerage platform against Zillow and the National Association of Realtors.
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January 09, 2025
Credit Card Case Should Have Been Remanded, 7th Circ. Says
An Illinois district court faced with competing motions to remove a credit card receipt dispute from its docket should have returned the suit to state court rather than grant the Army and Airforce Exchange Service's bid to dismiss it, the Seventh Circuit said Wednesday.
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January 09, 2025
Supreme Court Declines To Halt Trump's NY Sentencing
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday denied Donald Trump's request to halt New York criminal proceedings in his hush money case, clearing the way for a state judge to sentence the president-elect on Friday, days before he takes the oath of office.
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January 09, 2025
New Mexico Justices Say Local Gov'ts Can't Restrict Abortion
New Mexico's highest court on Thursday struck down four local ordinances that restricted abortion access in the state, chastising the cities and counties behind them for running afoul of state laws on reproductive health and medical licensing.
Editor's Picks
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12 Lawyers Who Are The Future Of The Supreme Court Bar
One attorney hasn't lost a single U.S. Supreme Court case she's argued, or even a single justice's vote. One attorney is perhaps "the preeminent SCOTUS advocate." And one may soon become U.S. solicitor general, despite acknowledging there are "judges out there who don't like me." All three are among a dozen lawyers in the vanguard of the Supreme Court bar's next generation, poised to follow in the footsteps of the bar's current icons.
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How Reshaped Circuit Courts Are Faring At The High Court
Seminal rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court's latest term will reshape many facets of American society in the coming years. Already, however, the rulings offer glimpses of how the justices view specific circuit courts, which have themselves been reshaped by an abundance of new judges.
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Law360's Guide To Biden's Judicial Picks
UPDATED December 20, 2024 | President Joe Biden is shaping the federal judiciary by adding to the courts' professional and demographic diversity — a sharp break from former President Donald Trump, who made the judiciary more homogeneous as the judges confirmed under him were 84% white and 76% male.
Expert Analysis
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6 Predictions For Cyber Risk And Insurance In 2025
This year is likely to bring with it some thorny and expensive cyber challenges, including increased ransomware activity, more data breach class actions and continued efforts to define business interruption loss calculations, say attorneys at Wiley.
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7 Ways 2nd Trump Administration May Affect Partner Hiring
President-elect Donald Trump's return to the White House will likely have a number of downstream effects on partner hiring in the legal industry, from accelerated hiring timelines to increased vetting of prospective employees, say recruiters at Macrae.
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Opinion
Courts Must Curb The Drug Price Negotiation Program
The Inflation Reduction Act's drug price negotiation program upends incentive structures that drive medical innovation, and courts must act appropriately to avoid devastating consequences for American healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry, says Jeff Stier at the Consumer Choice Center.
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E-Discovery Quarterly: Rulings On Custodian Selection
Several recent rulings make clear that the proportionality of additional proposed custodians will depend on whether the custodians have unique relevant documents, and producing parties should consider whether information already in the record will show that they have relevant documents that otherwise might not be produced, say attorneys at Sidley.
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Opinion
Section 230 Debates Will Continue, With Or Without TikTok
Regardless of whether TikTok is forced to shut down in the U.S. in the coming weeks, legal disputes will continue over social media platforms' responsibility under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act for harms allegedly caused by content shared on their apps, says Carla Varriale-Barker at Segal McCambridge.
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Surprise NC COVID Ruling Revises Reasonable Expectations
The North Carolina Supreme Court's recent finding in favor of policyholders in a suit for business interruption coverage due to COVID-19 shutdown orders runs contrary to most other state and federal courts' holdings on the issue, and may revitalize the reasonable expectations doctrine in the state, say attorneys at Goldberg Segalla.
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Impact Of Successful Challenges To SEC's Rulemaking Ability
In 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission faced significant legal challenges to its aggressive rulemaking agenda as several of its rules were vacated by the Fifth Circuit, which could hinder the SEC's ability to enact rules extending beyond express statutory authority in the future, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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5 Transition Tools Trump Could Use To Implement His Agenda
President-elect Donald Trump will have several tools available to him to halt or otherwise claw back federal regulations promulgated during the Biden administration, including reconciliation, executive orders and memoranda, say attorneys at Gibson Dunn.
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When Judging Product Label Claims, Follow The Asterisk
A recurring question in false advertising class actions is whether misleading or ambiguous statements on a product's front label can be cured by information on the back label — but recent decisions from the Ninth Circuit suggest that a front-label asterisk can help alert consumers to seek further clarification, say attorneys at Hunton.
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Justices Seem Focused On NEPA's Limits In Utah Rail Case
After last month's oral argument at the U.S. Supreme Court in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado, the court appears poised to forcefully reiterate that the National Environmental Policy Act requires federal agencies to review only those environmental impacts within their control, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.
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Fed. Circ. Patent Decisions In 2024: An Empirical Review
Despite an ever-increasing backlog of argument-ready cases, the Federal Circuit issued fewer decisions in 2024 than in previous years, and the decisions' overall friendliness toward patent owners and applicants was low, says Dan Bagatell at Perkins Coie.
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Series
Exercising On My Peloton Bike Makes Me A Better Lawyer
While I originally came to the Peloton bike for exercise, one cycling instructor’s teachings have come to serve as a road map for practicing law thoughtfully and mindfully, which has opened opportunities for growth and change in my career, says Andrea Kirshenbaum at Littler.
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5 Drug And Device Developments That Shaped 2024
The last year saw significant legal developments affecting drug and device manufacturers, with landmark decisions and regulatory changes that require vigilance and agility from the industry, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.
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Lessons From United's Axed Win In Firing Over Online Pics
In Wawrzenski v. United Airlines, a California state appeals court revived a flight attendant’s suit over her termination for linking photos of herself in uniform to her OnlyFans account, providing a cautionary tale for employers navigating the complexities of workplace policy enforcement in the digital age, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.
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Reviewing The High Court's Approach To Free Speech Online
As the U.S. Supreme Court began addressing the interplay between the First Amendment and online social media platforms, its three opinions from last term show the justices adopting a nuanced approach that recognizes that private citizens, public employees and online platforms all have First Amendment rights, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.