Appellate

  • August 21, 2026

    DC Circ. Voids Block On OMB Funding Freeze

    The D.C. Circuit on Friday vacated a district judge's block on the Trump administration's pause on a wide array of federal grants, loans and financial assistance, ruling that the Office of Management and Budget's rescission of the memorandum rendered the lawsuit moot.

  • August 21, 2026

    Investor Keeps $6.9M Del. Award But Loses Legal Fees

    The Delaware Supreme Court on Friday upheld a roughly $6.9 million damages award to a former investor in a Philadelphia-area EB-5 investment business but overturned nearly $260,000 in attorney fees, finding the investor waited too long to argue that the fees were part of his damages.

  • August 21, 2026

    Fed. Circ. OKs Firing Of IRS Worker Flagged By Goddaughter

    The Federal Circuit affirmed the termination of an IRS employee whose goddaughter reported her to the agency for accepting compensation or gifts in exchange for preparing tax returns for others, upholding a decision by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board.

  • August 21, 2026

    Argentina Says DC Circ. Misread Time Bar On $391M Award

    Argentina on Thursday urged the D.C. Circuit to rethink its decision rejecting a three-year statute of limitations in a dispute over the enforcement of a $391 million arbitral award, calling the ruling an "outlier" that conflicts with Second Circuit precedent.

  • August 21, 2026

    2nd Circ. Backs NY Water Permit For Pipeline Project

    The Second Circuit on Friday upheld New York's issuance of a Clean Water Act permit for a controversial Williams Cos. pipeline upgrade, saying state environmental regulators justified their about-face from previous permit denials over pollution concerns.

  • August 21, 2026

    Meta Tells DC Circ. To Reject FTC Appeal

    Meta Platforms Inc. urged the D.C. Circuit not to revive the Federal Trade Commission's monopolization lawsuit targeting its purchases of WhatsApp and Instagram, arguing Thursday that a D.C. federal judge correctly held that in the here and now, competition from TikTok and YouTube means it "has no monopoly."

  • August 21, 2026

    Fla. Condo Group Gets Trial After Arbitration Rule Fight

    A Florida appeals court ruled Friday that a condominium association battling its contractor over work done after Hurricane Ian can get the trial it requested, after finding that its objection to an arbitration decision complied with Florida rules.

  • August 21, 2026

    NC Co. Pushes Pretrial Appeal In Veterans' Fee Fight

    A North Carolina business that helps veterans apply for federal disability benefits wants to appeal a finding that it flouted the state's Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act by charging fees without accreditation, arguing there's room for differences of opinion on major aspects of the ruling.

  • August 21, 2026

    Texas Panel Cuts $45M Sandy Hook Ruling Against Alex Jones

    A Texas state appellate court Friday slashed a $45 million damages award against right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones in a defamation trial brought by parents of a Sandy Hook shooting victim, saying the family did not meet the legal standard to exceed the state's damages cap.

  • August 21, 2026

    11th Circ. Ruling Could Help ERISA Suits Survive Until Trial

    The Eleventh Circuit's decision to reopen a suit from a former Royal Caribbean worker claiming 401(k) participants lost millions on underperforming target-date funds could make it easier for plaintiffs to get to trial in cases accusing companies of retirement plan investment picks that violate federal benefits law, attorneys said.

  • August 21, 2026

    11th Circ. Affirms Penalty Over $9M Easement Deduction

    The Eleventh Circuit sustained the IRS' valuation penalty against a partnership donor claiming a nearly $9 million charitable deduction on a Georgia conservation easement contribution, upholding a 2023 U.S. Tax Court decision that ruled the donor had grossly misvalued the donated property.

  • August 21, 2026

    RTX Unit Beats Gender Hiring Bias Appeal In Connecticut

    RTX Corp.'s Pratt & Whitney aircraft unit prevailed a second time Friday against a female candidate's claim that she wasn't hired because of her gender, with a Connecticut appeals court affirming gender wasn't a motivating factor and that some of the woman's arguments rested on hearsay.

  • August 21, 2026

    Hall Booth Fights Malpractice Discovery Amid Appeal

    Hall Booth Smith PC and two of its attorneys on Friday asked the North Carolina appeals court to pause a legal malpractice suit against it from the court-appointed receiver for two wrongfully convicted brothers awarded millions in an underlying suit, arguing their appeal challenging jurisdiction should be handled first.

  • August 21, 2026

    The Race Is On To Confirm Trump's Judges By Year-End

    President Donald Trump nominated 11 judges this past week, meaning 19 nominees are now in the pipeline. But how many can the Senate confirm before the end of the year, given that it will mostly be absent and consumed by the midterm election? 

  • August 21, 2026

    Fla. Attorney Fined, Referred To Bar For Unapologetic AI Use

    A Florida attorney is the latest to be sanctioned for his use of artificial intelligence, after a Florida state appeals court found Friday that his filings contained at least 46 hallucinations.

  • August 24, 2026

    CORRECTED: 3rd Circ. Rules Jury Instruction Didn't Trigger New Trial

    In a precedential ruling Friday, the Third Circuit reversed an order granting a man a new trial on drug charges, ruling that while the trial judge should not have told a deadlocked jury that jurors "have to" come up with a verdict, which eventually resulted in the defendant being found guilty, the instruction wasn't "unduly coercive." 

  • August 21, 2026

    Roberts Allows Trump To Construct Ballroom For Now

    Chief Justice John Roberts ruled Friday that President Donald Trump could temporarily continue construction of a new White House ballroom until the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether lower courts had the authority to order that work stop on the project pending congressional approval.

  • August 21, 2026

    DNA Can Prove Your Innocence — If They Let You Test It

    Since the mid-1980s, DNA testing has exonerated hundreds of wrongfully convicted people and reshaped the criminal justice system. Rodney Reed's decadeslong unsuccessful effort to test the belt prosecutors say he used to kill a woman, however, shows how difficult access to post-conviction DNA testing can be, even for prisoners with credible innocence claims.

  • August 21, 2026

    Fla. Panel Cuts Juvie Sentence Over Double Jeopardy Finding

    A Florida appeals court has ruled that a juvenile must have one of her two resisting arrest charges dropped and be resentenced accordingly, finding that double jeopardy rules bar the second charge because they both stemmed from the same incident.

  • August 21, 2026

    8th Circ. Won't Revisit Cannabis User's Gun Conviction

    The Eighth Circuit on Thursday declined to revisit its decision to preserve a man's conviction for possessing a firearm while being a user of cannabis.

  • August 21, 2026

    Colo. Supreme Court Announces Next Chief Justice

    The Colorado Supreme Court announced Friday that Justice William Hood has been selected by his fellow justices to serve as the court's next chief justice, beginning in August 2027 when current Chief Justice Monica Márquez's term concludes.

  • August 21, 2026

    US Urges High Court To Reject Tribe's $208M Water Claim

    The United States is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reject a Nevada tribe's petition that looks to revive a $208 million breach of trust claim, saying the tribe hasn't identified a source of substantive law that the federal government violated by allegedly failing to prevent water diversion from its reservation.

  • August 21, 2026

    Gov't To Take 9th Circ.'s Bar Of Nev. US Atty To High Court

    The U.S. government asked the Ninth Circuit to stay its ruling disqualifying Nevada's top prosecutor from assuming that role without Senate confirmation, saying it plans to take the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • August 21, 2026

    4th Circ. Leaves Bulk Of $22M Wells Fargo ADA Verdict Intact

    The Fourth Circuit ruled Friday that a $22 million jury verdict in favor of a former Wells Fargo employee who said he was terminated for seeking remote work was almost $2.9 million too high, telling the ex-worker to choose between a reduced award or a new trial.

  • August 21, 2026

    9th Circ. Keeps Order To Improve ICE Site Amid Feds' Appeal

    The Trump administration must continue to address the "severe and inhumane deficiencies" a California federal court identified at an immigrant detention facility in the Mojave Desert, the Ninth Circuit has ruled, finding it unlikely to prevail in detainees' constitutional challenge.

Expert Analysis

  • A Framework For Habeas Relief After 5th Circ. Bond Ruling

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    Following the Fifth Circuit’s recent Buenrostro-Mendez v. Bondi decision foreclosing statutory bond for detained nonimmigrants not deemed admitted to the U.S., lawyers should adopt a framework that requests habeas relief pursuant to the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause, says Kemal Hepsen at Mandamus Lawyers.

  • 4th Circ. Ruling Will Rewrite Class Action Litigation Strategies

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    The Fourth Circuit's recent decision in Oliver v. Navy Federal Credit Union is the first from a federal circuit court to hold that motions to strike are inappropriate vehicles for challenging class allegations at the pleading stage, invalidating a tactic that had been used for decades, says Jim Francis at Francis Mailman.

  • Startup Founder Disputes Increasingly Turn On Governance

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    Recent Delaware developments suggest that as courts place increasing emphasis on board process, independence and oversight in founder-led startups, the growing intersection of governance, technology risk and investor oversight is accelerating both the emergence and escalation of founder disputes, says mediator Frank Burke.

  • 3 AI Adoption Mistakes GCs Should Avoid

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    The pressure in-house legal teams face to quickly adopt artificial intelligence tools, combined with budget constraints and the need to evaluate a crowded market of options, sets the stage for implementation mistakes that are often difficult to undo, says former 23andMe general counsel Guy Chayoun.

  • Series

    Playing Basketball Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My grandfather used to say "I wear your jersey" as shorthand for wholly committing to support someone with loyalty and integrity — ideals that have shaped my life on the basketball court and in legal practice, says Tracy Schimelfenig at Schimelfenig Legal.

  • Salt-N-Pepa Suit May Shake Up Music Copyright Issue

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    James v. UMG Recordings is a copyright termination rights case that provides an opportunity for the Second Circuit to make concrete choices about grant language, authorship, work-for-hire status and survival of derivative works, says attorney Abdul Abdullahi.

  • Opinion

    5th Circ.'s Abortion Pill Order Is Shaky On Multiple Grounds

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    The Fifth Circuit's recent order in Louisiana v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, reinstating an in-person dispensing requirement for the abortion medication mifepristone, seems to turn federalism upside-down, and is also questionable for several other reasons, says Gregory Curtner at Curtner Law.

  • Series

    The Biz Court Digest: Georgia Court Has Business On Its Mind

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    Thanks to recent legislation, the Georgia State-wide Business Court will soon offer business litigants greater access to the court than ever before, further enhancing the court's emphasis on efficiency, predictability and accessibility for sophisticated commercial disputes, says former GSBC judge Walt Davis at Jones Day.

  • 5 Takeaways From Justices' Subpoena Fight Ruling

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in First Choice v. Davenport fortifies a line of First Amendment associational privacy cases stretching back nearly 70 years, and ensures that organizations subject to government demands for donor information have a meaningful federal forum in which to defend their constitutional rights, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

  • Where The Preemption Fight Over Prediction Markets Stands

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    While the Third Circuit's recent ruling in Kalshi v. Flaherty remains a significant win for the federal government in its quest to regulate prediction markets, the Fourth, Sixth and Ninth Circuits appear more skeptical, indicating that this fight is likely headed for the Supreme Court, says Johnny ElHachem at Holland & Knight.

  • Md. Justices' State Climate Tort Ban May Shape National Path

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    The Maryland Supreme Court’s recent ruling that federal law preempted state-level deceptive marketing tort claims brought by several municipalities could offer the U.S. Supreme Court a road map to use in the pending Suncor Energy v. Boulder County case to exclude states from the business of regulating global emissions, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • 4 Emerging Approaches To AI Protective Order Language

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    Over the last year, at least five federal district courts have issued or analyzed specific protective order provisions restricting the use of generative artificial intelligence platforms with protected materials, establishing that proactive AI-specific provisions are now standard practice and demonstrating that no single model works for every case, says Joel Bush at Kilpatrick.

  • What Justices Are Focusing On In 'Skinny Label' Patent Case

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    Though Hikma v. Amarin appears to be a patent dispute that could reshape inducement doctrine in the pharmaceutical context, oral argument suggests the U.S. Supreme Court may treat this as primarily a pleading-stage dispute, with important unresolved questions lurking beneath the surface, says Shashank Upadhye at Upadhye Tang.

  • Employer Tips After 4th Circ. Rejects Trimmed Suit Deadlines

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    The Fourth Circuit's recent holding in Thomas v. EOTech that employers cannot use contractual provisions to shorten statutory filing periods for Title VII or Age Discrimination in Employment Act claims offers a warning for employers to review any such documents and reassess their litigation risk, say attorneys at Ogletree.

  • Binance Win Shows Constraints On Anti-Terrorism Act Claims

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    The Southern District of New York's recent ruling in Troell v. Binance illustrates that the Second Circuit's earlier decision in Ashley v. Deutsche Bank is holding weight with courts, and companies facing aiding and abetting risk should thus monitor evolving case law and assess exposure based on nexus allegations, say attorneys at Freshfields.

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