Appellate

  • October 07, 2024

    Pa. Supreme Court Snapshot: Mask Taxes, Pride Month Post

    The Pennsylvania Supreme Court during its October argument session will weigh whether retailers improperly collecting sales tax on face masks, which were exempted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, amounts to "commerce" that could trigger the state's consumer protection law. ​

  • October 07, 2024

    Mich. Supreme Court Snapshot: Insulin Prices, Disney Audit

    The Michigan Supreme Court's first oral argument session of the 2024-25 term promises to be a busy one, involving an investigation into Eli Lilly's insulin prices with big implications for the scope of Michigan's consumer protection law and Disney's appeal of an order to turn over decades-old uncashed checks to the state treasurer.

  • October 07, 2024

    Decision In Jurisdictional Case 'Outlier,' High Court Told

    An attorney representing Royal Canin USA Inc. and Nestlé Purina PetCare Co. on Monday told the U.S. Supreme Court that a jurisdictional decision in a case over prescription dog food is both an "extreme outlier" and goes against more than a hundred years of precedent.

  • October 07, 2024

    DC Circ. Says Frat Members Can't Sue Over 'Nazi-Like' Photo

    The D.C. Circuit won't let four Gallaudet University alumni revive their defamation suit against the school and the Washington Post over their comments about a photo that depicts two of the men in a group of Kappa Gamma fraternity members doing a salute that resembles the infamous Nazi salute.

  • October 07, 2024

    High Court Doubts States Can Police Federal Rights Claims

    The U.S. Supreme Court seemed poised Monday to strike down an Alabama law requiring litigants to exhaust state administrative remedies before they file claims in state court accusing local officials of violating federal rights, with several justices suggesting the court already answered that question almost 40 years ago.

  • October 07, 2024

    No Firm Schedule For New LNG Rule, Feds Tell DC Circ.

    The Biden administration has told the D.C. Circuit that it has no "firm schedule" for revising a rule allowing liquefied natural gas to be transported by rail, information the court asked for in litigation filed by environmental groups opposed to the regulations.

  • October 07, 2024

    Split DC Circ. Says FERC Can Require Power Plant Upgrade

    Federal energy regulators were right to require NextEra Energy to upgrade its New Hampshire nuclear power plant's circuit breaker to accommodate a new transmission line being developed by Avangrid Inc., a split D.C. Circuit panel has ruled.

  • October 07, 2024

    3M Facing PFAS Headwinds In Vermont, NJ And Ohio Cases

    3M Co., which is facing forever chemical lawsuits across the country, is dealing with pushback from Vermont, which is fighting 3M's effort to take its state court case into federal court, and from plaintiffs in Ohio and New Jersey, who have kept their litigation out of a sprawling multidistrict litigation.

  • October 07, 2024

    5th Circ. Gears Up To Tackle High Court's ICWA Ruling

    The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals is gearing up to tackle the high court's ruling last year that upheld the Indian Child Welfare Act, which determined that the nearly 50-year-old law does not exceed the federal government's authority in imposing a standard procedure on Indigenous child custody cases.

  • October 07, 2024

    7th Circ. Revives Wage Claim In Sales Rep's Bonus Suit

    A sales associate adequately showed that he and the technology and consulting company employing him had an agreement under which he would receive a bonus after meeting a sales target, the Seventh Circuit ruled, sending his wage claim back to Illinois federal court.

  • October 07, 2024

    Justices Won't Hear Commerzbank RMBS Fight With US Bank

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned down a bid by Commerzbank AG to revive more of its claims against U.S. Bank NA in a long-running lawsuit over pre-2008 residential mortgage-backed securities trusts, declining to review a recent Second Circuit decision in the case.

  • October 07, 2024

    Trio Of 1st Circ. Criminal Cases Turned Away By Top Court

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review three white collar cases on appeal from the First Circuit, including challenges to a cryptocurrency founder's conviction for investor theft and an Illinois attorney's fraud and money laundering conspiracy verdict.

  • October 07, 2024

    Sanctioned Election Denier Is Stalling, Dominion Exec Says

    A former Dominion Voting Systems executive urged a Colorado federal judge Monday to find a key witness and 2020 election denier can't appeal a $1,000-per-day sanctions order for walking out of a deposition, arguing the appeal is a "frivolous" delay tactic.

  • October 07, 2024

    NJT Cop Can't Overturn Firing Over Positive THC Test

    A New Jersey appeals panel won't upend a decision by the New Jersey Transit Corp. police chief terminating an officer for testing positive for THC, rejecting the officer's argument that the chief wrongly deviated from an administrative law judge's determination that the test was unreliable.

  • October 07, 2024

    Stormwater Fees Not Illegal Tax, Mich. Appellate Panel Finds

    Stormwater drainage charges in Ann Arbor constitute a lawful fee and not an illegal tax, the Michigan Appeals Court ruled, saying the charges did not require voter approval as demanded under the state constitution for increased local tax rates.

  • October 07, 2024

    Sparring With Adams, Feds Shadowbox The Supreme Court

    The corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams may be the next front in an ongoing clash between federal prosecutors' desire to police official misconduct and a line of U.S. Supreme Court cases holding that alleged graft does not always amount to a federal crime.

  • October 07, 2024

    Mich. Judges Ask If 'Deplorable' Robocalls Actually Criminal

    A Michigan appeals court panel is considering for a second time whether two conservative activists can be criminally prosecuted for running a misinformation campaign that one judge on Monday called "deplorable," after the state Supreme Court narrowed the reach of the law they were charged with violating. 

  • October 07, 2024

    Grocery Co. Won't Get High Court Review Of Gender Bias Suit

    The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday it won't review the revival of a gender bias case brought by a woman who said she was fired from her management role in a grocery store chain after her supervisor repeatedly said that management jobs were "too stressful" for women to handle.

  • October 07, 2024

    11th Circ. Balks At Ex-Braves' $47M Easement Case

    Former Atlanta Braves players John Smoltz and Ryan Klesko, challenging a U.S. Tax Court ruling that slashed the value of a conservation easement deduction by 90%, won't have their appeal heard by the Eleventh Circuit after the court said Monday the duo had jumped the gun on challenging the decision before it was made final.

  • October 07, 2024

    Manafort Associate's Bribery Case Won't Get Top Court Look

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up the case of a former bank CEO who had argued the Second Circuit's decision to uphold his conviction for bribing former Donald Trump staffer Paul Manafort wrongly criminalized even the smallest of benefits a bank executive receives from a customer.

  • October 07, 2024

    State Courts Splitting Over Future Of Climate Change Suits

    Recent decisions on whether climate change suits brought by state and local governments against fossil fuel companies can go forward are exposing splits between state courts over whether they can impose liability for pollution that originates beyond their borders, legal experts say.

  • October 07, 2024

    Justices Want SG's Take On Union Pension Withdrawal Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court asked the federal government Monday to weigh in on an employer-side petition in a fight over what actuarial assumptions multi-employer pension funds are allowed to use under federal benefits law when determining an employer's withdrawal liability.

  • October 07, 2024

    Brothers' $10B Real Estate Battle Nets Another $11.6M In Fees

    A California judge granted over $11 million in attorney fees Monday to a man who prevailed in a 20-year legal battle with his brother over a real estate empire when a jury awarded him and his other brothers a $10 billion verdict, granting the bulk of the request.

  • October 07, 2024

    9th Circ. Nixes Judicial Complaint Over Atty 'Disbar' Threat

    The Ninth Circuit has rejected a judicial misconduct complaint against a judge who allegedly suggested that he could "disbar" a lawyer.

  • October 07, 2024

    Justices Won't Review 9th Circ. Case On Service Issue

    The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to review a Ninth Circuit decision enforcing an arbitral award favoring a Los Angeles-based film production company over a 2020 Jessica Chastain movie, in a case that raised a technical question relating to service of process on foreign parties.

Expert Analysis

  • When Patents As Loan Collateral Can Cost You Standing

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    The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Intellectual Tech v. Zebra Technologies shines a light on loan default provisions' implications for patent infringement litigation, as a default may inadvertently strip a patent owner of constitutional standing to sue over a patent pledged as collateral, say Joseph Marinelli and Suet L. Lee at Irwin IP.

  • Justices' Bribery Ruling: A Corrupt Act Isn't Necessarily Illegal

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    In its Snyder v. U.S. decision last week, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a bribery law does not criminalize gratuities, continuing a trend of narrowing federal anti-corruption laws and scrutinizing public corruption prosecutions that go beyond obvious quid pro quo schemes, say Carrie Cohen and Christine Wong at MoFo.

  • 3 Ways Agencies Will Keep Making Law After Chevron

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    The U.S. Supreme Court clearly thinks it has done something big in overturning the Chevron precedent that had given deference to agencies' statutory interpretations, but regulated parties have to consider how agencies retain significant power to shape the law and its meaning, say attorneys at K&L Gates.

  • Roundup

    After Chevron

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    Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Chevron deference standard in June, this Expert Analysis series has featured attorneys discussing the potential impact across 36 different rulemaking and litigation areas.

  • Navigating Scrutiny Of Friendly Professional Corps. In Calif.

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    In light of ongoing scrutiny and challenges to private equity participation in the California healthcare marketplace, particularly surrounding the use of the friendly professional corporation model, management services organizations should consider implementing four best practices, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Expect Few Changes In ITC Rulemaking

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's opinion overruling the Chevron doctrine will have less impact on the U.S. International Trade Commission than other agencies administering trade statutes, given that the commission exercises its congressionally granted authority in a manner that allows for consistent decision making at both agency and judicial levels, say attorneys at Polsinelli.

  • 6 PTAB Events To Know From The Last 6 Months

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    The first half of 2024 brought a flurry of Patent Trial and Appeal Board developments that should be considered in post-grant strategies, including proposed rules on discretionary denial and director review, and the first decisions of the Delegated Rehearing Panel, say attorneys at Fish & Richardson.

  • Key Takeaways From High Court's Substitute Expert Decision

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Smith v. Arizona decision, holding that the confrontation clause generally bars prosecutors’ use of a substitute expert witness at trial, will have the most impact in narcotics and violent crime cases, but creative defense lawyers may find it useful in white collar cases, too, say Joshua Naftalis and Melissa Kelley at Pallas Partners.

  • Opinion

    Atty Well-Being Efforts Ignore Root Causes Of The Problem

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    The legal industry is engaged in a critical conversation about lawyers' mental health, but current attorney well-being programs primarily focus on helping lawyers cope with the stress of excessive workloads, instead of examining whether this work culture is even fundamentally compatible with lawyer well-being, says Jonathan Baum at Avenir Guild.

  • Parsing Justices' Toss Of Purdue's Controversial Ch. 11 Plan

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent nixing of OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma's Chapter 11 proposal prevents the Sackler family from settling thousands of civil opioid lawsuits without the consent of all of the plaintiffs, and holds profound implications for bankruptcy cases, say attorneys at MoloLamken.

  • Calif. Long-Tail Ruling Continues Policyholder-Friendly Trend

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    The California Supreme Court's recent ruling in Truck Insurance Exchange v. Kaiser Cement & Gypsum, rejecting horizontal policy exhaustion, was the latest in a string of its decisions involving insurance coverage for continuous or progressive injury claims that favor policyholders, say Billie Mandelbaum and David Goodwin at Covington.

  • What 2 Rulings On Standing Mean For DEI Litigation

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    Recent federal court decisions in the Fearless Fund and Hello Alice cases shed new light on the ongoing wave of challenges to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, with opposite conclusions on whether the plaintiffs had standing to sue, say attorneys at Moore & Van Allen.

  • Perspectives

    High Court Ruling Leaves Chance For Civil Forfeiture Reform

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    Though advocates for civil forfeiture reform did not prevail in Culley v. Marshall last month, concerns voiced by a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court justices potentially leave the door open to consider stricter limits in future cases, say attorneys at Dykema.

  • 4 Important Events In Bank Regulation: A Midyear Review

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    The first six months of 2024 have been fairly stable for the banking industry, though U.S. Supreme Court decisions and proposals from regulators have significantly affected the regulatory standards applicable to insured depository institutions, says Christina Grigorian at Katten.

  • Perspectives

    NY Chief Judge Spotlights Need To Strengthen Public Defense

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    In a recent concurrence in People v. Watkins, New York Chief Judge Rowan Wilson called attention to the necessity for greater investment in public defense services, highlighting not only the urgency of current crises, but the need to embrace a more ambitious vision of equal right to counsel, says Corey Stoughton at Selendy Gay.

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