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Appellate
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November 07, 2024
Mass. Court Affirms Nix Of Property Tax Appeal Citing Blight
A Massachusetts homeowner's request for a property tax abatement because of local blight was properly rejected by a state tax board because the owner did not pay the tax at issue as required, the state appeals court ruled Tuesday.
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November 07, 2024
NC Court Refuses Law Firm Sanctions In Bankruptcy Fee Fight
A North Carolina business bankruptcy law firm and its founder have escaped sanctions for allegedly lying to a trial court about its communications in a fee dispute, as a state appellate court said the former client's sanctions motion must fail as a matter of law because he "unreasonably delayed" filing it.
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November 07, 2024
Feds Say Fla. Atty Can't Shake COVID Relief Fraud Conviction
In a case involving a Florida lawyer serving a 75-month sentence for a COVID-19 loan fraud scheme, federal prosecutors are arguing that the trial judge was correct to allow a witness to testify that the defendant had talked about having another co-conspirator killed.
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November 07, 2024
Louisiana Says EPA Usurped State Power In Pollution Row
The state of Louisiana told the Fifth Circuit that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has no authority to invalidate a two-year compliance deadline extension the state granted to a neoprene manufacturer, which is being sued by the agency.
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November 07, 2024
NC Panel Affirms Axing Sex Abuse Suit As Sanction For Delay
A North Carolina appeals panel found in a precedential ruling that a trial court was right to toss a man's sex abuse suit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Raleigh as an appropriate sanction for his counsel having "deliberately and unreasonably delayed service of process."
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November 07, 2024
Trump's Victory Muddles NY Sentencing: 'No Playbook Here'
The fate of President-elect Donald Trump's criminal conviction in New York remains unclear following his resounding electoral victory Tuesday night, as last-minute motions, a pending decision on presidential immunity and appeals may derail or delay a punishment slated to be handed down before Thanksgiving.
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November 06, 2024
Judiciary Panel Spurns Broadcasts, But More Pressure Looms
Despite support from a jurist who televised a mass murderer's trial, the lead rulemaking body for federal criminal cases voted Wednesday against loosening limits on courtroom broadcasts, but members exchanged sharply conflicting views and predicted that digital age pressure will keep rising.
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November 06, 2024
Chicago Pol Urges Narrow Reading Of False Statement Law
The U.S. Supreme Court should narrowly interpret the federal statute barring people from using false statements to influence certain financial institutions because backing the government's broad reading could expose borrowers to criminal liability that was never intended, former Chicago alderman Patrick Daley Thompson argued Wednesday.
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November 06, 2024
Fed. Circ. Mulls Whether Billable Hour Tech Can Be Patented
The Federal Circuit is set to decide whether a LexisNexis program that helps attorneys track their billable hours is stepping on another company's intellectual property or if that company is simply trying to patent the noninventive concept of keeping time using a computer.
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November 06, 2024
10th Circ. Backs Colorado Age Limits For Gun Buyers
A Tenth Circuit panel on Tuesday upheld a Colorado law establishing 21 as the minimum age to buy and sell guns in the state, concluding that age restrictions for buying guns don't have to line up with the age of majority.
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November 06, 2024
9th Circ. Says No New Trial For Tesla Investors' Suit
The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday ruled that a lower court didn't err in denying Tesla investors' request for a new trial regarding their $12 billion claim over Elon Musk's 2018 tweets that he had "funding secured" to take the electric car giant private, saying there were no improper instructions given to the jury.
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November 06, 2024
Fla. Can't Reclaim Medicaid Payments On Immigrant Care
A Florida appeals court on Wednesday reaffirmed a previous decision that the state Agency for Health Care Administration cannot claw back asserted overpayments of Medicaid funds hospitals received for emergency services provided to eligible unauthorized immigrants, ruling in the class action that a statutory change did not overrule the decision but merely clarified the law.
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November 06, 2024
Alaska Asks 9th Circ. To Roll Back Ringed Seal Protections
The state of Alaska called on the Ninth Circuit to overturn a district court's refusal to eliminate Endangered Species Act protections for Arctic ringed seals, arguing the federal government failed to properly credit new information that raised serious questions about the necessity for continuing protections.
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November 06, 2024
Venue For Fla. County Suit Against Funder Getting New Look
A Florida appellate court ruled Wednesday that Palm Beach County can't use the "sword-wielder" exception to deny a funding agency's choice of court in a lawsuit over the authority to levy property taxes, saying the agency has proved it's a governmental entity entitled to a home venue privilege.
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November 06, 2024
3rd Circ. Mulls Mootness In Boy Scouts Ch. 11 Plan Appeals
Questions over whether equitable and statutory mootness foreclose challenges to the Boy Scouts of America's bankruptcy took center stage Wednesday during arguments before the Third Circuit, with the judges and parties involved noting the impact that changing the Chapter 11 plan that's already in effect could have on thousands of sexual abuse survivors.
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November 06, 2024
Fed. Circ. Panel Irked By Confusion In Check Patent Case
An irritated Federal Circuit panel criticized attorneys for the United Services Automobile Association and PNC Bank on Wednesday for a lack of clarity on which issues reached a final judgment in their nine-figure patent dispute, with one judge telling them, "You both should be embarrassed."
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November 06, 2024
1st Circ. Tells Immigration Board To Rethink Torture Definition
The First Circuit has ordered the Board of Immigration Appeals to reconsider denying removal relief for a man wanted for murder in Jamaica, finding that the board incorrectly assumed that direct police participation was needed to back his fear of torture.
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November 06, 2024
Netflix Jury Will Hear Victim ID Evidence In 'Our Father' Trial
An Indiana federal judge ruled Wednesday that Netflix Inc. can't exclude evidence of third-party statements in a suit accusing the entertainment giant of wrongly revealing the identities of the biological children of a rogue fertility doctor in the "Our Father" documentary, saying the statements were not inadmissible hearsay.
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November 06, 2024
5th Circ. Chides Texas For Clashing Insurance Law Messages
A Fifth Circuit judge Wednesday told the state of Texas it was "having its cake and eating it too" by arguing it didn't plan to enforce a law governing certain disclosures between vision insurers and optometrists while simultaneously fighting off a temporary injunction enjoining the law from going into effect.
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November 06, 2024
2nd Circ. Revives Authors' Breach Claim Against McGraw Hill
The Second Circuit has partially restored a breach of contract claim from a would-be class action that alleged McGraw Hill shortchanged textbook authors on royalties from e-book sales, saying there was merit to one of their arguments relating to contract language.
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November 06, 2024
10th Circ. Backs Asset Freeze In Forex Exec's Latest Bid
A foreign exchange asset manager lost his bid to overturn a lower court's decision that froze his assets and ordered him to pay $510,000 in legal bills in a dispute with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, with a panel of the 10th Circuit finding it does not have jurisdiction to reverse the ruling.
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November 06, 2024
Feds Fight Philly Injection Site Group's 3rd Circ. Appeal
The U.S. Department of Justice has urged the Third Circuit to preserve its win in preventing an overdose prevention organization from opening a supervised safe-injection site in Philadelphia, arguing that a lower court correctly ruled that the group is not a religious organization eligible for federal protection.
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November 06, 2024
Justices Eye Narrowing Disclosure Rules In Meta Investor Suit
The U.S. Supreme Court seemed poised Wednesday to hand Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc. a narrow victory in a case tied to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, as justices put up a range of hypothetical scenarios to try to pin down when exactly a company needs to disclose to investors that a past event could cause future damage to its business.
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November 06, 2024
Maritime Commission Seeks To Ax Refusal To Deal Challenge
The Federal Maritime Commission is asking the D.C. Circuit to toss an ocean carrier industry challenge to federal rules for carrier practices, arguing that the World Shipping Council hasn't shown it has standing to contest the regulations.
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November 06, 2024
GOP Will Get A Crack At The Judiciary, But First, Lame Duck
With a little more than two months left in the Biden administration following Republicans' capture of the White House and Senate on Tuesday, a spokesperson for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Durbin intends to confirm "every possible nominee" before time runs out on this Congress.
Expert Analysis
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Series
After Chevron: Slowing Down AI In Medical Research
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision overturning the Chevron doctrine may inhibit agencies' regulatory efforts, potentially slowing down the approval and implementation of artificial intelligence-driven methodologies in medical research, as well as regulators' responses to public health emergencies, say Ragini Acharya and Matthew Deutsch at Husch Blackwell.
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What High Court TM Rulings Tell Us About Free Speech
Recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings show tension between free speech and trademark law, highlighting that while political mockery is protected, established brands may be forced to adapt to evolving cultural values, says William Scott Goldman at Goldman Law Group.
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Series
Being A Luthier Makes Me A Better Lawyer
When I’m not working as an appellate lawyer, I spend my spare time building guitars — a craft known as luthiery — which has helped to enhance the discipline, patience and resilience needed to write better briefs, says Rob Carty at Nichols Brar.
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Series
After Chevron: Uncertainty In Scope Of ITC Oversight
The U.S. International Trade Commission's long-standing jurisprudence on some of the most disputed and controversial issues is likely to be reshaped by the Federal Circuit, which is no longer bound by Chevron deference in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright decision, say Kecia Reynolds and Madeleine Moss at Paul Hastings.
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Half-Truths Vs. Omissions: Slicing Justices' Macquarie Cake
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Macquarie v. Moab provides a road map for determining whether corporate reports that omit information should be considered misleading — and the court baked it into a dessert analogy that is key to understanding the guidelines, say Daniel Levy and Pavithra Kumar at Advanced Analytical Consulting Group.
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Lead Like 'Ted Lasso' By Embracing Cognitive Diversity
The Apple TV+ series “Ted Lasso” aptly illustrates how embracing cognitive diversity can be a winning strategy for teams, providing a useful lesson for law firms, which can benefit significantly from fresh, diverse perspectives and collaborative problem-solving, says Paul Manuele at PR Manuele Consulting.
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Chevron's End Puts Target On CFPB's Aggressive BNPL Rule
A recent interpretative rule by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, subjecting buy-now, pay-later loans to the same regulations as credit cards, is unlikely to survive post-Chevron challenges of the rule's partisan and shaky logic, say Scott Pearson and Bryan Schneider at Manatt.
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Justices' Ch. 11 Ruling Is A Big Moment For Debtors' Insurers
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Truck Insurance v. Kaiser Gypsum ruling upends decades of Chapter 11 bankruptcy jurisprudence that relegated a debtor’s insurer to the sidelines, giving insurers a new footing to try and avoid significant liability, say Stuart Gordon and Benjamin Wisher at Rivkin Radler.
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Justices' Starbucks Ruling May Limit NLRB Injunction Wins
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Starbucks v. McKinney, adopting a more stringent test for National Labor Relations Board Section 10(j) injunctions, may lessen the frequency with which employers must defend against injunctions alongside parallel unfair labor practice charges, say David Pryzbylski and Colleen Schade at Barnes & Thornburg.
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Justices' Criminal Law Decisions: The Term In Review
Each of the 11 criminal decisions issued in the U.S. Supreme Court’s recently concluded term is independently important, but taken together, they reveal trends in the court’s broader approach to criminal law, presenting both pitfalls and opportunities for defendants and their counsel, says Kenneth Notter at MoloLamken.
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Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: July Lessons
In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy considers cases touching on pre- and post-conviction detainment conditions, communications with class representatives, when the American Pipe tolling doctrine stops applying to modified classes, and more.
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7th Circ. Motorola Ruling Raises Stakes Of DTSA Litigation
The Seventh Circuit’s recent ruling in Motorola v. Hytera gives plaintiffs a powerful tool to recover damages, greatly increasing the incentive to bring Defend Trade Secrets Act claims against defendants with large global sales because those sales could generate large settlements, say attorneys at MoFo.
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Series
After Chevron: Bid Protest Litigation Will Hold Steady For Now
Though the substantive holding of Loper Bright is unlikely to affect bid protests because questions of statutory interpretation are rare, the spirit of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision may signal a general trend away from agency deference even on the complex technical issues that often arise, say Kayleigh Scalzo and Andrew Guy at Covington.
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Challenging Prosecutors' Use Of Defendants' Jail Phone Calls
Although it’s an uphill battle under current case law, counsel for pretrial detainees may be able to challenge prosecutors’ use of jail-recorded phone calls between the defendant and their attorney by taking certain advance measures, say Jim McLoughlin and Fielding Huseth at Moore & Van Allen.
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How NJ Worker Status Ruling Benefits Real Estate Industry
In Kennedy v. Weichert, the New Jersey Supreme Court recently said a real estate agent’s employment contract would supersede the usual ABC test analysis to determine his classification as an independent contractor, preserving operational flexibility for the industry — and potentially others, say Jason Finkelstein and Dalila Haden at Cole Schotz.