Appellate

  • July 18, 2024

    9th Circ. Revives Fired Doctor's COVID Vax Religious Bias Suit

    The Ninth Circuit revived a doctor's claims that Washington State University failed to accommodate his religious beliefs when it fired him from his residency for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine, ruling Thursday that U.S. Supreme Court precedent necessitates another look at his case.

  • July 18, 2024

    Fed. Circ. OKs Gilstrap's Alice Ax Of Background Check Patent

    The Federal Circuit on Thursday upheld Eastern District of Texas Judge Rodney Gilstrap's invalidation of a background check patent for claiming only an abstract idea, as well as his refusal to award attorney fees to the small Texas city that prevailed in the case.

  • July 18, 2024

    9th Circ. Signals Support For Alaska Salmon Fishery

    A Ninth Circuit panel on Thursday leaned toward allowing government-approved commercial salmon fishing in Southeast Alaska, with one judge saying the economic hardship indigenous communities would face without fishing outweighs the "enormous uncertainty" of impacts on a small population of orca whales that feed on the fish.

  • July 18, 2024

    Google Warns Fed. Circ. Panel Backed Manipulating Damages

    The Federal Circuit's decision to make Google pay EcoFactor $20 million for infringing a smart thermostat patent clears patent owners to "manufacture a royalty rate" and ignore both market realities and apportionment, Google told the full court in a bid for rehearing.

  • July 18, 2024

    SpaceX Tells 5th Circ. It Will Win Challenge To NLRB Structure

    The Fifth Circuit should block claims that SpaceX violated labor law from proceeding before the National Labor Relations Board because the company has a good shot at winning its constitutional challenge to the agency's structure, SpaceX argued.

  • July 18, 2024

    Menendez Appeal Could Make Hay From Bribery Case Law

    Sen. Robert Menendez's planned "aggressive" appeal will almost certainly include broadsides against his novel foreign-agent conviction and attempt to capitalize on the U.S. Supreme Court's proven appetite for bribery cases, experts say.

  • July 18, 2024

    Split 9th Circ. Panel Backs Restoring DHS Bond Rule

    A Ninth Circuit panel upheld a Department of Homeland Security rule barring some immigration surety firms from posting bonds for detained border-crossers Thursday, saying the rule's 2021 ratification by current Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas cured any defects with its original introduction in 2020.

  • July 18, 2024

    Judge Won't Pause Sanctions In Byju's Ch. 11

    A Delaware district court Thursday ruled hedge fund Camshaft Capital Fund LP cannot hold off a contempt order from a Delaware bankruptcy court in the Chapter 11 case of Byju's Alpha while it appeals the sanctions, finding that it could avoid sanctions if it complied with a court order.

  • July 18, 2024

    Miner Seeks Atty Fees After 4th Circ. DOL Judges Ruling

    A former miner urged the Fourth Circuit to approve approximately $21,000 in attorney fees in his case seeking benefits for his black lung disease, saying he has been unable to reach a settlement with an engineering company that challenged the appointment of two U.S. Department of Labor administrative law judges.

  • July 18, 2024

    LegitScript Asks 9th Circ. To Ax Price-Checker Antitrust Suit

    LegitScript has told the Ninth Circuit that PharmacyChecker cannot bring antitrust claims for allegedly having its price-checking website blacklisted because the bulk of its business is geared towards helping people illegally import prescription drugs.

  • July 18, 2024

    Bank Exec's Tax Tip Case Wrongly Axed, Estate Tells DC Circ.

    The estate of a Dutch bank executive asked the D.C. Circuit to overturn a U.S. Tax Court decision denying him a whistleblower award for reporting on tax avoidance schemes, saying the lower court improperly relied on proposed regulations from the Internal Revenue Service.

  • July 18, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Won't Deflate Air Mattress Patent Upheld At PTAB

    The Federal Circuit on Thursday affirmed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's conclusion that no claims of a Sun Pleasure Co. air mattress patent are invalid based on the grounds asserted by a Chinese company.

  • July 18, 2024

    Texas Psychiatric Patient's Head Trauma Suit Can Go Forward

    A Texas appeals court has revived a man's claims against a doctor who he said failed to diagnose and treat a head injury while he was a psychiatric patient, saying the trial court was wrong to find his allegations had no basis in fact.

  • July 18, 2024

    4th Circ. Deems Paying For Sex 'Immoral' In Deportation Case

    The Fourth Circuit denied a Salvadorian man's petition to stop his removal from the U.S. in a precedential ruling that soliciting prostitution is a "crime of moral turpitude" that disqualifies him from getting his deportation canceled even if the public stigma surrounding sex work is reducing.

  • July 18, 2024

    Creek Citizenship Case Paused Amid Tribal Court Controversy

    The Muscogee (Creek) Nation Supreme Court has paused a dispute between descendants of those once enslaved by the tribe and its citizenship board after the two plaintiffs accused the tribe's national council of illegally appointing special justices to the panel as part of a targeted campaign against them.

  • July 18, 2024

    6th Circ. Looks To Wash Hands Of Waters Of US Appeal

    An exasperated Sixth Circuit panel on Thursday looked for an easy way to dispatch Kentucky and industry groups' appeal of the dismissal of their challenges to a federal government rule defining the scope of the Clean Water Act.

  • July 18, 2024

    Tech Giants Can't Sink Slide-To-Unlock Patent At Fed. Circ.

    Samsung, Apple and Google failed on Thursday to persuade a panel of Federal Circuit judges to kill a patent covering the idea of sliding-to-unlock a phone, purportedly developed by a small Sweden smartphone developer over a decade ago.

  • July 18, 2024

    Woman Can't Get Rectal Cancer Med Mal Suit Reinstated

    A Texas appeals court won't let a woman revive her claims that a doctor with Houston Methodist Willowbrook failed to diagnose her rectal cancer, saying she failed to preserve for appeal the issue of whether the court properly granted a 30-day extension to file an amended expert report.

  • July 18, 2024

    Docs Get Same Hefty Opioid Sentences Despite Top Court Win

    Two Alabama doctors accused of unlawfully prescribing patients fentanyl and other opioids failed to shave time off their lengthy prison sentences despite a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that raised the bar for such prosecutions.

  • July 18, 2024

    Meta And FTC Want DC Circ. Privacy Fight Kept Paused

    Meta's D.C. Circuit bid to stop the Federal Trade Commission from modifying the parties' $5 billion privacy settlement should be kept on ice, both sides said Thursday, as the commission vies to toss Meta's trial court suit following a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

  • July 18, 2024

    DeSantis Blasts Ousted Atty's 3rd Bid To 'Rush' 11th Circ. Call

    Suspended Florida prosecutor Andrew Warren should not be allowed to "rush" the Eleventh Circuit's consideration of the prosecutor's case, which could have "sweeping implications" for Florida's government, Gov. Ron DeSantis told the appellate court Thursday.

  • July 18, 2024

    6th Circ. Questions If Kellogg 401(k) Claims Can Be Arbitrated

    A Sixth Circuit panel on Thursday suggested the terms of Kellogg Co.'s retirement plan may bar a former accountant from bringing claims the plan was mismanaged, as the company tries to enforce an arbitration clause that arguably prevents planwide relief. 

  • July 18, 2024

    Cannabis Co. Can't Snuff $300K Judgment In Contract Row

    A Washington state appeals court has rejected a bid by cannabis company Royal Concentrates LLC and its owners to throw out a $300,000 judgment against them in a contract dispute with an investment partner, saying any error in the exclusion of a last-minute witness and evidence was harmless.

  • July 18, 2024

    Del. Justices Asked To Undo Firm's 'Malicious' Suit Escape

    Applied Energetics is asking the Delaware Supreme Court to revive a complaint alleging Gusrae Kaplan Nusbaum PLLC and a former partner filed a frivolous federal securities fraud suit in order to hobble other litigation against the company's former chief executive officer.

  • July 18, 2024

    Au Pair Co. Can't Arbitrate Wage Claims, 1st Circ. Told

    A group of former au pairs who say they were underpaid for their work has urged the First Circuit to affirm that Cultural Care can't force them into arbitration in Switzerland, calling the agency's position a delay tactic with no merit.

Expert Analysis

  • Fed. Circ. Percipient Gov't Contract Ruling Is Groundbreaking

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    The effects of the Federal Circuit's decision last month in Percipient.ai v. U.S. may be limited to commercial product and service suppliers, but it is significant for government procurement in opening the door to protests by suppliers who previously would have lacked standing and Court of Federal Claims jurisdiction, say attorneys at Haynes Boone.

  • Series

    After Chevron: No Deference, No Difference For SEC Or CFTC

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    The Chevron doctrine did not fundamentally alter the interplay between the courts and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission in the development of the securities and commodities laws — and its demise will not do so either, says Dan Berkovitz at Millennium Management.

  • Opinion

    Industry Self-Regulation Will Shine Post-Chevron

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's Loper decision will shape the contours of industry self-regulation in the years to come, providing opportunities for this often-misunderstood practice, says Eric Reicin at BBB National Programs.

  • 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.

  • 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.

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