Appellate

  • November 01, 2024

    Texas Justice Says Amici Should Get Say In Religion Case

    A Texas Supreme Court justice released a statement Friday saying the court should have granted First Liberty Institute's request for five minutes to argue its position in a case about religious freedom under the Lone Star State's constitution, saying help from an amici would be "sensible and advisable."

  • November 01, 2024

    Fitbit Knocks Out Cellspin Litigation Campaign At Fed. Circ.

    Fitbit and others defeated a pair of appeals on Friday in patent litigation over ideas involving programming automatic social media posts, with the Federal Circuit ruling to reject arguments that a California federal judge should have decided patent suits differently and should have recused herself anyway because of her husband's ties to Fitbit parent Google.

  • November 01, 2024

    5th Circ. Punts On Bid To Stay CFPB Small Biz Rule

    The Fifth Circuit said it won't immediately start tolling compliance deadlines for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's small business lending data collection rule and will reserve judgment on whether to stay the rule pending an appeal by the bank trade groups challenging it.

  • November 01, 2024

    DC Circ. Questions Enviro Groups On Renewable Fuels Rules

    Judges on the D.C. Circuit on Friday morning pressed attorneys for environmental groups challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's 2023-2025 renewable fuel standards, questioning their claims that the federal government didn't do enough to assess the standards' potential impacts on water quality and certain species.

  • November 01, 2024

    Construction Co. Must Face 'COVID Building' Fall Suit

    An Indiana appeals court has reinstated a suit against a construction company blaming it for causing a woman's injuries after she tripped on a brace that had been left after the construction of a temporary "COVID building" next to a hospital's emergency room, saying the woman's injuries were foreseeable.

  • November 01, 2024

    2nd Circ. Won't Revive Warner Bros. Discovery Merger Suit

    The Second Circuit refused Friday to resurrect a putative shareholder class action over the $43 billion tie-up that created Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., saying pre-merger documents adequately informed investors about streaming subscriber numbers and planned business strategies for the combined media giant.

  • November 01, 2024

    Law Profs Urge Del. Reversal Of Chancery's Moelis Ruling

    Four prominent law professors have weighed in with an amicus brief on the side of a Delaware Supreme Court appeal seeking to reverse a Court of Chancery ruling earlier this year that struck down a company charter amendment ceding some corporate governance rights to the business' founder.

  • November 01, 2024

    Health Data Co. Urges 4th Circ. To Keep Access Open

    Nursing home data analytics company Real Time Medical Systems urged the Fourth Circuit on Friday to keep in place an order that stops electronic medical records company PointClickCare from using unsolvable captcha prompts to block access to patient records.

  • November 01, 2024

    Gallery Owner Ends Virus Coverage Fight After Calif. Ruling

    A California gallery owner has ended its COVID-19 property insurance dispute with a Hartford unit in the wake of a California Supreme Court ruling in August finding that a virus exclusion in a restaurant's policy, issued by the same unit, did not render coverage illusory.

  • November 01, 2024

    Behind High Court's Rare Review Of 2nd Texas Capital Case

    Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court took up a case over a Texas inmate's right to new DNA testing his attorneys believe could save him from execution. It’s a rare move for the justices, who in recent years have pointedly stayed out of capital appeals.

  • November 01, 2024

    High Court Leaves Pa. Fix For Nixed Mail Ballots In Place

    The U.S. Supreme Court left in place Friday a ruling from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court allowing voters in the battleground state whose mail-in ballots are rejected as defective to submit provisional ballots on Election Day as replacements.

  • November 01, 2024

    DOJ, Navarro Spar Over White House Emails Turnover

    The legal team representing former Trump administration adviser Peter Navarro argued in D.C. federal court Friday that some 300 emails from Navarro's time at the White House are purely personal and should stay out of the hands of the National Archives.

  • November 01, 2024

    1st Circ. Backs Arena In Bruins Fan's Slip-And-Fall Appeal

    Boston's TD Garden should not be held liable for damages from a fan slipping and falling on another fan's spilled drink during a hockey game, a First Circuit panel has ruled in upholding a lower court's summary judgment in favor of the arena and its operator.

  • November 01, 2024

    2nd Circ. Agrees Ed Sheeran Didn't Rip Off 'Let's Get It On'

    A Second Circuit panel on Friday said Ed Sheeran's hit "Thinking Out Loud" did not rip off Marvin Gaye's Motown classic "Let's Get It On," affirming a lower court's summary judgment order that concluded the musical building blocks of Gaye's song were not original enough to be protectable.

  • November 01, 2024

    Oil Group, Enviro Orgs Clash Over Offshore Drilling Plan

    Environmental groups and the American Petroleum Institute filed sparring briefs in an appeal before the D.C. Circuit over the U.S. Department of the Interior's 2024-2029 offshore oil and gas leasing program, each arguing that the agency wasn't legally obligated to satisfy the other's demands.

  • November 01, 2024

    4 Appellate Arguments Benefits Attys Should Watch In Nov.

    The Second Circuit will weigh battles over retirement plan fees and union benefit contributions, teachers will ask the Ninth Circuit to revive their suit over interest they say is owed on their retirement accounts and the Eleventh Circuit will mull a constitutional challenge to a Florida gender-affirming care ban. Here are four upcoming arguments that benefits lawyers should have on their radar.

  • November 01, 2024

    Up Next At High Court: Fed Funds And Securities Risks

    The U.S. Supreme Court will return to the bench Monday for its November arguments session, which will start off with a debate over whether the Federal Communications Commission telecom subsidy program involves federal funds subject to the False Claims Act, and on Tuesday how Medicare funding should be calculated for hospitals that serve large numbers of low-income patients.

  • November 01, 2024

    3 Things To Know About The NC Supreme Court Race

    Democrats in North Carolina are hoping to preserve their shrinking presence on the North Carolina Supreme Court as Republicans look to flip another seat in the state's only high court race on Nov. 5.

  • November 01, 2024

    Meet The Florida Justices Up For Retention Votes

    Justices Renatha Francis and Meredith Sasso — the newest members of the Florida Supreme Court — will be on Tuesday's ballot in retention elections, giving Sunshine State voters a chance to decide whether to keep them on the bench for full six-year terms.

  • November 01, 2024

    Pennsylvania's Attorney General Race: Four Things To Know

    In the race for Pennsylvania attorney general, a former county prosecutor and a two-term auditor general are facing off for the chance to be the Keystone State's top lawyer — both with ties to York, Pennsylvania, and Widener University Commonwealth Law School in Harrisburg. But whether they'd be more at home in the office's criminal prosecution or civil litigation roles depends on the candidate.

  • November 01, 2024

    Garden State Father-Son Attys Must Face Enviro Group's Suit

    The New Jersey state appeals court reinstated a lawsuit against a father-son pair of attorneys on Friday in which a nonprofit organization accused them of violating environmental rules on their properties on the Jersey shore.

  • November 01, 2024

    Off The Bench: Horse Racing Ruling Halted, Fla. Betting Deal

    In this week's Off The Bench, supporters of the organization overseeing federal horse-racing laws got a helping hand from the U.S. Supreme Court, the feud between a Florida tribe and state casino interests ends in a truce, and the NBA wants the details of its disputed media rights deal kept out of the public eye.

  • November 01, 2024

    Ga. Justices Uphold Toss Of Lawmakers' Capitol Protest Suit

    The Georgia Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by a former state lawmaker, a current state lawmaker and several others who argued that a law used to justify their arrests while protesting at the state Capitol was unconstitutionally overbroad.

  • November 01, 2024

    Ex-Gas Co. Worker Seeks Justices Review On 'Honest Belief'

    A former mechanic for a Baltimore gas company has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Fourth Circuit decision that found it was not discriminatory for his ex-employer to fire him over an issue with time off under the Family and Medical Leave Act because the company believed he took the leave dishonestly.

  • November 01, 2024

    Michigan's Supreme Court Tosses Pandemic Powers Ruling

    The Michigan Supreme Court on Friday cast aside a ruling that invalidated a public health law used during the COVID-19 pandemic to curb gatherings and close restaurants, saying the issue is moot because orders issued under the law expired years ago.

Expert Analysis

  • Navigating The Bankruptcy Terrain After Purdue Pharma

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s June ruling in Harrington v. Purdue Pharma is having a significant impact on bankruptcies, with recent cases addressing nonconsensual third-party releases and opt-out mechanisms, and highlighting strategies practitioners can employ to avoid running afoul of the decision, say Brett Axelrod and Agostino Zammiello at Fox Rothschild.

  • 5 Considerations For Obviousness-Type Double Patenting

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent denial of certiorari for In re: Cellect highlights the current state of obviousness-type double patenting based on that case and another recent Federal Circuit decision, including that ODP is not fatal, that divisional applications are protected from ODP and more, says Fabian Koenigbauer at Ice Miller.

  • How To Avoid Risking Arbitration Award Confidentiality In NY

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    Though a Second Circuit decision last year seemed to create a confidentiality safe harbor for arbitration awards that had no ongoing compliance issues, a recent New York federal court ruling offers further guidance on the meaning of "ongoing compliance issues," says Matthew Iverson at Nelson Mullins.

  • How Project 2025 Could Upend Federal ESG Policies

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    If implemented, Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation's policy playbook for a Republican presidential administration, would likely seek to deploy antitrust law to target ESG initiatives, limit pension fund managers' focus to pecuniary factors and spell doom for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate rule, say attorneys at Mintz.

  • E-Signature Best Practices For Employers After Calif. Ruling

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    In Garcia v. Stoneledge Furniture, a California appellate court found an arbitration agreement invalid after an employee raised doubts about the authenticity of its e-signature, underscoring the importance of employers implementing additional measures to verify the authenticity of electronically signed documents, say Ash Bhargava and Reece Bennett at Atkinson Andelson.

  • Patent Lessons From 7 Federal Circuit Reversals In August

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    The Federal Circuit’s seven vacated or reversed cases from August provide helpful clarity on obviousness-type double patenting, written description and indefiniteness, and suggest improved practices for petitioners and patent owners in inter partes review, say Denise De Mory and Li Guo at Bunsow De Mory.

  • Smith's New Trump Indictment Is Case Study In Superseding

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    Special counsel Jack Smith’s recently revised Jan. 6 charges against former President Donald Trump provide lessons for prosecutors on how to effectively draft superseding indictments in order to buttress or streamline their case, as necessary, says Jessica Roth at Cardozo Law School.

  • Key Insurance Implications Of Hawaii's Historic GHG Ruling

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    In Aloha Petroleum v. National Union Fire Insurance, the Hawaii Supreme Court became the first state court to classify greenhouse gasses as pollutants barred from insurance coverage, a ruling likely to be afforded great weight by courts across the country, say Scott Seaman and Gar Lauerman at Hinshaw & Culbertson.

  • Use The Right Kind Of Feedback To Help Gen Z Attorneys

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    Generation Z associates bring unique perspectives and expectations to the workplace, so it’s imperative that supervising attorneys adapt their feedback approach in order to help young lawyers learn and grow — which is good for law firms, too, says Rachael Bosch at Fringe Professional Development.

  • What To Expect As Worker Bias Suit Heads To High Court

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    The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services, which concerns how courts treat discrimination claims brought by majority group plaintiffs, and its decision could eliminate the background circumstances test, but is unlikely to significantly affect employers' diversity programs, say Victoria Slade and Alysa Mo at Davis Wright.

  • Opinion

    Congress Can And Must Enact A Supreme Court Ethics Code

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    As public confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court dips to historic lows following reports raising conflict of interest concerns, Congress must exercise its constitutional power to enact a mandatory and enforceable code of ethics for the high court, says Muhammad Faridi, president of the New York City Bar Association.

  • What To Make Of Dueling Corporate Transparency Act Rulings

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    Although challenges to the Corporate Transparency Act abound — as highlighted by recent federal court decisions from Alabama and Oregon taking opposite positions on its constitutionality — the act is still law, so companies should comply with their filing requirements or face the potential consequences, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • Perspectives

    Pop Culture Docket: Justice Lebovits On Gilbert And Sullivan

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    Characters in the 19th century comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan break the rules of good lawyering by shamelessly throwing responsible critical thought to the wind, providing hilarious lessons for lawyers and judges on how to avoid a surfeit of traps and tribulations, say acting New York Supreme Court Justice Gerald Lebovits and law student Tara Scown.

  • New TCPA Rule Faces Uncertain Future Post-Loper Bright

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    The Federal Communications Commission's new rule aiming to eliminate lead generators' use of unlawful robocalls is now in doubt with the U.S. Supreme Court's Loper Bright decision, and the Eleventh Circuit's Insurance Marketing Coalition v. FCC is poised to be a test case of the agency's ability to enforce the Telephone Consumer Protection Act post-Chevron, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • 6th Circ. Preemption Ruling Adds Uncertainty For Car Cos.

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    Automakers and their suppliers need uniformity under the law to create sufficient scale and viable markets — but the Sixth Circuit's recent decision in Fenner v. General Motors creates more uncertainty around the question of when state law consumer claims related to violations of federal vehicle emissions and fuel economy standards are preempted, say attorneys at Sidley.

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