Appellate

  • June 28, 2024

    4th Circ. Backs Bank's Win In Black Worker's Bias Suit

    The Fourth Circuit on Friday declined to reinstate a lawsuit that a Black former manager brought against a bank accusing it of firing her because she complained about racial bias, saying she failed to rebut the company's argument that she was let go because of her poor performance.

  • June 28, 2024

    Chevron Reversal's Impact In Trade Cases Likely Limited

    The U.S. Supreme Court's decision on Friday overturning Chevron deference is expected to have wide-ranging impacts, but its effect may be less harsh on international trade litigation where the field is virtually clear of cases invoking the now-defunct standard.  

  • June 28, 2024

    DC Circ. Panel Rejects Mich. Tribe's Casino Land Trust Bid

    A D.C. appellate court panel on Friday rejected a Michigan tribe's bid to compel the federal government to take land into trust for a casino venture outside Detroit, saying the court is not convinced that the tribe's proposal to channel a portion of the profits into the tribal community's unmet needs is lawful.

  • June 28, 2024

    Tulsa Fights Prisoners' Bids To Join Jurisdiction Row

    The city of Tulsa is fighting bids by nearly a dozen people incarcerated within the Oklahoma Department of Corrections to intervene in a challenge by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation over tribal jurisdiction, arguing that the federal district court first must consider the municipality's motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

  • June 28, 2024

    Legal Tech Co. Seeks Arbitration Of ESOP Row At 11th Circ.

    A legal technology company is urging the Eleventh Circuit to back arbitration of workers' claims that they lost $35.4 million when their employee stock ownership plan bought undervalued company shares, arguing that the lower court misstepped by finding that the agreement flouted rights under federal benefits law.

  • June 28, 2024

    Jan. 6 Ruling May Help Accused Rioters, But Not Trump

    Experts said Friday that while the U.S. Supreme Court's decision narrowing the use of obstruction of Congress charges could have implications for hundreds of people accused of storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, the same count against former president Donald Trump remains buoyed by facts alleged in his election interference indictment.

  • June 28, 2024

    Texas Justices Scrap $26M Verdict In Honda Seat Belt Suit

    The Texas Supreme Court on Friday handed American Honda Motor Co. Inc. a post-trial win, vacating a $26 million verdict for a woman who was paralyzed after a crash in 2015, saying the evidence she presented was not enough to rebut a presumption of nonliability under Texas law.

  • June 28, 2024

    EPA Coal Ash Rules Are Nothing New, DC Circ. Rules

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was enforcing existing rules rather than illegally issuing new ones when it rejected requests by power companies to extend a deadline to comply with regulations governing the cleanup of coal-ash waste facilities, a D.C. Circuit panel ruled Friday.

  • June 28, 2024

    9th Circ. Backs Mining Co.'s Defeat Of Driver's FMLA Suit

    The Ninth Circuit upheld a mining company's jury win over a truck driver's lawsuit claiming he was fired because he took time off after a workplace injury, saying Friday that employers don't have to rely on medical evidence to challenge a doctor's diagnosis under federal medical leave law.

  • June 28, 2024

    Mich. EMTs Did Not Prove Immunity Over False Death Declaration

    A Michigan Court of Appeals panel says first responders who declared a 20-year-old woman with cerebral palsy dead only for a funeral home embalmer to discover she was still breathing after having been placed in a body bag have not yet proven they are immune from liability, restoring a dismissed lawsuit.

  • June 28, 2024

    Buchanan Ingersoll Can't Dump Harrisburg Incinerator Row

    A Pennsylvania appellate court won't let Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC exit long-running litigation over a trash incinerator project that sent the state's capital city into financial distress, ruling Friday that there was still ambiguity about whether the law firm's advice had been correct.

  • June 28, 2024

    Firm Asks $460K In Fees After $8K Awarded In Copyright Case

    A Seattle-based intellectual property firm is seeking $460,000 in attorney fees for its defense of a software company client battling copyright and patent infringement allegations brought by a leadership consultant, despite the client's losing an $8,000 judgment on one claim.

  • June 28, 2024

    5th Circ. Tosses Texas Health System's COVID-19 Suit

    The largest nonprofit health system in Texas cannot get coverage for COVID-19-related business interruption losses it said totaled over $192 million, the Fifth Circuit affirmed, highlighting previous circuit precedent establishing that COVID-19 does not cause "physical loss or damage."

  • June 28, 2024

    Chevron Ruling No Sea Change For Tax Court, Judge Says

    The U.S. Tax Court will continue to rely on the IRS and Treasury's expertise in the tax code following the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision to overturn the 40-year-old Chevron doctrine that directed courts to defer to federal agencies' interpretations of ambiguous law, a judge said Friday.

  • June 28, 2024

    Bannon Can't Dodge Prison In Contempt Appeal

    Steve Bannon must go to prison Monday, according to a U.S. Supreme Court order Friday rejecting the former Trump White House chief strategist's bid to stave off his four-month sentence for contempt of Congress.

  • June 28, 2024

    Nixed Purdue Ch. 11 Plan May Leave States Ready For A Fight

    State attorneys general across the country could be gearing up for more opioid-related litigation against the Sackler family after the U.S. Supreme Court wiped out a $5.5 billion third-party release for the owners of bankrupt drugmaker Purdue Pharma LP, experts told Law360.

  • June 28, 2024

    High Court Enters July With 3 Rulings To Go

    In a rare move, the U.S. Supreme Court will issue opinions into the beginning of July as the court tries to clear its merits docket of three remaining cases dealing with presidential immunity, whether governments can control social media platforms' content moderation policies and the appropriate deadline to challenge agency action. 

  • June 28, 2024

    Iowa Supreme Court Approves 6-Week Abortion Ban

    The Iowa Supreme Court narrowly ruled Friday that the state can enforce a law restricting abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy, finding the state has a "legitimate interest in protecting unborn life," according to the majority opinion.

  • June 28, 2024

    Justices Limit Fed. Use Of Obstruction Charge In Jan. 6 Cases

    The U.S. Supreme Court limited Friday the U.S. Department of Justice's use of an obstruction of Congress statute against defendants accused of storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, ruling the law enacted in the wake of an accounting scandal requires the obstructive act must somehow impair the availability or integrity of official documents or proceedings.

  • June 28, 2024

    Supreme Court Strikes Down Chevron Deference

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday overturned a decades-old precedent that instructed judges about when they could defer to federal agencies' interpretations of law in rulemaking, depriving courts of a commonly used analytic tool and leaving lots of questions about what comes next.

  • June 28, 2024

    Supreme Court Backs Oregon City's Anti-Camping Laws

    The U.S. Supreme Court upheld an Oregon city's anti-camping ordinances Friday against a challenge from homeless residents who allege the laws penalize them for being homeless.

  • June 27, 2024

    Biden, Trump Spar On Abortion Access In The Wake Of Dobbs

    The U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs decision upending Americans' access to abortion care made an early appearance at Thursday night's presidential debate, with President Joe Biden lamenting the end of Roe v. Wade and former President Donald Trump taking credit for handing the issue of abortion rights "back to the states."

  • June 27, 2024

    Biden Takes Dig At 'Convicted Felon' Trump In 1st Debate

    President Joe Biden referred to former President Donald Trump as a "convicted felon" during Thursday's presidential debate, while Trump suggested that Biden could be criminally prosecuted after leaving office.

  • June 27, 2024

    Freedmen Heir Has Standing In Land Leasing Row, Court Says

    A descendant of those enslaved by the Cherokee Nation can challenge the federal government's alleged restriction on funds from early 20th century land allotments, a D.C. Circuit judge said, arguing that she suffered a cognizable injury due to the Interior Department's failure to provide an accounting of the transactions.

  • June 27, 2024

    Tesla Error Doomed Bid To Arbitrate Race Bias Suit, Court Says

    Tesla must face a Black ex-employee's claims of race discrimination in court, a California appeals court ruled Wednesday, affirming a lower court's finding that the electric vehicle maker lost its chance to arbitrate the claims after it failed to pay arbitration fees on time.

Expert Analysis

  • What Bankruptcy Deadline Appeal May Mean For Claimants

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    If the Third Circuit reverses a recent appeal made in In re: Promise Healthcare, litigation claimants within the circuit will not be able to rely on the proof of claim process to preserve the claim — but if the court affirms, the U.S. Supreme Court may need to step in to resolve the circuit split on this issue, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

  • Why Fed. Circ. Should Resolve District Split On Patent Statute

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    A split exists among district courts in their analysis of when marking cannot be done on a patented article due to its character, and the Federal Circuit should consider clarifying the analysis of Section 287(a), a consequential statute with important implications for patent damages, say Nicholas Nowak and Jamie Dohopolski at Sterne Kessler.

  • Employers Beware Of NLRB Changes On Bad Faith Bargaining

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    Recent National Labor Relations Board decisions show a trend of the agency imposing harsher remedies on employers for bad faith bargaining over union contracts, a position upheld in the Ninth Circuit's recent NLRB v. Grill Concepts Services decision, says Daniel Johns at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Practicing Law With Parkinson's Disease

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    This Parkinson’s Awareness Month, Adam Siegler at Greenberg Traurig discusses his experience working as a lawyer with Parkinson’s disease, sharing both lessons on how to cope with a diagnosis and advice for supporting colleagues who live with the disease.

  • When Trade Secret Protection And Nat'l Security Converge

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    The Trump administration's anti-espionage program focused on China is over, but federal enforcement efforts to protect trade secrets and U.S. national security continue, and companies doing business in high-risk jurisdictions need to maintain their compliance programs to avoid the risk of being caught in the crosshairs of an investigation, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • Why Incorporating By Reference Is Rarely Good Practice

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    The Federal Circuit’s recent ruling in Promptu Systems v. Comcast serves as a reminder that while incorporating by reference may seem efficient, it is generally prohibited by courts and can lead to sanctions when used to bypass a word count limit, says Cullen Seltzer at Sands Anderson.

  • Strategies For Defense Attys To Subpoena A Nonparty Witness

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    Federal criminal defendants seeking to subpoena potentially exculpatory information from nonparty witnesses must satisfy a stringent standard and should consider several often overlooked arguments to assure courts they’re not engaging in a fishing expedition, says James Roberts at Schlam Stone.

  • Series

    Playing Hockey Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Nearly a lifetime of playing hockey taught me the importance of avoiding burnout in all aspects of life, and the game ultimately ended up providing me with the balance I needed to maintain success in my legal career, says John Riccione at Taft.

  • ESG Challenges In Focus After Sierra Club Opposes SEC Rule

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    The Sierra Club's recent objection to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate-related disclosures for investors presents an unusual — pro-disclosure — legal challenge and an opportunity to take a close look at the varying critiques of ESG regulations, say Colin Pohlman, and Jane Luxton and Paul Kisslinger at Lewis Brisbois.

  • Opinion

    High Court Should Settle Circuit Split On Risk Disclosures

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    The U.S. Supreme Court should grant the petition for writ of certiorari in the Facebook case to resolve a growing circuit split concerning when risk disclosures can be misleading under federal securities laws, and its decision should align with the intent of Congress and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, says Richard Zelichov at DLA Piper.

  • Opinion

    Why Supreme Court Should Allow Repatriation Tax To Stand

    If the U.S. Supreme Court doesn't reject the taxpayers' misguided claims in Moore v. U.S. that the mandatory repatriation tax is unconstitutional, it could wreak havoc on our system of taxation and result in a catastrophic loss of revenue for the government, say Christina Mason and Theresa Balducci at Herrick Feinstein.

  • For Lawyers, Pessimism Should Be A Job Skill, Not A Life Skill

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    A pessimistic mindset allows attorneys to be effective advocates for their clients, but it can come with serious costs for their personal well-being, so it’s crucial to exercise strategies that produce flexible optimism and connect lawyers with their core values, says Krista Larson at Stinson.

  • High Court's Jan. 6 Rioter Case May Have Wide Ripple Effects

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    The U.S. Supreme Court will soon hear oral arguments in Fischer v. United States, a case that will determine whether a law enacted after the Enron scandal can be used to prosecute Jan. 6 rioters, and could affect the government’s ability to charge those who impede a range of official proceedings, say Brook Dooley and Sara Fitzpatrick at Keker Van Nest.

  • 5th Circ. Clarifies What Is And Isn't A 'New Use' Of PFAS

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    The Fifth Circuit's March 21 decision in Inhance Technologies v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, preventing the EPA from regulating existing uses of PFAS under "significant new use" provisions of the Toxic Substances Control Act, provides industry with much-needed clarity, say Joseph Schaeffer and Sloane Wildman at Babst Calland.

  • CORRECTED: Endoscope Patent Case Offers Guidance On Right To Repair

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    An Alabama federal court's decision in Karl Storz v. IMS reaffirmed that product owners have broad rights to repair or modify their property as they see fit, highlighting the parameters of the right to repair in the context of patent infringement, say Dustin Weeks and Dabney Carr at Troutman Pepper. Correction: Due to an editing error, a previous version of this article and headline attributed the Karl Storz ruling to the wrong court. The error has been corrected.

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