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Appellate
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September 05, 2025
Fed. Circ. Sinks Inventor's Bid To Escape $214K In Sanctions
The Federal Circuit on Friday denied efforts by the inventor of a patent covering a type of marking tape to escape a nearly $214,000 sanctions order from a lower court, saying it had previously upheld the award for bad faith litigation and won't alter it now.
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September 05, 2025
3rd Circ. Affirms Feds' Primacy Over Pa. Grid Project
The Third Circuit ruled in a precedential decision on Friday that the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission's blocking of a transmission line project in the state was unconstitutional because it hampered federal objectives, affirming a lower court's ruling that the commission lacked the authority to halt construction.
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September 05, 2025
Ex-Ill. Speaker Asks 7th Circ. To Stay Prison Term For Appeal
Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan has asked the Seventh Circuit to stay his impending surrender to serve a seven-year prison sentence for bribery and wire fraud as he appeals that conviction to the appellate court, saying his appeal is likely to succeed.
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September 05, 2025
Fed. Circ. Backs PTAB Axing CAO Lighting Patent Claims
The Federal Circuit on Friday signed off on Patent Trial and Appeal Board decisions that invalidated various claims in a pair of LED patents, mostly handing a win to challengers like General Electric Co. and semiconductor company Wolfspeed Inc.
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September 05, 2025
Harper Lee Estate, Publisher Settle 'Mockingbird' Play IP Case
Harper Lee's estate and a publishing company have settled their dispute over a "To Kill a Mockingbird" play adaptation the estate allegedly licensed without authority, wiping an appeal off the books the day before their scheduled arguments at the Seventh Circuit.
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September 05, 2025
3rd Circ. Backs Jailing Supervised Release Violators
The Third Circuit ruled in a published opinion issued Friday that federal district judges have the power to send criminal defendants back to prison while they await a hearing on whether they violated the terms of their supervised release.
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September 05, 2025
Lindberg Challenges Receivership After $524M Arbitral Award
Insurance mogul Greg Lindberg, who pled guilty to defrauding policyholders and was convicted of attempting to bribe North Carolina's insurance commissioner, urged a state appeals court to overturn the appointment of a receiver over his worldwide assets, after he was hit with a $524 million arbitration award.
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September 05, 2025
Ore. Court Finds Claim For Tax Sale Proceeds Untimely
An Oregon county violated the U.S. Constitution when it retained the surplus proceeds of a tax sale, a state appeals court ruled, but the property owner's claim for the funds was untimely and a lower court was correct to dismiss it.
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September 05, 2025
6th Circ. Finds Boss' Pregnancy Remark Supports Bias Claim
A split Sixth Circuit panel revived part of a lawsuit from a woman who alleges a Michigan hospital system laid her off because she was pregnant, finding that evidence that the worker's supervisor was concerned about the pregnancy's effects on department productivity supports pregnancy discrimination claims.
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September 05, 2025
Fed. Circ. Revives Pro Se Inventor's Social Media Patent Bid
The Federal Circuit on Friday breathed new life into a Florida man's attempt to patent a way of facilitating the flow of information on social media networks, finding the Patent Trial and Appeal Board needs to take another look.
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September 05, 2025
Court-Ordered Programs Are Gov't Speech, 11th Circ. Says
The Eleventh Circuit on Thursday affirmed a lower court's finding that Florida court-ordered batterers' intervention programs are government speech, upholding a win for the state over a Christian minister and counselor contesting the rejection of his Bible-based program.
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September 05, 2025
9th Circ. Affirms Irrigation Exemption For Calif. Water Project
The Ninth Circuit on Friday rejected fishing industry groups' demand that the federal government require a Clean Water Act permit for a California agricultural water runoff project that's been operating without one for decades.
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September 05, 2025
6th Circ. Backs Search Of Home Linked To One Drug Sale
A federal appeals panel has said officers had good reason to search a home connected to a man they say set up in a drug-buying sting, determining a federal judge did not err by refusing to suppress evidence found inside the home.
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September 05, 2025
NC Court Rejects ParkMobile's Bid To Escape Slander Case
ParkMobile LLC lost its bid Thursday to dodge a slander lawsuit in which the city of Asheville claimed the company misrepresented that the two were affiliated, after a three-judge panel of the North Carolina Court of Appeals dismissed ParkMobile's appeal.
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September 05, 2025
Mass. Justices Mull Privacy Issues In Era Of Online Records
Massachusetts' highest court heard arguments Friday in a pair of cases asking the justices to balance the public's right to access court documents against the privacy interests of potential medical malpractice victims and people charged with but later cleared of crimes.
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September 05, 2025
Solicitor Can Argue As Amicus In Right-To-Counsel Case
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday granted the U.S. solicitor general time to argue as an amicus in the Sixth Amendment case of a criminal defendant who was denied the opportunity to consult fully with his lawyer during an overnight break in his testimony.
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September 05, 2025
Connecticut Court Orders New Trial In $10.4M Fraud Case
A Connecticut state judge wrongly removed two combined $10.4 million investment fraud lawsuits from a jury docket at one party's request, the Connecticut Appellate Court ruled Friday, holding that both sides had agreed to present the case to a jury and ordering a new trial.
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September 05, 2025
DC Circ. Says Grievance Deal Can't End Title VII Suit
The D.C. Circuit reinstated Friday a Black worker's race bias suit claiming she faced discrimination and harassment at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, ruling a settlement that resolved grievances her union filed against her employer did not justify the dismissal of her civil rights claims.
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September 05, 2025
Anthropic Agrees To Pay $1.5B To Settle AI Copyright Fight
Leading artificial intelligence developer Anthropic has agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle a case brought by a group of authors who accused the company of illegally using their works to train its flagship large language model, the authors told a California federal court on Friday.
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September 05, 2025
Ex-Mass. Trial Court Chief Justice Tapped As DA Integrity Chief
A longtime Massachusetts superior court judge and retired chief justice of the state's trial court has been named chief of the Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Integrity Review Bureau, tasked with investigating and reviewing potential wrongful convictions by the Boston-area district attorney's office.
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September 05, 2025
3rd Circ. Says Atty Needs Client OK To Admit Crime Elements
The Third Circuit has upheld a New Jersey man's conviction for unlawfully possessing a firearm as a felon, ruling that his lawyer could not admit part of the crime on his behalf when the client himself objected.
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September 05, 2025
US Producers Urge Fed. Circ. To Reinstate Turkish Steel Duties
Counsel for the U.S. steel industry urged the Federal Circuit on Friday to reverse the U.S. Department of Commerce's removal of duties on Turkish imports, saying those companies are directly benefitting from subsidies in the procurement of scrap steel and production of steel rebar that should warrant countervailing measures.
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September 05, 2025
8th Circ. Won't Revisit Crop Damage Arbitration Fight
The Eighth Circuit has ruled that the existence of arbitration agreements for some farmland owners, who are suing over depressed crop yields in the aftermath of an Alliance Pipeline project, does not amount to grounds for the appeals court to review a decision reviving proceedings.
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September 05, 2025
Arnold & Porter Hires Sidley's Telecom Co-Lead In DC
The former co-leader of Sidley Austin LLP's telecommunications and internet competition practice has joined Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP in Washington, D.C., to continue representing clients in administrative proceedings and appellate matters before federal agencies.
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September 05, 2025
Tribal Groups Urge Justices To Address Religious Violations
Three Native American advocacy groups are backing a former Louisiana prisoner's U.S. Supreme Court petition for damages after guards forcibly shaved his head, arguing that the case presents issues vital to Indigenous cultural survival.
Expert Analysis
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Supreme Court's Criminal Law Decisions: The Term In Review
Though the U.S. Supreme Court’s criminal law decisions in its recently concluded term proved underwhelming by many measures, their opinions revealed trends in how the justices approach criminal cases and offered reminders for practitioners, says Kenneth Notter at MoloLamken.
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Opinion
The Legal Education Status Quo Is No Longer Tenable
As underscored by the fallout from California’s February bar exam, legal education and licensure are tethered to outdated systems, and the industry must implement several key reforms to remain relevant and responsive to 21st century legal needs, says Matthew Nehmer at The Colleges of Law.
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2nd Circ. Reinforces Consensus On Vacating Foreign Awards
In Molecular Dynamics v. Spectrum Dynamics Medical, the Second Circuit recently affirmed that federal district courts do not possess subject matter jurisdiction to vacate foreign arbitral awards, strengthening this consensus across the circuits most active in recognition and enforcement actions, says Ed Mullins at Reed Smith.
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What Dismissal Rulings May Mean For ERISA Forfeiture Cases
Following an influx of Employee Retirement Income Security Act class actions challenging the long-standing practice of plan sponsors using plan forfeitures to offset employer contributions, recent motion to dismiss rulings and a U.S. Department of Labor amicus brief may encourage more courts to reject plaintiffs' forfeiture theories, say attorneys at Mayer Brown.
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Justices' Age Verification Ruling May Lead To More State Laws
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton ruling, permitting a Texas law requiring certain websites to verify users’ ages, significantly expands states' ability to regulate minors’ social media access, further complicating the patchwork of internet privacy laws, say attorneys at Troutman.
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E-Discovery Quarterly: Rulings On Relevance Redactions
In recent cases addressing redactions that parties sought to apply based on the relevance of information — as opposed to considerations of privilege — courts have generally limited a party’s ability to withhold nonresponsive or irrelevant material, providing a few lessons for discovery strategy, say attorneys at Sidley.
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Opinion
Section 1983 Has Promise After End Of Nationwide Injunctions
After the U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down the practice of nationwide injunctions in Trump v. Casa, Section 1983 civil rights suits can provide a better pathway to hold the government accountable — but this will require reforms to qualified immunity, says Marc Levin at the Council on Criminal Justice.
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Reel Justice: 'Oh, Hi!' Teaches Attys To Return To The Statute
The new dark comedy film “Oh, Hi!” — depicting a romantic vacation that turns into an inadvertent kidnapping — should remind criminal practitioners to always reread the statute to avoid assumptions, meet their ethical duties and finesse their trial strategy, says Veronica Finkelstein at Wilmington University School of Law.
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Patent Ambiguity Persists After Justices Nix Eligibility Appeal
The Supreme Court recently declined to revisit the contentious framework governing patent eligibility by denying certiorari in Audio Evolution Diagnostics v. U.S., suggesting a necessary recalibration of both patent application and litigation strategies, say attorneys at Skadden.
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Justices' Decision Axing Retiree's ADA Claim Offers Clarity
The U.S. Supreme Court's holding in Stanley v. City of Sanford that protections under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act don't extend to retirees potentially limits liability by giving employers additional support to challenge complaints, and highlights the need for proactive policy management to mitigate risk, say attorneys at Jackson Lewis.
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Fed. Circ. In June: Transitional Phrases In Patent Claims
The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Eye Therapies v. Slayback Pharma takes on the rarely addressed topic of transitional phrases in patent claims, providing some useful lessons regarding restating claim language and broadly distinguishing prior art, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.
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Series
Playing Soccer Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Soccer has become a key contributor to how I approach my work, and the lessons I’ve learned on the pitch about leadership, adaptability, resilience and communication make me better at what I do every day in my legal career, says Whitney O’Byrne at MoFo.
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What To Do When Congress And DOJ Both Come Knocking
As recently seen in the news, clients may find themselves facing parallel U.S. Department of Justice and congressional investigations, requiring a comprehensive response that considers the different challenges posed by each, say attorneys at Friedman Kaplan.
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Series
Law School's Missed Lessons: Learning From Failure
While law school often focuses on the importance of precision, correctness and perfection, mistakes are inevitable in real-world practice — but failure is not the opposite of progress, and real talent comes from the ability to recover, rethink and reshape, says Brooke Pauley at Tucker Ellis.
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Eye Drop Ruling Clarifies Importance Of Patent Phrasing
The Federal Circuit's recent ruling in Eye Therapies v. Slayback, rejecting the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's interpretation of "consisting essentially of," highlights the importance of using clear and consistent terms throughout a patent's filing history to shield it against future challenges, says Liliana Di Nola-Baron at Panitch Schwarze.