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Appellate
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September 10, 2025
11th Circ. Tosses Gun Conviction Over Alabama Loophole
The Eleventh Circuit on Wednesday threw out the conviction of an Alabama man charged with illegally having a gun after a prior felony, ruling that because the state offense to which he pled guilty did not require imprisonment, it did not trigger the federal firearm ban for felons.
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September 10, 2025
Fed. Circ. Won't Revisit Double-Patenting, Soda TM Appeals
The Federal Circuit on Wednesday declined to revisit its decisions in a trio of intellectual property cases, including one where it upheld an Acadia Pharmaceuticals Parkinson's disease drug patent and addressed double-patenting, and another deeming "Kist" and "Sunkist" soft drink marks confusingly similar.
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September 10, 2025
Pa. Court Upholds Defense Verdict In Throat Surgery Suit
The Pennsylvania Superior Court on Wednesday affirmed a jury verdict in favor of an anesthesiologist accused of causing a patient's trachea tear following throat surgery, saying the doctor's expert witness didn't introduce new testimony at trial.
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September 10, 2025
Denver Fights $14M Verdict Over Protester Abuse Claims
A Tenth Circuit panel pressed both sides Wednesday over whether jurors should have heard testimony from an investigator that Denver says unfairly tainted a trial which yielded a nearly $14 million verdict to 12 protesters over clashes with police during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in the city.
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September 10, 2025
Cannabis Co. Says Battle With Activists Was Tossed Too Soon
A multistate cannabis company told a New Jersey state appeals court on Wednesday that its lawsuit against local opponents of a cultivation facility was prematurely dismissed, while the activists countered that the case amounted to a strategic lawsuit against public participation cloaked in land-use litigation.
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September 10, 2025
2nd Circ. OKs Verizon's $47M FCC Fine, Splitting With 5th Circ.
The Second Circuit upheld Wednesday the Federal Communications Commission's $46.9 million fine against Verizon Communications Inc. for misuse of device-location data, rejecting Verizon's arguments that the data falls outside federal privacy protections and that such a penalty without a jury trial was unconstitutional, creating a split with the Fifth Circuit.
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September 10, 2025
NC Justice Probes 'Scalia-Style' View Of Waste Fee Law
A North Carolina Supreme Court justice probed the expansiveness of counsel's argument over a county's solid waste ordinance Wednesday, wondering if channeling a "Justice Scalia"-style reading of the text suggests that a property owner could hire a private waste collector just once a year to sidestep an annual fee.
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September 10, 2025
En Banc 11th Circ. Ruling Hints At Broad Reach For Skrmetti
The Eleventh Circuit invoking a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that backed a Tennessee ban on gender-affirming care for minors to rule against a transgender Georgia sheriff's deputy who challenged her health plan's coverage exclusions invites lower courts to import the justices' rationale into workplace discrimination cases, experts say.
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September 10, 2025
Ga. Stroke Patient Seeks New Trial Over Misdiagnosis Claims
A woman who says that an emergency room doctor at an Atlanta-area hospital failed to diagnose her stroke in time to save her from lifelong brain damage urged the Georgia Court of Appeals Wednesday to grant her a new trial, telling the court that "the record is absolutely silent" about the doctor's purported ordering of exams that might have turned the tide.
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September 10, 2025
Ga. Panel Says Privilege Can Cover Unlicensed In-House Atty
The Georgia Court of Appeals said a trial court rightly found that Church's Chicken and its chief legal officer were protected by attorney-client privilege in a franchisee's contract suit, finding privilege can sometimes cover communications between a corporation and unlicensed in-house counsel.
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September 10, 2025
6th Circ. Splits In Racial Bias Suit Over Hearsay Evidence
A divided Sixth Circuit panel upheld an elevator manufacturer's defeat of a former employee's retaliation suit Wednesday, saying a human resources representative's secondhand statement about the reason for the employee's termination was correctly kept out of the case.
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September 10, 2025
Del. Justices Urged To Revive $10.5B Zendesk Deal Challenge
An attorney for stockholders of software-as-a-service business Zendesk Inc. told Delaware's Supreme Court Wednesday that a conflict at the heart of a challenge to the company's $10.5 billion take-private deal with a private equity consortium was undisclosed at the time of its approval.
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September 10, 2025
State AGs Back Trans Worker In Liberty U.'s 4th Circ. Appeal
A group of 19 states and Washington, D.C., urged the Fourth Circuit to back a trial court's decision to keep a former Liberty University employee's transgender bias case in court, arguing the religious university's interpretation of the First Amendment would decimate anti-discrimination efforts.
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September 10, 2025
Md. Appeals Court Says Psychoactive Hemp Wares Illegal
A Maryland appeals court on Tuesday ruled that products containing psychoactive compounds derived from hemp are illegal, delivering a blow to a coalition of hemp interests that brought a constitutional challenge to the state's recreational marijuana legalization law.
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September 10, 2025
Texas Panel Says Expert Not Qualified In Facelift Suit
A panel of the Texas appellate court has excluded an expert report offered by a woman suing her plastic surgeon over an allegedly botched facelift, saying the anesthesiologist did not establish that he is qualified to opine on the surgery and claims in question.
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September 10, 2025
3rd Circ. Questions NJ's Bid To Block Kalshi's Sports Bets
The Third Circuit seemed prepared on Wednesday to block New Jersey from enforcing a sports gambling ban on trading platform KalshiEx, with at least one judge arguing the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's authority to regulate the event contracts space "seems quite broad."
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September 10, 2025
FTC Warns Healthcare Employers About Noncompetes
The Federal Trade Commission has sent letters warning healthcare employers and staffing companies not to include overly broad noncompete restrictions in their employment contracts and urged them to conduct a review to ensure they comply with the law.
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September 10, 2025
Biz Groups Ask 4th Circ. To Revisit Ethylene Oxide Class Suit
Business groups have urged the Fourth Circuit to reconsider a recent ruling that allowed a West Virginia woman's proposed class action to proceed against Union Carbide Corp. and Covestro LLC over ethylene oxide exposure, arguing that she doesn't have ground for her medical-monitoring claims.
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September 10, 2025
Fla. Panel Says State's Open-Carry Ban Is Unconstitutional
A Florida appeals court on Wednesday unanimously struck down a state law that restricted the open carry of firearms, saying the statute was incompatible with the Second Amendment because it was at odds with a "historical tradition of firearms regulation" in the U.S.
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September 10, 2025
Meet The Attys Now Fighting Judge Newman's Suspension
Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman's main attorney in the fight against her suspension from the appeals court has departed from the New Civil Liberties Alliance, leaving his former colleagues to head the litigation.
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September 10, 2025
Ohio Appeals Court Orders Retrial For Invalid Jury Trial Waiver
A state appeals court in Ohio has ruled that a pro se appellant accused of double murder and a weapons charge must be retried because he was unfairly denied a jury trial without verbally waiving his rights in open court.
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September 10, 2025
4th Circ. Hears Neb. Tribe's Fight For Children's Repatriation
The U.S. Army can't say that the remains of two children entombed in a former Pennsylvania Indian boarding school are not part of a collection or holding, counsel for a Nebraska tribe told a Fourth Circuit panel on Wednesday in seeking the return of the remains to their tribe, arguing that they were buried and re-buried without tribal consent.
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September 10, 2025
CORRECTED: Fla. Court Affirms $131M Judgment For Trinidad And Tobago
A Florida appeals court Wednesday affirmed a $131 million judgment against a trio of businessmen a jury found conspired to defraud the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago out of more than $32 million in a bid-rigging scheme that involved the government awarding hyperinflated airport construction contracts.
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September 10, 2025
Texas Justices Wary Of Shifting Franchise Tax Calculation
The Texas Supreme Court on Wednesday pushed an energy company to explain why the Texas tax code would make it eligible for a refund for bunker oil sold in the Lone Star State, asking where it should look in the law to create a "destination test" for state franchise taxes.
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September 10, 2025
Broadcom Urges Fed. Circ. To Undo Netflix's Patent Wins
Broadcom has told the Federal Circuit that a California federal judge wrongly invalidated two data patents it asserted against Netflix, saying the judge erred in finding that the patents cover steps that could be carried out by a traffic cop or a 19th century switchboard operator.
Expert Analysis
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NCAA Settlement Kicks Off New Era For Student-Athlete NIL
A landmark settlement stemming from 15 years of litigation between schools and the NCAA reflects a major development in college athletics by securing compensation for usage of student-athletes' names, images and likenesses, and schools hoping to take advantage of new opportunities should take proactive steps to comply with new rules, say attorneys at Manatt.
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7th Circ. Insurance Ruling Resolves Major Jurisdictional Issue
The Seventh Circuit recently confirmed in StarStone Insurance v. Chicago that attorney fees and costs paid as part of a settlement are covered — while unexpectedly raising and answering a question of first impression about federal jurisdiction over foreign entities, says Lara Langeneckert at Barnes & Thornburg.
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DOJ May Rethink Banning Firearms For Marijuana Users
In light of various federal circuit court decisions and an executive order from President Donald Trump, U.S. Department of Justice enforcement policy now may be on the verge of changing decidedly in favor of marijuana users' gun rights, and could foreshadow additional marijuana-friendly reforms, says Jacob Raver at Dentons.
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EDNY Ruling May Limit Some FARA Conspiracy Charges
Though the Eastern District of New York’s recent U.S. v. Sun decision upheld Foreign Agents Registration Act charges against a former aide to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, its recognition of an affirmative legislative policy to exempt some officials may help defendants charged with related conspiracies, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.
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9th Circ. Has Muddied Waters Of Article III Pleading Standard
District courts in the Ninth Circuit continue to apply a defunct and especially forgiving pleading standard to questions of Article III standing, and the circuit court itself has only perpetuated this confusion — making it an attractive forum for disputes that have no rightful place in federal court, say attorneys at Gibson Dunn.
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Fla. Workers' Comp Ruling Ups Bar For Emotional Injury Suits
A Florida appellate court’s recent opinion in Steak 'N Shake v. Spears requires that employees solely claiming emotional distress seek workers’ compensation before suing their employers, closing a potential loophole and reducing the potential proliferation of such disputes in Florida courts, says Rob Rogers at Kirwin Norris.
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Contract Disputes Recap: Spearin, Overpayments, Jurisdiction
Edward Arnold at Seyfarth examines three recent decisions addressing the limits of the Spearin doctrine in design-build contracts, the government's ability to recoup overpayments after a termination for convenience, and the Contract Disputes Act's strict and nonwaivable jurisdictional rules.
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What Calif. Appeals Split Means For Litigating PAGA Claims
After two recent California state appeals court rulings diverged on whether a former employee with untimely individual claims under the Private Attorneys General Act can maintain a representative action, practitioners' strategic agility will be key to managing risk and achieving favorable outcomes in PAGA litigation, say attorneys at Buchalter.
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Series
Competing In Modern Pentathlon Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Opening myself up to new experiences through competing in modern Olympic pentathlon has shrunk the appearance of my daily work annoyances and helps me improve my patience, manage crises better and remember that acquiring new skills requires working through your early mistakes, says attorney Mary Zoldak.
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NY Case Shows How LLC Agreements Can Be Amended
The New York Court of Appeals in Behler v. Tao recently held that a merger clause contained in an amended limited liability company agreement superseded and extinguished an alleged oral agreement between the parties, highlighting the importance of determining early how and when an LLC agreement may be amended, says Kerrin Klein at Olshan Frome.
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If Justices Accept, Maxwell Case May Clarify Meaning Of 'US'
If the U.S. Supreme Court agrees to take up Ghislaine Maxwell’s appeal, it could clarify the meaning of “United States” in the context of plea agreements, and a plain language interpretation of the term would offer criminal defendants fairness and finality, say attorneys at Kudman Trachten.
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The State Of Play In Copyright Protection For Floor Plans
With questions over copyright protections for floor plans potentially teed up in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, attorneys in the real estate industry should take steps to clarify and strengthen clients' rights and reduce the risk of litigation, says Dylan I. Scher at Quinn Emanuel.
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Series
Law School's Missed Lessons: Teaching Yourself Legal Tech
New graduates often enter practice unfamiliar with even basic professional software, but budding lawyers can use on-the-job opportunities to both catch up on technological skills and explore the advanced legal and artificial intelligence tools that will open doors, says Alyssa Sones at Sheppard Mullin.
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Opinion
Legacy Of 3 Justices Should Guide Transgender Rights Ruling
Three Republican-appointed U.S. Supreme Court justices — Anthony Kennedy, Sandra Day O'Connor and David Souter — gave rise to a jurisprudence of personal liberty that courts today invoke to protect gender-affirming care, and with the court now poised to decide U.S. v. Skrmetti, it must follow the path that they set, says Greg Fosheim at McDermott.
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How IPR Estoppel Ruling May Clash With PTAB Landscape
Though the Federal Circuit's narrowing of inter partes review estoppel in Ingenico v. Ioengine might encourage more petitions, tougher standards for discretionary denial established by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office could be a counterbalancing factor, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.