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Appellate
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May 21, 2025
Pa. Justices To Mull State DOT Liability For Hanging Branches
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court will decide if the state Department of Transportation should be immune to wrongful-death claims stemming from a large tree branch that overhung a PennDOT road but grew from a tree on land owned by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, the court announced Wednesday.
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May 21, 2025
Democrats Wary of Nominees' Pledge To Honor Court Orders
Nominees for top roles at the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security fended off questions from Democrats on Wednesday about the Trump administration's willingness to defy court orders and pledged that the White House would at least follow rulings of the Supreme Court.
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May 21, 2025
NRA Asks Justices To End Fla.'s Age Limit On Gun Sales
The National Rifle Association is taking its fight against Florida's prohibition on gun sales to anyone under 21 up to the U.S. Supreme Court, telling the justices that a circuit split makes the Eleventh Circuit's March decision upholding the ban ripe for review.
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May 21, 2025
DOGE Seeks High Court's Help In Ducking FOIA Discovery
The Department of Government Efficiency asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to halt discovery into whether it's an agency subject to Freedom of Information Act requests, arguing a Washington, D.C., federal judge has improperly authorized a "fishing expedition" into the internal workings of a presidential advisory entity.
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May 21, 2025
Clerk Shouldn't Have Deemed Injury Suit Late, Pa. Court Rules
The Pennsylvania Superior Court ruled in a precedential opinion that a county prothonotary clerk did not have the authority to reject an injury lawsuit against a resort as lacking the proper signatures or as untimely after the filing sat in the courthouse for five days, with the appellate court reviving the case for further proceedings.
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May 21, 2025
NC Panel Sides With County In Builder's Service Fee Spat
North Carolina's intermediate appeals court on Wednesday backed a county's interpretation of an ordinance allowing it to collect water service fees from a homebuilder, reasoning that the builder's residential neighborhood is a "new development" subject to the law.
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May 21, 2025
11th Circ. Lets Man Seek Rare Writ To Fight $21M Restitution
A former payroll director serving time for defrauding hospitals in an employment tax scheme can challenge his $21 million restitution by pursuing a rare legal remedy, the Eleventh Circuit ruled, saying the fact that he's in custody doesn't make him ineligible to apply.
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May 21, 2025
Fed. Circ. Rules 'Vetements' Generic, Bars Clothing TM
The Federal Circuit affirmed the denial of trademark registrations for "Vetements" for clothes, saying in a precedential opinion Wednesday that because the word means clothing in French, the applied-for marks are generic and therefore can't be registered.
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May 21, 2025
Democracy Forward Adds Another Ex-DOJ Hand
Legal advocacy group Democracy Forward has added a former deputy associate U.S. attorney general and co-chair of the Supreme Court and appellate practice at WilmerHale to its ranks of former U.S. Department of Justice litigators.
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May 21, 2025
Fla. Atty Says NC Bar Has No Power To Discipline Him
A Florida attorney facing claims he filed a baseless suit to collect attorney fees for his former firm from a pair of intellectually disabled brothers whom his ex-partner defrauded told the North Carolina state appeals court that the state bar has no jurisdiction to bring an enforcement action against him.
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May 20, 2025
'Not A Denny's': 5th Circ. Judge Chides High Court Stopwatch
The Fifth Circuit on Tuesday expedited a case brought by Venezuelans who are accused of being gang members and who are challenging the use of a 1798 wartime law to deport them to an El Salvador prison, with one judge chastising the U.S. Supreme Court's majority for allowing the appeal to move forward.
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May 20, 2025
Subpoena For Alleged Trans Care Must Stand, Texas Says
A Texas appeals court on Tuesday pressed the state to explain why the principle of sovereign immunity should stop patients who potentially received gender affirming care from trying to block a subpoena, saying during oral arguments a challenge to a subpoena seems to fall outside sovereign immunity.
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May 20, 2025
Barclays Officials Beat Shareholder's Suit At NY High Court
New York's highest court on Tuesday rejected arguments that current and former officials of London-based Barclays PLC can be sued under New York law over a series of scandals that have rocked the bank, a decision that sparked rebuke from the court's chief judge.
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May 20, 2025
Split 5th Circ. Clears Ex-Texas Tech Dean In Free Speech Suit
A split Fifth Circuit panel ruled Tuesday that the qualified immunity doctrine shields a former Texas Tech University business school dean from First Amendment claims brought by a professor who alleged he was retaliated against for his anti-tenure views, while a dissenting judge criticized the majority for their truncated qualified-immunity analysis.
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May 20, 2025
4th Circ. Says Suit Over Copter Pilot's Death Must Go To Jury
The Fourth Circuit has reinstated a lawsuit by the widow of a crop-dusting pilot who crashed after his helicopter became tangled in a steel cable stretched over the property, ruling in a published opinion issued Monday that a jury must be the one to decide whether the landlord should have known that the wire posed a danger to the pilot.
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May 20, 2025
DC Circ. Won't Revive Okla. Tribe's Creek Land Dispute
The D.C. Circuit on Tuesday affirmed the dismissal of an Oklahoma tribe's challenge to a decision that rejected its proposed liquor ordinance in a dispute over shared jurisdiction with the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, agreeing with the district court that the complaint failed to identify a valid cause of action that entitles relief.
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May 20, 2025
Dem Lawmakers Reintroduce Supreme Court Ethics Bill
Two Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday reintroduced bills in the House and Senate that would require the U.S. Supreme Court to adopt a binding ethics code and create new recusal and disclosure standards for the nine justices.
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May 20, 2025
UPS Can't Escape $75M Crash Award To Brain-Damaged Baby
A Missouri appellate panel on Tuesday affirmed a jury's $65 million verdict plus about $10 million in interest in a suit accusing United Parcel Service of negligently causing a car crash resulting in a baby's brain damage, saying evidence regarding the driver's history of drug abuse was properly allowed.
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May 20, 2025
Full 11th Circ. Asked To Review Case Of Fla. Lodge Shooting
A Virginia insurer petitioned for a full Eleventh Circuit panel hearing to review a three-judge opinion holding that a jury should decide whether it was in bad faith to not settle a case of a woman who was killed in a Florida lodge shooting, saying the ruling could make insurance more expensive.
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May 20, 2025
Assessing The Design Patent Impact Of LKQ, One Year Later
It's been one year since the full Federal Circuit's LKQ v. GM decision threw out longstanding tests for determining if design patents are invalid as obvious, and attorneys say it's too soon to tell if the ruling will change invalidity results, but it has reshaped legal strategies.
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May 20, 2025
Ga. Panel Says Affidavit Won't Sink Couple's Surgery Suit
The Georgia Court of Appeals rejected Southern Regional Medical Center and one of its nurses' arguments that a trial court should have tossed a married couple's lawsuit over injuries stemming from a hysterectomy over their failure to attach a required affidavit to their complaint.
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May 20, 2025
4th Circ. Won't Revive Md. Retirees' Drug Benefits Case
The Fourth Circuit backed Maryland's defeat of a proposed class action alleging it broke promises made to retirees when it transitioned their prescription drug benefits to Medicare Part D, saying Tuesday that a lower court was right to toss the case.
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May 20, 2025
Wash. Panel Affirms Toss Of Vrbo Host's Rental Coverage Row
Washington appellate judges refused to revive a Vrbo host's suit against a Liberty Mutual unit and a company that arranged a policyholder's temporary housing while her home was being repaired, saying the companies did not breach a nonexistent contract with the host by ceasing to pay the policyholder's rent.
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May 20, 2025
The Alien Enemies Act Cases: A Roundup
Litigation over President Donald Trump’s March 14 proclamation invoking the 1798 Alien Enemies Act has moved at breakneck speed, spurring two U.S. Supreme Court decisions already while at least five different districts weigh his authority to invoke the wartime law. Here, Law360 catches you up on major developments in the litigation.
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May 20, 2025
9th Circ. Says Dad Didn't Show Sons' Hardships If Deported
The Ninth Circuit on Tuesday rejected a Mexican father's bid for deportation relief based on extreme hardships he claimed his sons would face if they accompanied him to Mexico, saying in a published opinion that substantial evidence suggested otherwise.
Expert Analysis
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2nd Circ. Ruling May Aid Consistent Interpretation Of ADA
In Tudor v. Whitehall Central School District, the Second Circuit joined the majority of circuits by holding that an employee's ability to perform their job without an accommodation does not disqualify them from receiving one, marking a notable step toward uniform application of the Americans with Disabilities Act nationwide, says Michelle Grant at Wilson Elser.
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EPA's Proposed GHG Reform Could Hinder Climate Regulation
The Trump administration will reconsider the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's landmark 2009 greenhouse gas endangerment finding, which could leave the U.S. federal government with no statutory authority whatsoever to regulate climate change or greenhouse gas emissions, says David Smith at Manatt.
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Perspectives
Power To The Paralegals: The Value Of Unified State Licensing
Texas' proposal to become the latest state to license paraprofessional providers of limited legal services could help firms expand their reach and improve access to justice, but consumers, attorneys and allied legal professionals would benefit even more if similar programs across the country become more uniform, says Michael Houlberg at the University of Denver.
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Fed. Circ. In March: Forfeiting Claim Construction On Appeal
The Federal Circuit's decision in Wash World v. Belanger last month confirms the importance of fair notice to the district court when determining forfeiture of an argument on appeal in the context of patent claim construction, allowing appellants to better gauge the appropriate framing of arguments that may be presented, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.
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1st Circ. Ruling May Slow SEC Retail Investment Advice Cases
The First Circuit's recent ruling, finding the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission did not substantiate its $93.3 million fine against a retail investment adviser, may raise the threshold on materiality findings in these cases and add a speed bump resulting in fewer such actions, say attorneys at Weil.
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10 Soft Skills Every GC Should Master
As businesses face shifting regulatory and technological uncertainty, general counsel will need to strengthen certain soft skills to succeed, from admitting when they make a mistake to maintaining a healthy dose of dispassion, says Douglas Brown at Manatt.
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6 Criteria Can Help Assess Executive Branch Actions
With new executive policy changes announced seemingly every day, several questions can help courts, policymakers and businesses determine whether such actions are proper, effective and in keeping with our democratic norms, say Marc Levin and Khalil Cumberbatch at the Council on Criminal Justice.
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Fed Circ.'s PTAB Ruling Highlights Obsolete Rationale
The Federal Circuit's recent decision in In re: Riggs shines a new light on its 2015 decision in Dynamic Drinkware v. National Graphics, and raises questions about why the claim support requirement established by Dynamic Drinkware exists at all, say attorneys at Patterson Belknap.
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Traversing The Shifting Sands Of ESG Reporting Compliance
Multinational corporations have increasingly found themselves between a rock and a hard place attempting to comply with EU and California ESG requirements while not running afoul of expanding U.S. anti-ESG regimes, but focusing on what is material to shareholder value and establishing strong governance can help, say attorneys at MoFo.
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An Unrestrained, Bright-Eyed View Of Legal AI's Future
Todd Itami at Covington offers a bright-eyed, laughing-all-the-way, skydive look at what the legal industry could look like after an artificial intelligence revolution, which he believes may happen much sooner and more dramatically than we expect.
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Tracking The Evolution In Litigation Finance
Despite continued innovation, litigation finance remains an immature market with borrowers recieving significantly different terms as lenders learn to value cases, which firms need a strong handle on to ensure lending terms do not overwhelm collateral value, says Robert Wilkins at Lightfoot Franklin.
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Addressing Antitrust Scrutiny Over AI-Powered Pricing Tools
Amid multiple recent civil complaints alleging antitrust violations by providers and users of algorithmic pricing tools, such as RealPage and Yardi, digital-era measures should feature prominently in corporate compliance programs, including documentation of pro-competitive benefits and when to use disclosures, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Opinion
In Vape Case, Justices Must Focus On Agencies' Results
With the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in U.S. Food and Drug Administration v. Wages and White Lion Investments having put off the question of whether agency decisions arrived at erroneously are always invalid, the court should give the results of agency actions more weight than the reasoning behind them when it revisits this case, says Jonathan Sheffield at Loyola University Chicago School of Law.
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Series
Volunteer Firefighting Makes Me A Better Lawyer
While practicing corporate law and firefighting may appear incongruous, the latter benefits my legal career by reminding me of the importance of humility, perspective and education, says Nicholas Passaro at Ford.
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Takeaways From Alaska Justices' Pollution Exclusion Ruling
A recent Alaska Supreme Court ruling that a total pollution exclusion in a homeowners policy didn't bar coverage for carbon monoxide poisoning shows that even when policy language appears unambiguous on its face, courts can still consider the reasonable expectations of an insured to determine applicability, say attorneys at Hunton.