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Appellate

  • July 18, 2025

    Meet The New Georgia Supreme Court Justice

    The Georgia Supreme Court's incoming justice, Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Benjamin A. Land, touted his judicial restraint in a panel decision he authored that was later affirmed by the state's justices, while attorneys who've worked with him as a trial lawyer say he's "the most prepared lawyer in the courtroom."

  • July 18, 2025

    4th Circ. Backs $9M Classification Ruling Against Staffing Co.

    A split Fourth Circuit panel will not scrap a $9 million judgment against a medical staffing company that the U.S. Department of Labor won in a suit alleging the company misclassified more than 1,000 nurses.

  • July 18, 2025

    Trump Asks Supreme Court To Decline Early Tariff Challenge

    President Donald Trump's administration urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reject a request from Illinois-based toy makers to hear their challenge against the White House's global tariffs, arguing the justices should not "leapfrog" parallel proceedings in circuit courts.

  • July 18, 2025

    Judge Unsure Of Alternatives To Nationwide Birthright Ruling

    A Massachusetts federal judge on Friday wrestled with how the government would implement any alternatives to a nationwide block on President Donald Trump's order limiting birthright citizenship and what type of decision would comply with recent high court precedent.

  • July 18, 2025

    DC Circ. Backs Crowley In GSA Audit Powers Fight

    The General Services Administration lacked authority to audit bills Crowley Government Services Inc. submitted under a freight contract with U.S. Transportation Command since the company was not operating as a carrier, a split D.C. Circuit panel ruled Friday.

  • July 18, 2025

    Top 5 Energy Decisions Of 2025: A Midyear Report

    A game-changing U.S. Supreme Court ruling that could significantly narrow federal environmental reviews of energy projects punctuated a busy first half of 2025 for the industry in the courts. Here are several court decisions that stood out for energy attorneys in the first half of this year.

  • July 18, 2025

    2nd Circ. Shields Official From NRA's Free Speech Suit Again

    A Second Circuit panel has said National Rifle Association's First Amendment lawsuit cannot survive a motion to dismiss because the former New York official accused of pressuring financial institutions to cut ties with the organization has qualified immunity.

  • July 18, 2025

    9th Circ. Turns Away Wells Fargo's 'Sham' Hiring Appeal

    The Ninth Circuit has said it will not hear Wells Fargo's appeal of an investor lawsuit accusing the company of conducting "sham" job interviews to meet a diversity quota, allowing thousands of shareholders to move forward with their claims as a class.

  • July 17, 2025

    Fla. High Court Affirms Congressional Map In Voter Suit

    Florida's Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the new congressional map for the northern part of the state that voter groups claimed is illegal and eliminated a majority Black voting district, saying in a split decision that the district demanded by the civic organizations is unconstitutional.

  • July 17, 2025

    9th Circ. Panel Appears Split On Trump Order Curbing Unions

    A three-judge Ninth Circuit panel appeared divided Thursday on a lower court's ruling that halted enforcement of President Donald Trump's executive order axing labor contracts covering agencies that have "national security" aims, with one judge expressing concern over the order's implications while two questioned if they can second-guess the president's determination.

  • July 17, 2025

    2nd Circ. Overturns Ex-HSBC Exec's 2017 Fraud Conviction

    The Second Circuit on Thursday overturned the conviction of a former HSBC executive accused of defrauding a Scottish oil and gas company in a $3.5 billion currency exchange deal, finding his jury was improperly instructed on a now-invalid "right-to-control" theory of fraud.

  • July 17, 2025

    Thrivent Challenges SEC Over FINRA Arbitration Rules

    Financial services giant Thrivent has filed a petition in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals seeking to force the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to review three rules adopted by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority that give the agency exclusive jurisdiction over arbitration disputes between brokers and their customers.

  • July 17, 2025

    Dallas Can Fight AG To Keep Records, Appeals Court Says

    A Texas appeals court gave the city of Dallas another shot at keeping records of alleged housing discrimination away from the public, saying Thursday that the city challenged an order to release the records from the Texas attorney general in time to pursue its suit.

  • July 17, 2025

    Colo. Court Clarifies Virtual Hearing Rights For Defendants

    The Colorado Court of Appeals said Thursday that judges must provide criminal defendants with proper advisements before issuing sentences via the court's video interfacing service, Webex, but found a judge's error in the case at hand didn't cause any harm.

  • July 17, 2025

    7th Circ. Signs Off On Searches Tied To Convictions

    The Seventh Circuit has ruled that a warrant used to charge two men with cocaine trafficking and felony weapons crimes was valid and that a lower court was correct to allow the evidence turned up in the search to be presented at trial.

  • July 17, 2025

    7th Circ. Gives Man Second Shot To Argue Search Was Illegal

    A man who pled guilty to drug and weapons charges when an Illinois federal court refused to suppress evidence against him must get another shot at arguing that officers found the contraband during an illegal search, the Seventh Circuit ruled Thursday.

  • July 17, 2025

    11th Circ. Says Ex-Quest Diagnostics Worker's FCA Suit Fails

    The Eleventh Circuit declined to revive a former Quest Diagnostics Inc. compliance officer's False Claims Act suit against the lab testing company, ruling she had failed to allege a specific claim of medical billing fraud after some 15 years of litigation.

  • July 17, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Scraps $21M IP Win For 'Comfy' Sweatshirt Maker

    The Federal Circuit on Thursday overturned a more than $21 million judgment against Top Brand LLC for infringing Cozy Comfort Co.'s design patent and trademarks on its "The Comfy" sweatshirt featured on "Shark Tank," saying no reasonable jury could have found infringement.

  • July 17, 2025

    Uber Asks Ga. Justices To Reverse Sales Tax Ruling

    Georgia's highest court should review and reverse an appellate panel's decision that Uber was required to collect and remit millions in sales taxes on behalf of drivers and customers who used its app before the Wayfair decision, the ride-hailing company told the state's justices.

  • July 17, 2025

    Russia Claims Immunity In $34M Crimea Award Suit

    Russia is pressing the D.C. Circuit to overturn what it calls an "unprecedented" decision greenlighting litigation to enforce a more than $34 million arbitral award issued to Ukrainian gas companies that operated in Crimea, saying Wednesday that its sovereign immunity defense wasn't adequately weighed.

  • July 17, 2025

    Fla. High Court Revives UF Student's COVID-19 Suit

    The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday revived a University of Florida student's lawsuit over cancellation of on-campus services during the COVID-19 pandemic, ruling that sovereign immunity does not automatically block the student's breach-of-contract claims.

  • July 17, 2025

    FCC Asks 5th Circ. To Reinstate $57M AT&T Data Privacy Fine

    The Federal Communications Commission is asking for the full Fifth Circuit to take up an April panel decision finding the commission's in-house adjudications unconstitutional, arguing that a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision "effectively abrogated" the precedent that the panel ruling for AT&T was partly predicated on.

  • July 17, 2025

    How A NJ Clergy Abuse Probe Will Reshape Defense Strategy

    The New Jersey Supreme Court has cleared the way for a grand jury to investigate clergy abuse claims, bringing forward a rarely used prosecution tool that experts say will have reverberations on the strategies taken by lawyers representing powerful individuals and institutions even beyond the Catholic Church.

  • July 17, 2025

    NC Justices Urged To Let Property Foreclose In Debt Fight

    A company on the cusp of wrapping up the foreclosure sale of a Cornelius, North Carolina, land tract that is planned to be part of a larger mixed-use development has implored the state Supreme Court not to temporarily stay the sale.

  • July 17, 2025

    6 Cases For Patent Attys To Watch In The Second Half Of 2025

    The Federal Circuit is considering major questions about when delays in prosecuting patents become bad faith and whether the acting U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director is legally allowed to apply new rules retroactively. Here's what you need to know about these cases and others that attorneys are keeping an eye on for the rest of the year.

Expert Analysis

  • Justices Rethink Minimum Contacts For Foreign Entities

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    Two recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, Devas v. Antrix and Fuld v. Palestine Liberation Organization, suggest that federal statutes may confer personal jurisdiction over foreign entities that have little to no contact with the U.S. — a significant departure from traditional due process principles, says Gary Shaw at Pillsbury.

  • Opinion

    High Court Must Overrule Outdated Patent Eligibility Doctrine

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    A certiorari petition should directly ask the U.S. Supreme Court to correct its 1972 patent decision in Gottschalk v. Benson, the critical point where patent eligibility law veered from the statutory text toward judicial policymaking, says Robert Greenspoon at Dunlap Bennett.

  • Examining TCPA Jurisprudence A Year After Loper Bright

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    One year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Chevron deference in Loper Bright v. Raimondo, lower court decisions demonstrate that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act will continue to evolve as long-standing interpretations of the act are analyzed with a fresh lens, says Aaron Gallardo at Kilpatrick.

  • Gauging The Risky Business Of Business Risk Disclosures

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    With the recent rise of securities fraud actions based on external events — like a data breach or environmental disaster — that drive down stock prices, risk disclosures have become more of a sword for the plaintiffs bar than a shield for public companies, now the subject of a growing circuit split, say attorneys at A&O Shearman.

  • How Justices' Ruling Limits Options To Challenge DHS Orders

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    In Riley v. Bondi, the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that a 30-day deadline for challenging deportation orders begins when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issues a final administrative review order, opening the door for the government to effectively bar circuit court review in future similar cases, says Kevin Gregg at Kurzban Kurzban.

  • Series

    Playing The Violin Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Playing violin in a string quartet reminds me that flexibility, ambition, strong listening skills, thoughtful leadership and intentional collaboration are all keys to a successful legal practice, says Julie Park at MoFo.

  • Purdue Case Could Transform Patent Obviousness Analyses

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    If accepted for review by the U.S. Supreme Court, Purdue Pharma v. Accord Healthcare — concerning whether Purdue's abuse-deterrent opioid formulation patents were invalid as obvious — could significantly shift how courts weigh secondary considerations in patent obviousness analyses, say attorneys at Lathrop.

  • NM Cyber Ruling Will Spur Litigation As Coverage Remedy

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    In Kane v. Beazley, the New Mexico Court of Appeals recently found that a cyber liability provision insuring security breaches included coverage for funds transfer fraud, implicitly and incorrectly motivating policyholders to commence litigation to avoid contractual limitations on cyber coverages, say attorneys at Zelle.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Practicing Self-Care

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    Law schools don’t teach the mental, physical and emotional health maintenance tools necessary to deal with the profession's many demands, but practicing self-care is an important key to success that can help to improve focus, manage stress and reduce burnout, says Rachel Leonard​​​​​​​ at MG+M.

  • Texas' Cactus Ruling Clarifies 'Produced Water' Rules

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    The Texas Supreme Court's decision in Cactus Water Services v. COG Operating, holding that mineral interest lessees have the rights to water extracted alongside oil and gas, should benefit industry players by clarifying the rules — but it leaves important questions about royalties unresolved, say attorneys at Yetter Coleman.

  • ABA Opinion Makes It A Bit Easier To Drop A 'Hot Potato'

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    The American Bar Association's recent ethics opinion clarifies when attorneys may terminate clients without good cause, though courts may still disqualify a lawyer who drops a client like a hot potato, so sending a closeout letter is always a best practice, say attorneys at Thompson Hine.

  • How Political Divisions Are Stalling Pa. Energy Development

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    Despite possessing the nation's second-largest natural gas reserves and a legacy of energy infrastructure, Pennsylvania faces a fragmented and politically charged path to developing the energy resources it will need in the future, thanks to legislative gridlock, divided public opinion and competing energy interests, says Andrew Levine at Stradley Ronon.

  • How High Court Ruling Can Aid Judgment Enforcement In US

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    In CC/Devas (Mauritius) v. Antrix, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that only two steps are required to keep a foreign sovereign in federal court, making it a little easier for investors to successfully bring foreign states and sovereign-owned and -controlled entities into U.S. courts, says Kristie Blase at Felicello Law.

  • What High Court's Tenn. Trans Care Ruling Means Nationally

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in U.S. v. Skrmetti, upholding a Tennessee ban on gender-affirming medical care for minors, is fairly limited in scope and closely tailored to the specific language of Tennessee's law, but it may have implications for challenges to similar laws in other states, say attorneys at Hall Render.

  • Justices Rewrite Rules For Challenging Enviro Agency Actions

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    Three recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings — Nuclear Regulatory Commission v. Texas, Oklahoma v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and EPA v. Calumet Shreveport Refining — form a jurisprudential watershed in administrative and environmental law, affirming statutory standing and venue provisions as the backbone of coherent judicial review, say attorneys at GableGotwals.

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