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Appellate

  • June 16, 2025

    High Court Won't Revisit Landmark Religious Freedom Ruling

    The U.S. Supreme Court vacated and remanded a case from a Roman Catholic diocese in New York on Monday, bypassing for now the chance to overturn a landmark ruling that restricts First Amendment religious freedom challenges.

  • June 16, 2025

    High Court Skips Laches Question In Trademark Disputes

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up an appeal that asked if it is proper for courts to adopt state statutes of limitations in trademark disputes to determine whether a party took too long to sue.

  • June 16, 2025

    Justices Turn Away Merck's Bone Drug Warning Label Row

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp.'s request to review a Third Circuit decision that more than 1,000 failure-to-warn claims over its osteoporosis drug Fosamax can continue despite the company's assertion that the litigation is barred by federal law.

  • June 16, 2025

    Justices Deny Challenge To Copyright's 'Discovery Rule'

    The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it will not revisit the so-called discovery rule, rejecting an appeal from a shoe designer who argued the justices needed to clarify whether it's appropriate to bring copyright claims outside the three-year statute of limitations.

  • June 16, 2025

    Justices Won't Review Ed Sheeran's 'Thinking Out Loud' Win

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied a petition to review a ruling finding that Ed Sheeran's hit song "Thinking Out Loud" did not rip off Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On."

  • June 16, 2025

    Justices Take Up NJ Anti-Abortion Group's Subpoena Fight

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to review the Third Circuit's dismissal of an anti-abortion pregnancy center's federal lawsuit challenging a subpoena from the New Jersey attorney general demanding information about its donors.

  • June 16, 2025

    High Court Skips NexStep's Patent Fight With Comcast

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected NexStep Inc.'s bid to revive its patent suit against Comcast in a case that had implicated patent law's doctrine of equivalents. 

  • June 16, 2025

    Justices Again Refuse To Hear Trading Tech's Patent Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to reconsider its April decision not to hear Trading Technologies' appeal seeking to boost its $6.6 million trading patent win after the company claimed new developments and patent eligibility legislation warranted taking the case.

  • June 13, 2025

    7th Circ. Won't Revive RICO Claims Against Blood Test Co.

    A group of pilots and other people required to undergo alcohol screening for their employment cannot pursue their Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act claims against a drug testing company, the Seventh Circuit ruled Friday after finding that the complaint doesn't adequately tie the plaintiffs' injuries to the alleged fraudulent scheme.

  • June 13, 2025

    9th Circ. Allows ConocoPhillips Project To Proceed, For Now

    The Ninth Circuit on Friday held that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management must reconsider a small part of its approval for the controversial ConocoPhillips Willow oil and gas project, though it stopped short of vacating existing approvals for the Arctic energy development and allowed the project to proceed.

  • June 13, 2025

    NY Supreme Court Bars ICE Office At Rikers, For Now

    The New York Supreme Court on Friday blocked New York City Mayor Eric Adams from letting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement open up an office at Rikers Island, saying that there was a "real and imminent risk" immigrant communities would lose trust in the city's government institutions absent an injunction.

  • June 13, 2025

    DC Circ. Knocks NLRB For 'Irrational' Impasse Analysis

    The D.C. Circuit on Friday rejected the National Labor Relations Board's conclusions that a quarry operator unlawfully threatened to stop contributions to a pension fund for unionized workers, finding the board's "legal analysis is irrational" about whether the parties were at an impasse.

  • June 13, 2025

    10th Circ. Affirms Expert DQ In Sig Sauer Gun Discharge Suit

    Gunmaker Sig Sauer Inc. scored a win at the Tenth Circuit on Friday with the panel disqualifying two experts who were ready to testify that its P320 pistol was defectively designed, giving the company an appeals court ruling to lean on as it continues to fend off a rash of suits claiming the gun fires unintentionally.

  • June 13, 2025

    $1.6M Verdict Should've Been Trimmed Sooner, NJ Panel Says

    A New Jersey trial court should've reduced a $1.6 million jury verdict to $200,000 sooner in an automobile accident dispute after the plaintiff told both the trial judge and judge in the defendant's bankruptcy proceedings he would seek only $200,000, a state appeals court ruled Friday.

  • June 13, 2025

    4th Circ. Affirms Toss Of Contractor's ULP Suit Against Union

    The Fourth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a Maryland mechanical contractor's lawsuit against a Sheet Metal Air Rail & Transportation Workers local on Friday, ruling that the union's alleged smear campaign against the company didn't rise to the level of an unfair labor practice under the National Labor Relations Act.

  • June 13, 2025

    9th Circ. Renews Copyright Claims In Software Cos. Fight

    A Ninth Circuit panel has partially revived an intellectual property dispute between software companies Cloanto Corp. and Hyperion Entertainment, ruling that the lower court erred in tossing Cloanto's copyright claims while correctly axing its breach of contract claim.

  • June 13, 2025

    5th Circ. Says No Private Right Of Action In No Surprises Act

    The Fifth Circuit has ruled a pair of flight ambulance providers cannot pursue their lawsuit seeking to enforce out-of-network billing dispute resolution awards against a health insurance company, saying there's no private right of action built into a 2022 law that protects patients from surprise medical bills.

  • June 13, 2025

    Calif. State Bar Is Immune From Atty's ADA Suit, 9th Circ. Says

    The Ninth Circuit on Friday declined to revive an attorney's claims alleging the California State Bar violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by not granting extra time to respond to disciplinary action based on outstanding debt, finding the bar, as an arm of the state, is entitled to sovereign immunity.

  • June 13, 2025

    DC Circ. Urged To Reject Approval For Braille-Free Drug Label

    Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. is urging the D.C. Circuit to reverse a lower court decision upholding the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval of a generic sleep-disorder drug without Braille labeling, a move the company argues jeopardizes patient safety.

  • June 13, 2025

    Omitted Jury Instruction Tainted Fraud Trial, DC Circ. Says

    A D.C. Circuit panel ruled Friday that a new trial was warranted in a pandemic relief loan fraud case based on the trial court's inadvertent failure to instruct jurors to not draw negative conclusions from the defendant's decision not to testify.

  • June 13, 2025

    4th Circ. Axes Guilty Plea Over Police Misconduct

    The Fourth Circuit vacated a North Carolina man's guilty plea on drug trafficking charges, holding Friday that new information regarding "egregious police misconduct" that plagued the prosecution's case rendered his plea involuntary. 

  • June 13, 2025

    Wash. High Court Suspends Atty Amid Delays In Bar Probe

    The Washington State Supreme Court has suspended an Evergreen state attorney's legal license, at the state bar association's request, for allegedly stalling disciplinary investigations into her work representing student families in two federal lawsuits against school districts.

  • June 13, 2025

    11th Circ. Holds Local GOP Had Right To Bar Anti-Trumpers

    An Eleventh Circuit panel has sided with a county-level Georgia Republican Party and reversed a federal district court's dismissal of the party's suit, which looked to vindicate its right to exclude purportedly anti-Trump candidates from qualifying for local office on the GOP ticket.

  • June 13, 2025

    2nd Circ. Won't Rehear Trump Appeal Of $5M Assault Verdict

    The full Second Circuit refused Friday to revisit President Donald Trump's challenge to writer E. Jean Carroll's $5 million sexual assault finding against him, with two judges dissenting.

  • June 13, 2025

    Pa. Court Faults Agency For Rebuffing Late Child-Death Filing

    Pennsylvania's labor regulator should have at least considered accepting a business's late submission of a response to accusations of child labor stemming from a fatal accident with a wood chipper, a state appellate panel ruled Friday in an opinion that clarified when to make exceptions to agency filing deadlines.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Brazilian Jiujitsu Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Competing in Brazilian jiujitsu – often against opponents who are much larger and younger than me – has allowed me to develop a handful of useful skills that foster the resilience and adaptability necessary for a successful legal career, says Tina Dorr of Barnes & Thornburg.

  • Fed. Circ. Offers Lesson On Gov't Data Rights In Contracts

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    The Federal Circuit's recent decision in FlightSafety v. Air Force serves as a warning for U.S. Department of Defense contractors attempting to mark their commercial technical data developed at private expense, say attorneys at Butzel Long.

  • Birthright Ruling Could Alter Consumer Financial Litigation

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s upcoming decision about the validity of the nationwide injunctions in the birthright citizenship cases, argued on May 15, could make it much harder for trade associations to obtain nationwide relief from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's enforcement of invalid regulations, says Alan Kaplinsky at Ballard Spahr.

  • Fed. Circ. In April: Introducing New Evidence During IPR

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    The Federal Circuit's decision in Sage Products v. Stewart last month upheld the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's decision to allow a petitioner to rely on case-dispositive evidence beyond prior art references, affording petitioners in inter partes review proceedings greater latitude in the timing of evidence presentation, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.

  • 1st Circ. Ruling Widens Split Over Sentencing Enhancements

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    In U.S. v. Salvador-Gutierrez, the First Circuit recently switched sides in a circuit split by holding that certain sentencing enhancements apply only where the defendant used a minor in the commission of the crime, deepening a divide over the scope of role adjustments, says Sarah Sulkowski at Gelber & Santillo.

  • A Cautionary Fed. Circ. Tale On Design Patents

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    The Federal Circuit's decision last month in Floyd highlights a risk in design patent prosecution — attempting to claim priority to a utility application, says John Hemmer at Morgan Lewis.

  • Series

    Power To The Paralegals: An Untapped Source For Biz Roles

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    Law firms looking to recruit legal business talent should consider turning to paralegals, who practice several key skills every day that prepare them to thrive in marketing and client development roles, says Vanessa Torres at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • Google Case Amicus Briefs Reveal Patent Damage Fault Lines

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    The 21 amicus briefs filed before the en banc rehearing of EcoFactor v. Google offer opposing viewpoints on important patent damages issues that extend beyond the specific question the Federal Circuit eventually ruled on, helping practitioners anticipate and address likely objections to future damages opinions, say attorneys at Stout.

  • Using Federal Forum Provisions To Nix State Securities Cases

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    A California appeals court's recent decision in Bullock v. Rivian clarifies that underwriters may enforce federal forum provisions to escape state court Securities Act claims, marking progress in restoring such lawsuits to federal court and reducing the litigation costs arising from duplicative state court litigation, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.

  • 30 Years Later: 2nd Circ.'s Road To Arbitral Preemption

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    The Second Circuit's recent decision in Lloyds of London v. 3131 Veterans Blvd. overturns its own 1995 precedent and squares its position with decades of circuit court jurisprudence holding that international arbitration agreements must take primacy over state anti-arbitration insurance laws, say attorneys at Linklaters.

  • Series

    Playing Poker Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Poker is a master class in psychology, risk management and strategic thinking, and I’m a better attorney because it has taught me to read my opponents, adapt when I’m dealt the unexpected and stay patient until I'm ready to reveal my hand, says Casey Kingsley at McCreadyLaw.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Becoming A Firmwide MVP

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    Though lawyers don't have a neat metric like baseball players for measuring the value they contribute to their organizations, the sooner new attorneys learn skills frequently skipped in law school — like networking, marketing, client development and case evaluation — the more valuable, and less replaceable, they will be, says Alex Barnett at DiCello Levitt.

  • 9th Circ. Ruling Clarifies Derivative Suit Representation Test

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    The Ninth Circuit's recent ruling in Bigfoot Ventures v. Knighton clarifies the test used to assess the adequacy of a plaintiff's representation in a shareholder derivative action, and will likely prove useful to litigants by ensuring that courts can fully examine all relevant circumstances, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

  • Patenting AI And Machine Learning In The Wake Of Recentive

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    Though the Federal Circuit's recent decision in Recentive Analytics v. Fox Corp. initially appears to doom patents related to artificial intelligence and machine learning, a closer look shows that strategies for successfully drafting and prosecuting such patents offer hope despite increased pushback from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, say attorneys at Banner Witcoff.

  • Age Bias Suit Against Aircraft Co. Offers Lessons For Layoffs

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    In Raymond v. Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, an aircraft maker's former employees recently dismissed their remaining claims after the Tenth Circuit rejected their nearly decade-old collective action alleging age discrimination stemming from a 2013 reduction in force, reminding employers about the importance of carefully planning and documenting mass layoffs, say attorneys at Cooley.

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