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Appellate
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May 23, 2025
FTC Finally Drops Challenge To Microsoft-Activision Deal
The Federal Trade Commission has dropped its in-house case seeking to block Microsoft's $68.7 billion purchase of video game developer Activision Blizzard, after its Ninth Circuit loss earlier this month, ending a lingering challenge to a deal that closed in late 2023.
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May 22, 2025
Ga. Judge Threated Atty Over Custody Case, Ethics Panel Told
A Georgia attorney told the state's judicial watchdog Thursday that a trial judge improperly called her to discuss her child custody case, gave her preferential scheduling due to their membership in the same sorority and then threatened to take her child from her after she filed a recusal motion.
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May 22, 2025
Insurers Say La. Hotel Can't Appeal Fire Damage Fight
A group of insurers has told the Fifth Circuit that it can't review a March order by a Louisiana federal judge instructing a New Orleans hotel to arbitrate its fire damage claims, slamming the hotel owner's argument that it has a constitutional right to pursue an appeal.
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May 22, 2025
Fed. Circ. Ruling Will Spark More Patent Damages Fights
The full Federal Circuit's decision Wednesday ordering a new trial in a patent case against Google LLC and finding the plaintiff's damages expert unreliable is likely to lead to greater scrutiny of patent damages testimony and more attempts to get it thrown out, attorneys say.
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May 22, 2025
Bilfinger Urges NC Justices To Skip Cargill Arbitration Case
International construction company Bilfinger is urging North Carolina's top court not to review a decision nixing Cargill's bid to revive arbitration it initiated in a dispute stemming from a construction contract, disputing the food conglomerate's argument that the case raises novel issues.
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May 22, 2025
Wash. Justices Undo Landlord Win In Eviction Answer Dispute
Washington's highest court overturned a Seattle-area landlord's eviction victory on Thursday, saying any tenant who responds to a summons with a written "notice of appearance" can't be hit with a default judgment for failing to file an answer in an unlawful detainer action.
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May 22, 2025
Fed. Circ. Backs Pfizer Win Against Gene Therapy Patents
The Federal Circuit on Thursday sided with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's findings that a pair of patents covering a new kind of experimental gene therapy to treat hemophilia were invalid, handing a win to patent challenger Pfizer.
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May 22, 2025
7th Circ. Wary Of Crypto Fund Owner's Appeal Of $231M Fine
A Seventh Circuit panel on Thursday pressed counsel for a cryptocurrency fund operator challenging a $231 million judgment for running a Ponzi scheme to address whether he'd waived his argument that the digital tokens his funds invested in aren't "commodities" subject to regulation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission by not raising it in the lower court.
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May 22, 2025
Sen. Durbin Holds Up Florida US Attorney Nominee
Sen. Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced Thursday he will be holding up President Donald Trump's U.S. attorney nominee for the Southern District of Florida, blaming precedent set by Vice President JD Vance when he was in the Senate.
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May 22, 2025
Clinic Tells NC Justices Med Mal Reforms Apply To Practices
An orthopedic clinic is urging North Carolina's highest court to free it from a family's negligent-retention claim over an allegedly faulty surgery by a doctor who later lost his license, asserting that the lower court incorrectly found that state medical malpractice statutes and subsequent reforms don't apply to medical practices.
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May 22, 2025
Gov't Presses High Court To Hear Activist Investor Suit
The federal government Thursday urged the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case accusing a series of closed-end funds of shutting an activist investor out of its voting rights, arguing that the investor's lawsuit threatens to have an "unpredictable impact" on the private fund industry.
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May 22, 2025
Alaska Airlines Grilled In Wash. COVID Workers' Comp Case
Members of Washington's highest court cast doubt Thursday about Alaska Airlines' stance in a flight attendant's COVID-19 workers' compensation case, with several justices seemingly frustrated by the employer's attempt to draw a line between covered occupational disease and sickness that develops during job-related travel.
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May 22, 2025
Hungarian Co. Fights Croatia Delay Bid In $236M Award Case
A Hungarian energy company has urged a D.C. federal court to nix Croatia's bid to stay a lawsuit aimed at enforcing a $236 million arbitral award against the country a month after it lost a motion to dismiss the suit.
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May 22, 2025
5th Circ. Revives 'Unclean Hands' Defense In Ch. 13
A Louisiana homeowner can head back to bankruptcy court to try to discharge a $75,000 judgment against him from a contractor who said it was stiffed, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has ruled.
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May 22, 2025
Calif. Docs Bring FDA Stem Cell Regulation Fight To Top Court
Two California clinics that provide stem cell treatments are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Ninth Circuit panel's finding that their treatments are "drugs" subject to Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act regulations.
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May 22, 2025
Justices Urged To Undo Denial Of Fast Track For Gastro Drug
Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the Food and Drug Administration's decision denying fast-track approval for its gastroparesis drug tradipitant, saying it meets the statutory standard for fast-track review as a new treatment with the "potential to address unmet medical needs."
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May 22, 2025
Rehab Greenhouse Violated Zoning Rules, Conn. Justices Say
A drug rehab center's attempt to operate a 2,100-square-foot plastic greenhouse as a therapy facility on a northwestern Connecticut farm was an impermissible expansion of a previous nonconforming land use, the state's highest court ruled Thursday, overturning the center's earlier appellate court victory in a zoning dispute.
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May 22, 2025
Florida AG Wants Block On Immigration Law Paused
The state of Florida told the Eleventh Circuit Wednesday that a block on a state law criminalizing the entry of unauthorized immigrants should be paused, arguing that the law's challengers are trying to "push precedent past its breaking point" and have no standing to enforce federal immigration law.
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May 22, 2025
As Trump Wields FCA, Whistleblowers May See 'Dollar Signs'
The Trump administration's plan to use the False Claims Act to target diversity programs and alleged civil rights fraud steers a well-worn statute into uncharted territory, and could spur significant whistleblower activity amid high-profile battles with Harvard University, BigLaw firms and other institutions, experts told Law360.
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May 22, 2025
Sutter Health's $228.5M Antitrust Deal Gets Initial OK
A California federal judge on Thursday preliminarily approved Sutter Health's $228.5 million deal settling a 13-year case over claims the hospital chain boosted costs by pushing all-or-nothing networks on insurers, saying that after a trial and a Ninth Circuit reversal, "it's nice that we didn't have to try this case twice."
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May 22, 2025
6th Circ. Backs 3 Convictions In Toledo Drug Trafficking Ring
The Sixth Circuit stood by the convictions and sentences of three men Ohio jurors said committed what the panel called "a host of federal crimes related to trafficking in cocaine, cocaine base, and fentanyl," finding no errors in the lower court's proceedings that would warrant vacatur or reversal.
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May 22, 2025
No COVID-19 Coverage For Hotel REIT, Texas Panel Affirms
A group of insurers has no obligation to cover an Austin, Texas-based real estate investment trust's pandemic-related losses, a state appellate court ruled Thursday, finding that a contamination exclusion in the REIT's policies unambiguously bars coverage.
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May 22, 2025
Trip-And-Fall Jury Mistake Was Harmless, Panel Rules
The Connecticut Appellate Court on Thursday upheld a trip-and-fall defendant's trial court win after the plaintiff claimed the jury had been given an incorrect draft copy of interrogatories that did not cover the full scope of the claims, finding that the error was "harmless."
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May 22, 2025
Justices Allow Trump To Fire NLRB, MSPB Members, For Now
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled two fired members of the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board cannot return to work while they challenge President Donald Trump's authority to fire them without cause, handing the president a win in his crusade against a 90-year-old precedent limiting his power to fire employees at independent agencies.
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May 22, 2025
3rd Circ. Wary Standing Exists In Business School Fraud Suit
The Third Circuit on Thursday appeared skeptical that a former Rutgers University student could bring a proposed class action alleging the university inflated its full-time MBA program's rankings, questioning how he could have been injured if he wasn't enrolled in the program.
Expert Analysis
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Fed. Circ. Inherency Ruling Refines Obviousness Framework
The Federal Circuit's December decision in Cytiva v. JSR has definitively eliminated the requirement of "reasonable expectation of success" analysis for inherent properties in obviousness determinations, while providing some key clarifications for patent practitioners, says Lawrence Kass at Steptoe.
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Opinion
Commercial Tree Thinning Should Be Part of Wildfire Control
The devastating wildfires currently afflicting California make it clear that the U.S. Forest Service should step up its use of methods including commercial tree removal to lower fire risk — but litigation that drags on for years stymies many of these efforts and endangers the public, says Jeffrey Beelaert at Givens Pursley.
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The 5 Most Important Bid Protest Decisions Of 2024
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the Court of Federal Claims and the Government Accountability Office issued five noteworthy bid protest decisions in 2024 that will likely have a continuing impact on questions concerning standing, timeliness, corporate transactions and more, say attorneys at Bradley Arant.
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High Court Could Further Limit Deference With TCPA Fax Case
The Supreme Court's decision to hear McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson, a case involving alleged junk faxes that centers whether district courts are bound by Federal Communications Commission rules, offers the court a chance to possibly further limit the judicial deference afforded to federal agency interpretations of statutes, says Samantha Duke at Rumberger Kirk.
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Future Of Crypto-Asset Classification Is In 2nd Circ.'s Hands
A definitive ruling from the Second Circuit in a rare interlocutory appeal in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's ongoing court battle with Coinbase could finally establish clear guidelines on the classification of digital assets, influencing how they are regulated and traded in the U.S., say attorneys at Manatt.
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5 Ways To Create Effective Mock Assignments For Associates
In order to effectively develop associates’ critical thinking skills, firms should design mock assignments that contain a few key ingredients, from messy fact patterns to actionable feedback, says Abdi Shayesteh at AltaClaro.
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More Environmental Claims, More Greenwashing Challenges
As companies prepare for the 2025 greenwashing landscape, they should take heed of a D.C. appellate decision that shows that environmental claims are increasingly subject to attack and provides plaintiffs with a playbook for challenging corporate claims of sustainability, say attorneys at Sidley.
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Calif. Cannabis Decision Deepens Commerce Clause Divide
In Peridot Tree v. Sacramento, the Eastern District of California joined a growing minority of courts that have found the dormant commerce clause inapplicable to state-regulated marijuana, and the Ninth Circuit will soon provide important guidance on this issue, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.
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4 Employment Law Areas Set To Change Under Trump
President Donald Trump's second term is expected to bring significant changes to the U.S. employment law landscape, including the potential for updated worker classification regulations, and challenges to diversity, equity and inclusion that are already taking shape, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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A Defendant's Guide To 4 Common ÃÛÌÒÊÓÆµ Discovery Tactics
With the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recent flurry of new lawsuits showing no signs of stopping, defendants should know the bureau's most relied-upon discovery strategies — and be prepared to resist them, say attorneys at Goodwin.
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What Employment Bias Litigation Looks Like After Muldrow
Nine months after the U.S. Supreme Court created an undemanding standard for discrimination claims in Muldrow v. St. Louis, Eric Schnapper at the University of Washington discusses how the Title VII litigation landscape has changed and what to expect moving forward.
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The 7th Circ.'s Top 10 Civil Opinions Of 2024
Attorneys at Jenner & Block examine the most significant decisions issued by the Seventh Circuit in 2024, and explain how they may affect issues related to mass arbitration, consumer fraud, class certification and more.
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Royal Canin Ruling Won't Transform Removal Jurisdiction
The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Royal Canin USA v. Wullschleger means that federal district courts must now remand whenever an amended complaint excises grounds for federal jurisdiction — but given existing litigation strategy and case law trends, this may ultimately preserve, rather than alter, the status quo, say attorneys at Norton Rose.
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Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: Nov. And Dec. Lessons
In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses five federal court decisions and identifies practice tips from cases involving takings clause violations, breach of contract with banks, life insurance policies, employment and automobile defects.
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Mentorship Resolutions For The New Year
Attorneys tend to focus on personal achievements or career milestones when they set yearly goals, but one important area often gets overlooked in this process — mentoring relationships, which are some of the most effective tools for professional growth, say Kelly Galligan at Rutan & Tucker and Andra Greene at Phillips ADR.