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Appellate

  • June 05, 2025

    3rd Circ. Says Amgen Can Proceed With Subpoena In IP Suit

    The Third Circuit on Thursday sided with biotechnology company Amgen Inc. in its efforts to subpoena a competitor that it accused of patent infringement, reasoning that the panel lacked jurisdiction to hear the case because the lower court's decision regarding discovery was not ripe for appeal.

  • June 05, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Backs Apple Loss In PTAB Gesture Patent Fight

    The Federal Circuit on Thursday backed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's finding that Apple failed to show that a Gesture Technology patent on using cameras to recognize human gestures is invalid, with the majority panel saying the "case should serve as a warning."

  • June 05, 2025

    Pa. City's Receiver Asks Court To Rein In Stormwater Board

    The receiver for the bankrupt city of Chester, Pennsylvania, told a state court Thursday that the city-created stormwater authority and its board of directors violated their charter and state law by expanding the board and paying the elected officials who were on it.

  • June 05, 2025

    Ga. Court Nixes 'Massive' $65M Punitive Award In Fraud Case

    The Georgia Court of Appeals on Thursday struck down $65 million in punitive damages awarded to a doctor who was defrauded of his investments in a series of restaurants, ruling that the verdict was "grossly excessive" at more than 100 times the value of the compensatory damages awarded by a state court jury.

  • June 05, 2025

    NJ Justices To Take Look At Boys & Girls Club Abuse Claims

    Garden State justices have agreed to hear whether New Jersey courts have jurisdiction over the alleged sexual abuse in the 1970s and '80s by a counselor for the Hudson County chapter of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, according to a court order.

  • June 05, 2025

    4th Circ. Won't Revive Ex-Fire Captain's Free Speech Suit

    The Fourth Circuit refused to reopen a former Lynchburg, Virginia, fire captain's suit alleging he was unconstitutionally fired for social media posts that citizens called transphobic and racist, ruling Thursday that he failed to show why the city should be held liable.

  • June 05, 2025

    Actors Ask 9th Circ. To Revive SAG Vax Mandate Fight

    SAG-AFTRA members urged the Ninth Circuit on Thursday to revive their claims that the union betrayed them by allowing studios to impose COVID-19 vaccine mandates against members with medical and religious objections, arguing that the state claims aren't preempted and "not everything that involves these guilds is a federal matter."

  • June 05, 2025

    NJ High Court Will Review Injury Suits Against Walmart, Clinic

    New Jersey justices have agreed to weigh in on personal injury suits against Walmart and a Garden State health clinic involving an overturned $1.3 million verdict in one case and the immunity of medical nonprofits in the other, according to a pair of court orders.

  • June 05, 2025

    Orgs. Clash At DC Circ. Over FCC's Spectrum Revamp

    Public safety groups are clashing at the D.C. Circuit over whether the Federal Communications Commission overstepped its authority when it expanded spectrum rights in the 4.9 gigahertz band, a segment of airwaves long relied on by emergency responders.

  • June 05, 2025

    Major Co. Group Asks Full Fed. Circ. To Review Lashify ITC Case

    A coalition representing big companies including Google and Apple is backing the U.S. International Trade Commission's request that the Federal Circuit rethink its finding that the commission had been wrongly barring domestic expenses related to sales, marketing and other activities from ITC patent cases.

  • June 05, 2025

    Dems, GOP Question Contempt Section Of Reconciliation Bill

    Senate Democrats have vowed to do whatever they can to defeat a provision in the budget reconciliation that would limit federal courts' ability to hold federal officials in contempt, and some Republicans are wary of it as well. 

  • June 05, 2025

    Convicted Fla. Atty Urges 11th Circ. To Reexamine Sentence

    A Florida lawyer sentenced to 75 months in prison over a COVID-19 loan fraud scheme has asked the Eleventh Circuit to rehear her sentencing en banc, arguing the appellate court should reexamine the district court's so-called Keane statement allegedly disregarding sentencing guidelines.

  • June 05, 2025

    Senate Panel Advances Picks For Nat. Sec. Post, Iowa US Atty

    The Senate voted 52-43 along party lines on Thursday to confirm John Andrew Eisenberg to be assistant attorney general for national security.

  • June 05, 2025

    How Trump's Pardons Could Sway Prosecutorial Discretion

    As President Donald Trump dismantles a growing list of white collar criminal cases with a flurry of clemency grants early in his second term, erasing years of investigative and prosecutorial work with a stroke of his black Sharpie, experts worry his actions will have a chilling effect on prosecutorial decision-making.

  • June 05, 2025

    4th Circ. Stalls Jordan's NASCAR Team During Antitrust Suit

    The Fourth Circuit on Thursday threw a caution flag in a much-publicized antitrust suit against NASCAR by vacating an injunction that let two teams — including one co-owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan — keep their charter status while they pursue claims against the league.

  • June 05, 2025

    High Court Drops Class Cert. Clarification Bid

    The U.S. Supreme Court declined Thursday to weigh in on whether federal courts can certify classes that include uninjured members, holding it improperly agreed to hear a disability discrimination case against diagnostics company Labcorp that raised the important question.

  • June 05, 2025

    Justices Revive Bid To Enforce $1.3B Indian Satellite Award

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday overturned a Ninth Circuit decision refusing to enforce a $1.3 billion arbitral award issued to an Indian satellite communications company, ruling that the court's outlier interpretation of a jurisdictional question was incorrect.

  • June 05, 2025

    Supreme Court Bars Hamas Victims From Reviving Bank Suit

    The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that victims of Hamas terrorist attacks cannot get a second shot at filing a lawsuit that seeks to hold a Lebanese bank liable for aiding and abetting Hamas, reasserting that final judgments can only be reopened under "extraordinary circumstances."

  • June 05, 2025

    Justices Nix Mexico's Cartel Violence Suit In Win For Gun Cos.

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday threw out a suit by the government of Mexico against Smith & Wesson and other major gun companies, finding in a unanimous opinion that the alleged ties between the firearms makers and cartel violence south of the border are too speculative to stand up in court.

  • June 05, 2025

    Justices Fault Wis. For Denying Tax Break To Charities

    Wisconsin discriminated against a group of Catholic charities when it denied them an unemployment tax exemption, the U.S. Supreme Court said Thursday, rejecting the state's argument that the charities were not operated primarily for religious purposes.

  • June 05, 2025

    Justices Nix Higher Hurdle For Heterosexual Bias Claims

    A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday vacated the Sixth Circuit's ruling that plaintiffs claiming anti-heterosexual workplace discrimination need to provide extra "background circumstances" evidence, opining that it improperly imposed special standards on majority-group plaintiffs.

  • June 04, 2025

    Del. Justices Probe Bid For Biden Laptop Suit Revival

    A Delaware Supreme Court justice asked a computer repair shop owner's attorney Wednesday if his client had a right to claim anonymity after informing Congress he had a left-behind copy of Hunter Biden's laptop hard drive, in a politically controversial case that originated during President Donald Trump's first term

  • June 04, 2025

    Fla. School Urges 11th Circ. To Allow Jury Trial In TM Dispute

    A Florida distance learning school urged the Eleventh Circuit on Wednesday to revive its trademark infringement lawsuit against a rival, arguing it should be allowed to prove to a jury that it sustained actual damages because parents were confused by a competitor's website.

  • June 04, 2025

    Walmart Slip-And-Fall Suit Must Go To Trial, 4th Circ. Rules

    Walmart can't argue it had no duty to treat a specific patch of black ice that caused a woman's slip and fall after a winter storm, the Fourth Circuit ruled Wednesday, saying that a winter storm puts retailers on notice that their entire parking lot had become a potential hazard for customers.

  • June 04, 2025

    1st Circ. Upholds Block On Trump's Education Dept. Job Cuts

    The First Circuit on Wednesday rejected a bid by President Donald Trump to greenlight massive job cuts at the U.S. Department of Education, finding that the administration had not provided enough evidence to overturn a block put in place by a Massachusetts federal judge.

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    Attorneys Must Act Now To Protect Judicial Independence

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    Given the Trump administration's recent moves threatening the independence of the judiciary, including efforts to impeach judges who ruled against executive actions, lawyers must protect the rule of law and resist attempts to dilute the judicial branch’s authority, says attorney Bhavleen Sabharwal.

  • Colo. Anti-SLAPP Cases Highlight Dismiss Standard Disparity

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    A pair of recent decisions from the Colorado Court of Appeals highlights two disparate standards for courts evaluating anti-SLAPP motions: one that requires a court to accept the plaintiff's evidence as true and another that allows the court to assess its merits, says Jacob Hollars at Spencer Fane.

  • Appealing An Interlocutory Order On Insurer Duty To Defend

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    A recent First Circuit decision on a motion regarding an insurer's duty to defend underlying litigation highlights how policyholders may be able to pursue immediate appeals of interlocutory orders, especially in light of other circuit courts' stances on this issue, say attorneys at Anderson Kill.

  • Rethinking 'No Comment' For Clients Facing Public Crises

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    “No comment” is no longer a cost-free or even a viable public communications strategy for companies in crisis, and counsel must tailor their guidance based on a variety of competing factors to help clients emerge successfully, says Robert Bowers at Moore & Van Allen.

  • Del. Supreme Court TripAdvisor Ruling May Limit 'MFW Creep'

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    The Delaware Supreme Court's recent Maffei v. Palkon ruling regarding TripAdvisor's proposed reincorporation to Nevada potentially signals a turning point in the trend of expanding the protections from Kahn v. M&F Worldwide to other types of transactions, says Andrew J. Haile at Elon University.

  • 9th Circ. Draws The Line On Software As A Derivative Work

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    The Ninth Circuit's recent decision in Oracle International v. Rimini Street clarifies the meaning of derivative work under the Copyright Act, and when a work based upon a preexisting item doesn't constitute a derivative, says John Poulos at Norton Rose.

  • As Failure-To-Warn Preemption Wanes, Justices May Weigh In

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    Federal preemption of state failure-to-warn claims has long been a powerful defense in strict liability tort cases, but is now under attack in litigation over the weedkiller Roundup and other products — so the scope and application of preemption may require clarification by the U.S. Supreme Court, says Michael Sena at Segal McCambridge.

  • How Design Thinking Can Help Lawyers Find Purpose In Work

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    Lawyers everywhere are feeling overwhelmed amid mass government layoffs, increasing political instability and a justice system stretched to its limits — but a design-thinking framework can help attorneys navigate this uncertainty and find meaning in their work, say law professors at the University of Michigan.

  • Justices' Certiorari Denial Leaves Interstate Tax Questions

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    Since the U.S. Supreme Court recently declined to review a Philadelphia resident’s claim that her Delaware state income taxes should be credited against her city wage tax liabilities, constitutional questions about state and local tax distinctions linger, and some states may continue to apply Supreme Court precedent differently, say attorneys at Dentons.

  • Trending At The PTAB: Insights From 2024 Fed. Circ. Statistics

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    Looking at stats from the Federal Circuit's decisions in 219 Patent Trial and Appeal Board appeals last year sheds light on potential trends and strategy considerations that could improve appeals' chances of success, say attorneys at Finnegan.

  • Will Independent Federal Agencies Remain Independent?

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    For 90 years, members of multimember independent federal agencies have relied on the U.S. Supreme Court's 1935 ruling in Humphrey's Executor v. U.S. establishing the security of their positions — but as the Trump administration attempts to overturn this understanding, it is unclear how the high court will respond, says Harvey Reiter at Stinson.

  • High Court Sentencing Case Presents Legal Fork In The Road

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    On Feb. 25, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in Esteras v. U.S. about the factors trial courts may consider when imposing a sentence of imprisonment after revoking supervised release, and the justices’ eventual decision may prioritize either discretion or originalism, says Michael Freedman at The Freedman Firm.

  • Del. Justices' D&O Ruling Clarifies 'Related' Claim Analysis

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    In its recent decision in the Alexion Pharmaceuticals coverage case, the Delaware Supreme Court adopted a "meaningful linkage" standard for relatedness analysis, providing further guidance to Delaware policyholders on how to navigate those directors and officers insurance disputes, say attorneys at Hunton.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: February Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses five federal appellate court class certification decisions and identifies practice tips from cases involving breach of life insurance contracts, constitutional violations of inmates and more.

  • Defense Strategies For Politically Charged Prosecutions

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    Politically charged prosecutions have captured the headlines in recent years, providing lessons for defense counsel on how to navigate the distinct challenges, and seize the unique opportunities, such cases present, says Kenneth Notter at MoloLamken.

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