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Appellate
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August 01, 2025
3rd Circ. Asked To Revive Amazon Biometric Data Suit
A federal judge erred in tossing class claims accusing Amazon of collecting consumers' voice data without their consent, including by finding that a third-party software company was a "financial institution," the named plaintiffs told the Third Circuit
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August 01, 2025
9th Circ. Sees 'Everest-Like' Preemption For Credit Union Fees
A Ninth Circuit panel on Friday rejected a consumer's bid to revive his California class action claims over bounced-check fees at Navy Federal Credit Union, ruling that federal credit unions are exempt from state laws that regulate account fees.
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August 01, 2025
Pa. Appeals Court Affirms Gun Restrictions For Felons
A man sentenced to up to eight years in prison for carrying a gun illegally as a result of his status as a felon didn't have his constitutional rights violated, the Pennsylvania Superior Court found Friday, affirming his convictions.Â
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August 01, 2025
DC Circ. Upholds FERC's Limited Review Of Texas Pipeline
The D.C. Circuit on Friday backed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's decision to limit its review of a Texas pipeline to a 1,000-foot section near the U.S.-Mexico border, saying the agency had reasonably explained why a broader review wasn't required.
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August 01, 2025
USPTO Tightens Rules On Patent Challengers' Arguments
Patent challengers at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board will no longer be able to skirt a requirement that they must identify where all the elements of the patent are found in prior art patents or printed publications, according to a notice from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
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August 01, 2025
9th Circ. Partially Revives Child Porn Victims' Suit Against X
The Ninth Circuit on Friday partially revived a lawsuit brought by 13-year-old boys who had been sex trafficked alleging X Corp. refused to remove pornographic videos of them, saying Section 230 shields the social media platform from claims it knowingly benefited from sex trafficking, but not from negligence and defective-reporting design claims.
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August 01, 2025
2nd Circ. Affirms Class Cert. In VRDO Suit Against Banks
The Second Circuit on Friday upheld a lower court order granting class certification to a group of American cities and others that are accusing eight large banks of inflating interest rates on debt securities known as variable rate demand obligations, saying the district court applied the correct legal standard in granting certification.
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August 01, 2025
Calif. Tribe Can't Halt Tobacco Ruling Amid Ninth Circuit Fight
A California federal court won't order the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to remove the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians from a noncompliance list over the alleged sale of cigarettes to non-Native customers while the tribe appeals the decision to the Ninth Circuit.
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August 01, 2025
7th Circ. Tosses Rehab's Zoning Row With Ind. Town
The Seventh Circuit affirmed an Indiana town's win on Friday in an Americans with Disabilities Act and Rehabilitation Act suit lodged by companies that wanted to convert a local nursing home into a rehab facility.
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August 01, 2025
11th Circ. Backs Dismissal Of Luli Fama Swimwear Ad Suit
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a putative class action against Luli Fama and various social media influencers for failing to disclose the influencers' endorsements of the brand's swimwear products were paid, saying the lower court rightly found the plaintiff failed to allege fraud with the necessary particularity.
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August 01, 2025
Highland Capital Asks Supreme Court To Clarify Ch. 11 Shields
Hedge fund Highland Capital Management has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to allow it to safeguard some of the key parties in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy from liability and review a Fifth Circuit decision that narrowed the bankruptcy court's "gatekeeping" powers to determine who can be sued.
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August 01, 2025
En Banc 9th Circ. Backs LA Schools In Vax Mandate Fight
A majority en banc Ninth Circuit has affirmed a lower court's decision upholding Los Angeles Unified School District's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for employees, while two partially dissenting judges disagreed with the majority's conclusion that the policy passes constitutional muster.
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August 01, 2025
Village Ordinance Wrongly Bans Wind Farms, Ill. Panel Says
An Illinois state appellate court majority on Friday reversed a village's summary judgment win in a lawsuit targeting an ordinance purportedly setting wind power generation limits, saying the ordinance effectively bans commercial wind farms without statutory authority.
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August 01, 2025
Normal Wear Is On Landlord's Dime, Not Renters', Court Says
Massachusetts' highest court on Friday concluded that landlords cannot ding a tenant's security deposit for normal wear and tear like scuffs on walls, nor can they force a tenant to pay for professional cleanings during a moveout.
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August 01, 2025
States Urge High Court To Keep NIH Grant Funds Flowing
A coalition of 16 states pressed the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to reject the Trump administration's push to resume the mass termination of scientific research grants, saying a district judge had authority to pause the cuts.
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August 01, 2025
8th Circ. Backs U. Of Nebraska In ADHD Disability Bias Suit
The Eighth Circuit backed the dismissal Friday of an ex-information technology worker's suit claiming the University of Nebraska fired him for seeking accommodations for his attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, ruling he failed to show his condition, rather than a violation of school policy, caused his termination.
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August 01, 2025
Fed. Circ. Bugged By Injunction In Insecticide Patent Dispute
The Federal Circuit on Friday scrubbed a preliminary injunction blocking a company from selling an insecticide product while a competitor's patent infringement case proceeded against it, faulting a lower court's claim construction and patent validity analysis.Â
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August 01, 2025
1st Circ. Doubtful Of Trump's Stance On Birthright Citizenship
The First Circuit on Friday seemed inclined to say that the children of unauthorized immigrants are citizens if they were born on U.S. soil, citing both the 14th Amendment and a subsequent U.S. Supreme Court ruling and pushing back on an argument by President Donald Trump's administration.
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August 01, 2025
Full Fed. Circ. Won't Eye Effect Of PTAB Ax In Groupon Case
The full Federal Circuit on Friday rejected Groupon's request for review of a decision that allowed a patent suit against it to proceed on some claims after similar ones were invalidated in an inter partes review, although two dissenting judges said the holding undermines the America Invents Act.
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August 01, 2025
4th Circ. Says Richmond PD Bias Claims Can't Sink Indictment
The Fourth Circuit on Friday restored a federal grand jury indictment against a driver who fled police in Richmond, Virginia, finding a district court overstepped in blaming purported racial bias by the Richmond Police Department for the otherwise justifiable traffic stop.
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August 01, 2025
US Defends Bulk Denial Of Worker Credits At 9th Circ.
An Arizona federal court was right to deny a request by tax services firms to stop the IRS from issuing batch denials of thousands of pandemic-era worker credit claims, the U.S. told the Ninth Circuit, defending the agency's system for handling problems administering the tax credit.
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August 01, 2025
7th Circ. Backs Prison Warden's Firing Over Facebook Memes
The Seventh Circuit has refused to revive a deputy prison warden's suit claiming he was terminated in retaliation for sharing memes online denigrating Muslims, Black people, liberals and the LGBTQ community and calling the Confederate flag "our flag," saying the corrections department's interest as a public employer outweighs his speech interests.
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August 01, 2025
Fed. Circ. Won't Move Fintiv, Apple Trial Date
The Federal Circuit on Friday denied Fintiv Inc.'s request to delay its Monday trial against Apple over a patent for storing virtual credit cards on mobile devices for contactless payments.
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August 01, 2025
Ill. Court Finds Labor Board Erred In Supervisor Status Case
An Illinois appeals court has reversed a state labor panel's decision adding workers at Illinois State University to an existing bargaining unit represented by an American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees council, saying the panel ignored precedent on which workers are union-ineligible supervisors.Â
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August 01, 2025
4 Argument Sessions Benefits Attys Should Watch In August
The Ninth and Eleventh circuits in August will hear from employers fighting trial court decisions refusing to kick proposed class actions alleging ERISA violations into individual arbitration. Here's a look at four coming oral argument sessions that should be on benefits lawyers' radar.
Expert Analysis
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Kousisis Concurrence Maps FCA Defense To Anti-DEI Suits
Justice Clarence Thomas' recent concurrence in Kousisis v. U.S. lays out how federal funding recipients could use the high standard for materiality in government fraud cases to fight the U.S. Justice Department’s threatened False Claims Act suits against payees deviating from the administration’s anti-DEI policies, say attorneys at Miller & Chevalier.
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Justices' Review Of Fluor May Alter Gov't Contractor Liability
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to review Hencely v. Fluor, a case involving a soldier’s personal injury claims against a government contractor, suggests the justices could reconsider a long-standing test for determining whether contractors are shielded from state-tort liability, says Lisa Himes at Rogers Joseph.
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Google Damages Ruling Offers Lessons For Testifying Experts
The Federal Circuit's recent decision in EcoFactor v. Google represents a shift in how courts evaluate expert testimony in patent cases, offering a practical guide for how litigators and testifying experts can refine their work, says Adam Rhoten at Secretariat.
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Series
Law School's Missed Lessons: Communicating With Clients
Law school curricula often overlook client communication procedures, and those who actively teach this crucial facet of the practice can create exceptional client satisfaction and success, says Patrick Hanson at Wiggam Law.
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One Year On, Davidson Holds Lessons On 'Health Halo' Claims
A year after the Ninth Circuit's Davidson v. Sprout Foods decision — which raised the bar for so-called health halo claims — food and beverage companies can draw insights from its finding, subsequently expanded on by other courts, that plaintiffs must be specific when alleging fraud in healthfulness marketing, say attorneys at Sidley.
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Justices' NRC Ruling Raises New Regulatory Questions
In Nuclear Regulatory Commission v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court avoided ruling on the NRC's authority to license private, temporary nuclear waste storage facilities — and this failure to reach the merits question creates new regulatory uncertainty where none had existed for decades, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.
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Rocket Mortgage Appeal May Push Justices To Curb Classes
Should the U.S. Supreme Court agree to hear Alig v. Rocket Mortgage, the resulting decision could limit class sizes based on commonality under Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Evidence as opposed to standing under Article III of the U.S. Constitution, say attorneys at Carr Maloney.
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3 Judicial Approaches To Applying Loper Bright, 1 Year Later
In the year since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Chevron deference in its Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision, a few patterns have emerged in lower courts’ application of the precedent to determine whether agency actions are lawful, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.
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Trending At The PTAB: Shifts In Parallel Proceedings Strategy
Dynamics are changing between the Patent Trial and Appeal Board and federal courts, with two recent discretionary denials and one Federal Circuit decision offering takeaways for both patent owners and challengers navigating parallel proceedings, say attorneys at Finnegan.
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What Businesses Need To Know To Avoid VPPA Class Actions
Divergent rulings by the Second, Sixth and Seventh Circuits about the scope of the Video Privacy Protection Act have highlighted the difficulty of applying a statute conceived to regulate the now-obsolete brick-and-mortar video store sector in today's internet economy, say attorneys at DTO Law.
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Series
Adapting To Private Practice: From US Rep. To Boutique Firm
My transition from serving as a member of Congress to becoming a partner at a boutique firm has been remarkably smooth, in part because I never stopped exercising my legal muscles, maintained relationships with my former colleagues and set the right tone at the outset, says Mondaire Jones at Friedman Kaplan.
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Opinion
IRS Should Work With Industry On Microcaptive Regs
The IRS should engage with microcaptive insurance owners to develop better regulations on these arrangements or risk the emergence of common law guidance as taxpayers with legitimate programs seek relief in the federal courts, says Dustin Carlson at SRA 831(b) Admin.
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FLSA Interpretation Patterns Emerge 1 Year After Loper Bright
One year after the U.S. Supreme Court's monumental decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, four distinct avenues of judicial decision-making have taken shape among lower courts that are responding to their newfound freedom in interpreting the Fair Labor Standards Act through U.S. Department of Labor regulations, say attorneys at Kutak Rock.
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A Pattern Emerges In Justices' Evaluation Of Veteran Statute
The recent Soto v. U.S. decision that the statute of limitations for certain military-related claims does not apply to combat-related special compensation exemplifies the U.S. Supreme Court's view, emerging in two other recent opinions, that it is a reviewing court's obligation to determine the best interpretation of the language used by Congress, says attorney Kenneth Carpenter.
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Fed. Circ. In May: Evaluating Opportunistic Trademark Filings
The Federal Circuit's decision last month in the "US Space Force" trademark case gives the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board additional clarity when working through opportunistic trademark filings, particularly when the mark's value is primarily due to the potential value of a false connection, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.