In a significant ruling, the Supreme Court affirmed the authority of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to regulate weapon parts kits and unfinished frames or receivers as “firearms” under the Gun...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by Project Veritas, a conservative activist group that engages in undercover journalism, challenging the constitutionality of an...more
You can hit your snooze button a little later on Tuesdays. Effective January 1, 2025, the Court of Appeals’ scheduled filing days for opinions will be the first and third Wednesday of the month, Since the Court will be...more
In a 9-8 decision on December 10, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit struck down Nasdaq’s efforts to promote diversity on public company boards. The case, Alliance for Fair Board Recruitment v. SEC, vacated...more
On Tuesday, President-Elect Trump named Andrew Ferguson as incoming Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair. After earning his law degree from the University of Virginia, Mr. Ferguson clerked on the DC Circuit and for Supreme...more
Continuing its controversial and aggressive approaches to cybersecurity, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently charged four current and former public companies for purportedly “materially misleading...more
Last week, the FTC, by a 3-2 vote along party lines, adopted its click-to-cancel rule, which purports to make it easier to cancel gym memberships, streaming services, and the like. [We wrote about it here.] The final rule...more
For one of our authors, their kids’ current favorite treat is a chocolate bar sold by a popular YouTube personality (and philanthropist!). The kids know about this particular chocolate bar because the personality promotes it...more
A dissenting opinion in the Court of Appeals has long been a litigant’s Golden Ticket, at least until a recent statutory change. The mere existence of the dissent bestowed an automatic right of appeal to the Supreme Court of...more
In addition to Justice Gorsuch's concurrence (to be discussed in a later post), the three "liberal" Justices on the Court differed from their colleagues and thought overturning the Chevron precedent to be both erroneous and...more
Many acquisitions, especially privatisations, are structured as a statutory merger, and in this article, we provide a brief overview of Cayman Islands (“Cayman”) mergers and consolidations and the general requirements for...more
In a significant decision on April 17, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld significant penalties and attorney fees awarded to C.J. Hughes Construction Company, Inc. under the Pennsylvania Contractor...more
On May 7, 2024 the North Carolina Court of Appeals issued thirty-three published opinions There’s a lot to chew on here. Here’s my summary of a few of the more interesting or unusual cases. Warren v. Cielo...more
As my colleagues Brian Johnson and Ian Swan reported in March, dissenting and concurring opinions in Section 337 Investigations, either as footnotes or separate opinions, at the International Trade Commission (ITC) have...more
At the International Trade Commission (ITC), every decision made by an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) is subject to review by a panel of up to six Commissioners. In general, the Commission speaks as a unified voice through...more
Ironburg sued Valve for infringement of Ironburg’s video-game-console controller patent. Valve responded by filing an IPR challenging the claims on various grounds. The Patent Trial & Appeal Board instituted partial review...more
The four civil cases decided by the Supreme Court on 15 December 2023 hang together by a focus on minimalism and, in three of them, dissenting opinions by Justice Earls. Based on the current composition of the Supreme Court,...more
The successful appeal by dissenting shareholders in Trina Solar provides key insights into the importance of establishing a robust merger process, the company’s burden to make all relevant information available in appraisal...more
In State v. Richardson, 272A14, filed 1 September 2023, the Supreme Court of North Carolina reviewed the conviction and sentencing of the defendant. The evidence indicated the gruesome and protracted abuse of a child that...more
In a short order issued last week, the North Carolina Supreme Court narrowly voted to vacate a Court of Appeals’ opinion in connection with dismissing an appeal on mootness grounds. Well, I said that the order was short, but...more
Takeaway: The U.S. Supreme Court recently settled a circuit split by ruling that proceedings in a district court are automatically stayed when a party seeks an interlocutory appeal of a district court’s denial of a motion to...more
The future appears bright (or at least brighter) for the Supreme Court's seminal decision New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964), after six Justices endorsed its core principles in a recent decision involving the...more
In a much-anticipated decision, the Supreme Court last week ended the use of race as a factor in college admissions, effectively overturning its precedent in Grutter v. Bollinger. In a vote of 6-3, the Court held that the...more
Resolving a circuit split, the Supreme Court ruled that litigation, including discovery, is automatically stayed when a party appeals the denial of a motion to compel arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). ...more
On June 23, the Supreme Court held that proceedings in federal district court must be stayed during an interlocutory appeal from an order declining to enforce an arbitration agreement. Such an order can be appealed...more