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
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
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
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
When you hear about an appellate decision, what comes to mind? Typically, I think of a formal “opinion”—at least when the appeal has been briefed on the merits. And historically, I have thought of an “order” as a short...more
A few weeks ago, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit answered a critical inquiry in the False Claims Act (“FCA”) context: does a defendant violate the FCA when it’s reading of the regulation is objectionably...more
There was a time when I thought of a writ of prohibition as a mythical creature that only exists in fairy tales. As it turns out, the writ does exist. And in a decision on the writ that was entered this week, the Court of...more
Under Appellate Rule 10, the general rule is that appellate courts only decide issues properly raised, argued, and decided in the trial tribunal. But exceptions to this general rule exist for issues considered so fundamental...more
If there is no binding precedent on point, where does the Supreme Court of North Carolina look for guidance? Which are more persuasive: federal court opinions or North Carolina Court of Appeals opinions? Does the answer to...more
North Carolina General Statute § 7A-30(2) allows for an appeal as of right to the Supreme Court of North Carolina from “any decision of the Court of Appeals rendered in a case…in which there is a dissent.” Seems pretty...more
Next week is Court week. Readers may remember that, after the Court released the September calendar, we predicted that the submission trend would continue. Were we right? Sort of....more
Last week, we continued our look at Ninth Circuit en bancs by examining which judges were most and least likely to dissent in the 60 en banc cases submitted and decided since December 2014.* This week, we look at cases...more
Last week, we began our look at the Ninth Circuit en bancs by examining which judges were most and least likely to be selected to en banc panels. This week, we address what these judges decide when selected: who tends to be...more
Last week, in Uniloc 2017 LLC v. Hulu, LLC, the Federal Circuit ruled that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board may consider patent eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101 for substitute claims. The appeal raises issues of finality...more
WHAT DO WE KNOW? 1. On July 22, 2020, a sharply split Federal Circuit panel held that “[t]he PTAB correctly concluded that it is not limited by § 311(b) in its review of proposed substitute claims in an IPR, and that it...more