Judge who blocked lawyer on Facebook can’t be sued for First Amendment violation, 5th Circuit says

A Texas judge who blocked a lawyer from his Facebook page and deleted the lawyer’s negative comments can’t be sued for a constitutional violation, a federal appeals court has ruled.

Mar 30, 2023 3:18 PM CDT

Exchange at Stanford Law event with Federalist Society wasn’t productive, associate dean says

A Stanford Law School administrator shown at a campus event with the Federalist Society in which audience members heckled a federal appellate judge told her side of the story Thursday in an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal.

Mar 24, 2023 11:32 AM CDT

After ‘disruptive heckling,’ Stanford Law requires free speech session, notes associate dean’s leave

Stanford Law School is requiring its students to attend an educational session on free speech following students’ “disruptive heckling” of a conservative federal appeals judge during a March 9 speech with the Federalist Society.

Mar 23, 2023 11:09 AM CDT

Law firms can’t be sanctioned for multiplying cases ‘vexatiously’ in federal court, 5th Circuit says

A provision of federal law that allows sanctions for multiplying legal proceedings “unreasonably and vexatiously” applies to lawyers but not their law firms, a federal appeals court has ruled.

Mar 14, 2023 12:46 PM CDT

Stanford apologizes after conservative federal appeals judge is heckled during Federalist Society talk

U.S. Circuit Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan has received an apology after protesters he described as “juvenile idiots” interrupted his March 9 speech with the Federalist Society at Stanford Law School.

Mar 13, 2023 11:32 AM CDT

Supreme Court accepts challenge to funding of consumer bureau that could put 12 years of CFPB actions at risk

Feb 27, 2023 10:37 AM CST

7 judges on 5th Circuit question ‘perpetual funding’ of government programs; is Social Security at risk?

Seven judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at New Orleans have embraced the view that “perpetual funding” of government agencies or programs violates the Constitution’s appropriations clause.

Feb 13, 2023 3:23 PM CST

5th Circuit looks to history and strikes down law banning gun possession by subjects of civil protective orders

A federal appeals court has struck down a ban on gun possession by people subject to domestic-violence restraining orders, citing the historical approach required by the U.S. Supreme Court’s latest Second Amendment precedent.

Feb 3, 2023 1:31 PM CST

Federal appeals court strikes down ATF rule banning rapid-fire bump stocks

Updated: The en banc 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at New Orleans has struck down a Trump administration ban on bump stocks, which are used to accelerate gunfire on semi-automatic weapons.

Jan 9, 2023 9:55 AM CST

Prisoner who can’t show ‘factual innocence’ isn’t entitled to habeas relief, 5th Circuit says

A Mississippi inmate’s habeas appeal is doomed because of U.S. Supreme Court decisions remarking that federal courts have discretion to deny relief as “law and justice require,” a federal appeals court ruled last month.

Jan 5, 2023 8:54 AM CST

Western District of Louisiana is preferred venue for conservative states challenging Biden policies

Republican-led states banding together to challenge Biden administration policies are filing their cases in the Western District of Louisiana, where they can “virtually guarantee” that a GOP-appointed judge will be hearing their cases, according to an exclusive article by Bloomberg Law.

Dec 22, 2022 10:17 AM CST

Bryan Garner’s 2022 legal writing tips

This year, Bryan Garner gave us a new game for word lovers, a hypothesis on hyphens and four principles of legal writing that he learned as a clerk in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at New Orleans. Here's the full wrap-up of 2022 columns by the Black's Law Dictionary's editor-in-chief.

Dec 22, 2022 8:34 AM CST

‘Major questions’ doctrine applies to presidential authority, 5th Circuit says in federal contractor vaccine case

President Joe Biden didn’t have authority under the Procurement Act of 1949 to require federal contractors to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for their employees, a federal appeals court has ruled.

Dec 21, 2022 8:33 AM CST

Judge’s failure to recuse because of stock ownership doesn’t require vacating decision, 5th Circuit says

A federal appeals court has refused to disturb a judge’s ruling in favor of Walmart, despite her ownership of company stock.

Dec 12, 2022 10:49 AM CST

2 federal appeals judges boycotting Yale Law clerks see progress in campus tolerance for conservative views

Two conservative federal appeals judges who previously announced plans to boycott Yale Law School clerks said they are seeing progress in tolerance for differing viewpoints at a university event Wednesday.

Dec 2, 2022 9:15 AM CST