5th Circuit Court

Lawyer who challenged border cellphone searches isn’t entitled to injunction, 5th Circuit says

A Texas immigration lawyer whose cellphone was searched at least five times when he entered the United States isn’t entitled to a preliminary injunction preventing such searches without a warrant, a federal appeals court has ruled.

Jun 22, 2023 9:18 AM CDT

We ‘live on a pro se planet;’ 5th Circuit allows parents to sometimes represent children without lawyers

A federal appeals court is giving a pro se parent a chance to persuade a federal judge that she may represent her minor children without a lawyer in a federal lawsuit filed against a Texas school district.

Jun 6, 2023 12:39 PM CDT

Is the word ‘alien’ objectionable? Federal appeals judge sees ‘no need to bowdlerize’ decisions and laws

A federal appeals judge who announced plans to boycott Yale Law School students for clerkships is taking aim at his colleagues for using the word “noncitizen” instead of “alien."

Jun 5, 2023 12:21 PM CDT

Appeals court decision allowing release of Sackler family from opioid liability deepens circuit split

A federal appeals court has upheld a bankruptcy plan for Purdue Pharma that shielded the company’s owners from liability in civil opioid lawsuits in exchange for their agreement to contribute up to $6 billion to resolve the litigation.

Jun 1, 2023 1:35 PM CDT

‘I don’t understand this theme that FDA can do no wrong,’ says 5th Circuit judge on mifepristone approval

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at New Orleans on Wednesday appears ready to restrict approval of the abortion medication mifepristone.

May 18, 2023 9:30 AM CDT

Is qualified immunity based on scrivener’s error? Law review article makes case

Scholars and courts have overlooked what could be a scrivener’s error that changes the text of the law that permits lawsuits against state and local government officials for constitutional violations, according to a February law review article.

May 16, 2023 10:56 AM CDT

Gun owner who challenged ban on bump stocks wins in latest 6th Circuit decision

A federal appeals court has ruled in favor of a gun owner who challenged a federal regulation that bans bump stocks—the devices that dramatically accelerate gunfire on semi-automatic rifles.

Apr 27, 2023 9:11 AM CDT

Creating circuit split, 9th Circuit rules Biden had power to require vaccines for federal contractors

President Joe Biden had the authority to issue an executive order requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for employees of federal contractors, a federal appeals court has ruled.

Apr 26, 2023 1:43 PM CDT

Judge who blocked access to abortion pill has unusual redaction in financial disclosure forms

A Texas federal judge who blocked access to the abortion drug mifepristone did not disclose certain information about the millions of dollars in stock that he owns when he filled out financial disclosure forms for 2020 and 2021.

Apr 24, 2023 12:48 PM CDT

Alito ‘packed a lot of grievance’ in dissent as Supreme Court allows access to abortion pill—for now

Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented from the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Friday to allow continued full access, for now, to the abortion medication mifepristone. But Alito spoke only for himself in a written dissent; Thomas did not indicate the reason for his dissent.

Apr 24, 2023 11:03 AM CDT

Alito keeps abortion drug access in place to give SCOTUS more time to act on emergency request

Justice Samuel Alito on Wednesday extended an administrative stay to give the U.S. Supreme Court more time to consider an emergency request to allow full access to the abortion drug mifepristone during a challenge to its approval.

Apr 19, 2023 3:10 PM CDT

Stanford Law’s Black Law Students Association pulls out of recruiting activities after Federalist Society event

Updated: Stanford Law School’s Black Law Students Association will not participate in formal recruiting events, following the school’s apology to Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at New Orleans.

Apr 19, 2023 1:43 PM CDT

Justice Alito keeps full access to mifepristone in place pending briefing next week

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito granted an administrative stay Friday that temporarily allows access to the abortion drug mifepristone for up to 10 weeks of pregnancy, as well as access through the mail.

Apr 14, 2023 3:58 PM CDT

Why the 5th Circuit is allowing abortion pill sales but pausing expanded access to the drug

Updated: Anti-abortion doctors and medical associations likely sued too late to revoke the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 2000 approval of the abortion pill mifepristone, a federal appeals court has ruled in temporarily staying part of an April 7 decision by U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk of Texas.

Apr 13, 2023 10:44 AM CDT

As 2 appeals judges add Stanford Law to clerk boycott, 3L says moderates are too intimidated to speak out

Two federal appeals judges are refusing to hire law clerks from Stanford Law School after students there heckled a conservative federal appeals judge during a speech last month. A 3L wrote an op-ed claiming many moderate students are afraid to engage.

Apr 3, 2023 4:15 PM CDT