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I’ve been following the circuit split over preserving purely legal issues via denied summary-judgment motions for some time. Now, the Supreme Court has finally resolved it. In Dupree v. Younger, the Court held that a denied summary-judgment motion preserves a purely legal issue. Litigants thus do not need to re-raise those issues in post-trial motions under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50.…

For years, several courts of appeals limited the scope of an appeal to the orders designated in a notice of appeal. Recent amendments to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 3(c) were supposed to end that practice. These amendments took effect in December 2021. Yet some courts have overlooked these changes, continuing to apply caselaw that the amendments abrogated.…

Orders on the disqualification of counsel are not normally appealable. In most cases, an appeal from a final judgment suffices to protect the relevant interests. But what about when a district court disqualifies an entire U.S. Attorney’s Office from participating in a prosecution? Several courts have held that such a disqualification is immediately appealable via the collateral-order doctrine.…

A few years ago, I wrote about the Fifth Circuit’s caselaw that allows government officials to immediately appeal discovery orders via the collateral-order doctrine. The case that sparked that discussion did not address appellate jurisdiction at all—I had to go to the briefs to figure out why the court was hearing a discovery appeal.…

In Industrial Services Group, Inc. v. Dobson, the Fourth Circuit gave a convincing explanation for why pendent appellate jurisdiction does not extend to standing in a sovereign-immunity appeal. The courts of appeals have split on this specific issue, and the caselaw is mixed on whether standing is part of other interlocutory appeals.…

In Makozy, v. Westcor Land Title, the Eleventh Circuit tackled a particularly complicated issue of appellate timing that involved the interaction between Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a)(4) and Rule 4(a)(7). Simplifying as much as possible (which isn’t much), the case asked if a post-judgment motion could shorten the 150 day period for entry of a judgment when the district court doesn’t set out the judgment in a separate document.…

Earlier this year, the Eleventh Circuit reiterated its rule that litigants cannot voluntarily dismiss individual claims under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(1). That portion of the rule permits plaintiffs to voluntarily dismiss “an action without a court order.” So plaintiffs can dismiss only entire actions under Rule 41(a)(1), and attempts to dismiss individual claims are ineffective.…

The two main events in April were probably the Sixth Circuit’s potential expansion of Microsoft Corp. v. Baker and oral argument in the Supreme Court case on preserving issues raised in denied summary-judgment motions.

But there were several other decisions of note. Two courts addressed class-certification appeals under Rule 23(f)—one explaining the standards for granting Rule 23(f) petitions and another holding that it can address standing in those appeals.…

In Ohio Public Employees Retirement System v. Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., the Sixth Circuit held that an invited summary-judgment decision was not final because the plaintiff was trying to circumvent Rule 23(f). The district court had denied class certification. The plaintiff then tried to manufacture a final, appealable decision by asking the district court to enter judgment against it.…

The highlight from last month is probably the Second Circuit’s conclusion that it did not need to address its own jurisdiction when the district court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction. The decision was an immense, erroneous, and very likely unintentional expansion of federal appellate jurisdiction.

There was also a fascinating D.C. Circuit decision on what it means to be a “party” when appealing discovery orders directed at others.…