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Last week, the Eighth Circuit tackled the administrative remand rule and—finding it didn’t apply—inferred a § 1292(b) certification by the district court. The Eleventh Circuit reviewed a motion that challenged the filtering procedures for reviewing seized evidence. A handful of courts refused to review additional issues and defenses as part of qualified-immunity appeals.…

I saw only three decisions of note last week. The Fifth Circuit used pendent appellate jurisdiction to review an interlocutory discovery order. And the Sixth Circuit addressed its appellate jurisdiction in two habeas cases. One concerned an order requiring a petitioner’s transport to a university hospital for medical examination. The other concerned expanding the scope of an initial appeal to excuse the failure to timely file a subsequent appeal.…

Last week, the Seventh Circuit reviewed a dismissal without prejudice, as the plaintiff could not do anything to correct the defects that led to the without-prejudice dismissal. Judge Easterbrook concurred to explain that once a district court is finished with a case, that court has issued a final decision.

In three decisions, courts of appeals addressed various aspects of qualified immunity.…

When I think of class actions, I think of their use in district courts. But a new paper from Adam Zimmerman (forthcoming in the University of Chicago Law Review) shows that class actions can also have a place in appellate courts, where class appeals can remedy failures in administrative adjudication.…

Quick roundup this week. A split Ninth Circuit divided over the scope of a Rule 23(f) appeal. The majority held that it could review whether a defendant waived a personal-jurisdiction objection to class certification. The dissent thought that personal jurisdiction was outside the scope of review.

In other decisions, the Ninth Circuit said that “heirs” is not specific enough to satisfy Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 3(c)(1)’s party-designation requirement.…

There is lots to talk about from last week, including decisions involving three circuit splits. A divided Second Circuit created a split over the appealability of fugitive-disentitlement orders. The Eighth Circuit held that bankruptcy’s appeal deadline is non-jurisdictional, joining the Sixth Circuit in the split on that issue. And the Fifth Circuit noted that it now stands alone as the only court to allow appeals from denials of antitrust’s state-action defense.…

Sometimes a fugitive defendant’s lawyer will appear in court to challenge the charges against the defendant. The defendant—who has failed to appear, evaded capture, or fled the jurisdiction—is absent. Yet the defendant hopes that the district court will dismiss some or all of the charges before the defendant submits to the court’s jurisdiction.…

Last week, the Fourth Circuit held that it could review hardship determinations in immigration appeals. In doing so, the court added to one side of the circuit split on this issue.

In other decisions, the Eleventh Circuit heard an appeal from the denial of immunity under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act in a criminal case.…

All of the appellate-jurisdiction action last week was in the Sixth and Eleventh Circuits.

The en banc Eleventh Circuit unanimously overruled its caselaw that allowed defendants to immediately appeal the denial of antitrust’s state-action defense, which is often called “Parker immunity.” The court explained that the defense is not an immunity from suit.…

The Bivens question asks whether a damages action exists for a federal official’s unconstitutional conduct. In Wilkie v. Robbins, the Supreme Court held that courts of appeals can address the Bivens question as part of an appeal from the denial of qualified immunity. But the Bivens question standing alone has not been deemed immediately appealable.…