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It was another slow week, with only two decisions of note. The First Circuit used mandamus to review a discovery order that implicated legislative privilege. And Judge Willett dissented from an opinion reversing the denial of qualified immunity. According to Judge Willett, the majority had evaded the normal jurisdictional limits on reviewing the factual basis for an immunity denial.…

Last week saw only two decisions of note. The Sixth Circuit discussed whether an appellant can amend its notice of appeal (rather than file a second notice) to include a post-judgment decision on expert-witness fees. And Judge Tjoflat of the Eleventh Circuit wrote a concurrence on jurisdiction to review denials of qualified immunity at summary judgment.…

Last week, the Fifth Circuit refused to dismiss a private defendant’s appeal in a challenge to Texas’s new abortion restrictions. But the court’s explanation is inscrutable, and the grounds for appellate jurisdiction don’t make sense.

There were also two decisions involving the exercise of pendent appellate jurisdiction. The Eleventh Circuit’s embraced municipal piggybacking in qualified-immunity appeals.…

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.…