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Extensive post-judgment proceedings sometimes follow litigation. These proceedings might involve efforts to collect on a judgment. Or they might involve a district court’s supervision of a consent decree or remedial injunction. These post-judgment proceedings are considered a separate action for finality purposes. So litigants have a right to appeal from a final decision.…

Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a)(5) permits district courts to extend the appeal deadline upon a showing of good cause or excusable neglect. The Seventh Circuit has held that this good-cause/excusable-neglect requirement is jurisdictional. That means the court of appeals must police the good-cause/excusable-neglect requirement on its own initiative, even if the parties do not dispute it.…

Last week, the Seventh Circuit explained the circumstances under which litigants can appeal from Colorado River stays: issues need not be identical, nor must the state court proceedings resolve all of the federal action. The Eleventh Circuit held that it could review a denial of asylum even though an immigration petitioner had been granted withholding of removal.…

I’m on vacation this week, which means a truncated weekly roundup.…

Last week, the Federal Circuit might have kicked off another game of jurisdictional hot potato with the Fifth Circuit. Those courts can’t agree on where Walker Process appeals belong, and the Federal Circuit just sent another to the Fifth. The Sixth Circuit declined to weigh in on whether district courts must stay (and not dismiss) actions after ordering arbitration.…

A few years ago, in Xitronix v. KLA-Tencor, the Fifth and Federal Circuits could not agree on which of them should hear an appeal. The issue was whether a Walker Process claim arose under patent law. If it did, the Federal Circuit would have exclusive jurisdiction; if not, the appeal would go to the appropriate regional circuit.…

Last week, the Eighth Circuit said that an appeal from a refusal to compel arbitration encompasses all issues resolved alongside that refusal, even those unrelated to arbitration. So the court could address the propriety of class-action allegations as part of an arbitration appeal. The First Circuit held that the Bankruptcy Rules—not the Civil Rules—apply to cases consolidated under § 1334(b).…

Quick roundup this week. There were two cert denials of note. One asked if denied summary-judgment motions preserve purely legal issues. The other asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on the finality trap. In the courts of appeals, the Eleventh Circuit held that defendants must obtain a certificate of appealability to challenge a district court’s decision to correct the improper part of a sentence (rather than resentence in full).…

The big news last week was the Supreme Court’s decision on the scope of remand appeals under 28 U.S.C. § 1447(d). There were also several decisions of note in the courts of appeals, all from the D.C. and Third Circuits. The D.C. Circuit held that it had jurisdiction to review denials of compassionate release under either 28 U.S.C.…

In BP P.L.C. v. Mayor & City Council of Baltimore, the Supreme Court adopted the broad reading of the exceptions to 28 U.S.C. § 1447(d): if a defendant invokes the federal-officer removal statute (28 U.S.C. § 1442) or the civil-rights removal statute (28 U.S.C. § 1443) in removing a case, the defendant can appeal a remand order and obtain review of all proffered grounds for removal.…