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In In re Williams-Sonoma, Inc., a district court had ordered a defendant to produce a list of its customers so opposing counsel could identify a lead plaintiff to pursue a class action. A split panel of the Ninth Circuit concluded that this discovery order was clearly erroneous and warranted reversal via mandamus.…

Last week was a busy one. Several opinions (including one from the en banc Fifth Circuit) addressed appealability under the collateral-order doctrine. The Federal Circuit held that a premature notice of appeal was saved by a party abandoning all outstanding claims at oral argument. The Eleventh Circuit correctly addressed pendent appellate jurisdiction in qualified-immunity appeals.…

In Williams v. Catoe, the en banc Fifth Circuit held that orders denying appointed counsel in § 1983 suits are not immediately appealable via the collateral-order doctrine. The court concluded that these orders were effectively reviewable in an appeal from a final judgment. In doing so, the Fifth Circuit overruled its decision in Robbins v.…

Back from winter break with two holiday weeks of interesting appellate-jurisdiction opinions. Judge Fletcher offered an interesting take on Johnson v. Jones. Two circuits dealt with the blatant-contradiction exception to the normal jurisdictional limits on qualified-immunity appeals. Another opinion questioned the jurisdictional nature of immigration exhaustion. Plus two decisions on the content requirements for notices of appeal, the administrative-remand rule, and several cert-stage filings in cases I’ve been following.…

This is the last weekly roundup of 2019; they’ll return after the holidays. And we’re ending with an eventful week of several interesting—though often technical—appellate-jurisdiction decisions. The Second Circuit held that immigration’s appeal deadline is non-jurisdictional and subject to equitable tolling. The D.C. Circuit determined that an order requiring disclosure of executive-department emails sufficiently modified an earlier injunction and was thus appealable.…

Last week was quite eventful. The Supreme Court heard argument in three cases that raise interesting appellate issues. The Fourth Circuit sat en banc to consider the use of mandamus to direct a § 1292(b) certification. Two Sixth Circuit judges wrote concurrences calling for that court to re-examine some of its appellate-jurisdiction rules (one on immigration exhaustion, another on arbitration remands).…

The post-holiday week saw only a handful of appellate-jurisdiction decisions. The Eighth Circuit addressed a local bankruptcy rule that required separate notices of appeal to appeal separate orders. The Eleventh Circuit rejected a fact-based qualified-immunity appeal. The Sixth Circuit extended pendent appellate jurisdiction over a plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment in another qualified-immunity appeal.…

The short holiday week still had a few decisions of note. The Fourth Circuit weighed in on the split over the finality of orders remanding immigration proceedings for background checks. The Seventh Circuit joined the Third Circuit (but disagreed with the Sixth) in holding that failure to object to an untimely motion to reconsider did not make that motion timely for purposes of tolling appellate deadlines.…

Last week saw a variety of interesting decisions and developments in federal appellate jurisdiction. Two courts addressed their post-Hall v. Hall jurisdiction over appeals in consolidated actions. Three courts had to address the sufficiency of notices of appeal, with two of them using the order-designation requirement to narrow the scope of appeals.…

Last week, the Fifth Circuit granted rehearing en banc in Williams v. Taylor Seidenbach, Inc. to address appealing dismissals without prejudice. The Ninth Circuit gave some relief to those who—in reliance on Ninth Circuit caselaw that was abrogated by Microsoft Corp. v. Baker—voluntarily dismissed their cases to appeal a class-certification denial.…