Posts in category “Appellate Decisions”

When an action involves multiple claims, appeals normally must wait until the district court has resolved all of claims. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(b) is one exception to this general rule. It permits a district court to enter a partial judgment on the resolution of some (but not all) claims in an action.…

The Supreme Court recently amended Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 3(c). Before these amendments, several courts of appeals had used Rule 3(c)’s order-designation requirement to limit the scope of an appeal. The amendments—which were a necessary fix to a bad misreading of Rule 3(c)—became effective December 1, 2021. The Supreme Court’s order adopting the amendments said that the new rule would “govern in all proceedings in appellate cases thereafter commenced and, insofar as just and practicable, all proceedings then pending.”…

The Class Action Fairness Act (often referred to as “CAFA”) permits the removal of certain class actions brought in state court. CAFA includes a special appellate provision—28 U.S.C. § 1453(c)(1)—which gives the courts of appeals discretion to review a district court order “granting or denying a motion to remand a class action to the State court from which it was removed.”…

28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(1) gives the courts of appeals jurisdiction to immediately review many district court decisions involving injunctive relief. But § 1292(a)(1)’s text includes an important qualifier. It applies to “[i]nterlocutory orders of the district courts.” Normally this qualifier does little work. After all, most (if not nearly all) § 1292(a)(1) appeals involve injunctions issued by a district court.…

One requirement for appeal via the collateral-order doctrine is that the district court’s order be effectively unreviewable in an appeal after a final judgment. A prime candidate for satisfying this unreviewability requirement are immunities from suit. If a defense protects a litigant from the burdens and uncertainties of trial, it must be vindicated immediately if it is to be vindicated at all.…

The general rule for appealing interlocutory arbitration orders is pretty straightforward. Under 9 U.S.C. § 16, orders that refuse to direct arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act are immediately appealable. Orders that direct arbitration aren’t. But what if an order directs arbitration on some claims but not on others?…

When a district court denies qualified immunity at summary judgment, defendants have a right to appeal. But the scope of that appeal is limited. With rare and narrow exceptions, the court of appeals lacks jurisdiction to review the genuineness of any fact disputes—i.e., the facts that (according to the district court) a reasonable jury could find.…

After a district court enters its final judgment, civil litigants normally have 30 days to file their notice of appeal. But certain events—including the timely filing of certain post-judgment motions—can reset the appeal clock. When a litigant timely files one of these motions, the time to appeal runs from the district court’s decision disposing of that motion.…

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.…

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.…