Posts in category “Monthly Roundup”
Last month produced decisions involving a variety of appellate-jurisdiction issues. The Fifth Circuit decertified a § 1292(b) appeal. Judge Pillard of the D.C. Circuit explained that appellate “standing” does not require re-establishing standing in the court of appeals. The Sixth Circuit said that qualified immunity and an action’s merits are intertwined, which suggests (perhaps unintentionally) that denials of qualified immunity should not be immediately appealable via the collateral-order doctrine. And the Fifth Circuit allowed a municipal defendant to appeal a denial of immunity despite the district court also ordering arbitration.
On top of that, the Supreme Court granted cert to address whether a second notice of appeal is required after a district court reopens the time to appeal. And a new cert petition asks if the denial of derivative sovereign immunity is immediately appealable.
Plus abstention appeals in bankruptcy, requiring would-be intervenors to appeal, the need to attach judgments in bankruptcy appeals, and much more.
Last month saw a pair of decisions on when post-judgment motions reset the appeal clock for interlocutory appeals. The Ninth Circuit addressed its jurisdiction over a government appeal when the government invites the district court to dismiss an indictment. The Ninth Circuit also addressed jurisdiction over cross-appeals under the administrative-remand rule. Plus an improper qualified-immunity appeal and more doubts about anti-SLAPP appeals.
November saw a pair of interesting decisions on the application of Smith v. Spizzirri as well as a formal standard for successive injunction appeals in the Tenth Circuit. But let’s start with a decision on whether a post-judgment motion to reconsider reset the appeal clock.
October was discovery-appeal month. The Ninth Circuit held that a § 1782 order was not final when the district court had not resolved post-order objections to the discovery. The Fifth Circuit permitted an immediate appeal from a discovery order that implicated First Amendment interests. The Eleventh Circuit held that a party could not take a Perlman appeal when the same objections to discovery could be addressed through the party’s own contempt appeal. And a new cert petition asks if discovery orders are immediately appealable when a defendant has raised the qualified-immunity defense.
There were some additional decisions of note, including an attempted collateral-order appeal on the Yearsley doctrine and the Fifth Circuit’s reconciliation of the prison-mailbox and the mistaken-filing rules. But let’s start with a nice reminder that appellate courts need to have their own jurisdiction before they can address the district court’s.
September saw yet another court of appeals split over whether federal officials can immediately appeal the Bivens question without a qualified-immunity appeal. I’ve been following this issue for a while, and at least one more court of appeals is poised to address it. I won’t be surprised to see some cert petitions on this matter in the not-too-distant future.
In other developments, the Second Circuit held that Rule 4(a)(4) is a mandatory claims-processing rule, meaning that a court cannot excuse a failure to comply with it. The Tenth Circuit again failed to apply the Rule 3(c) amendments to a notice of appeal, instead limiting the scope of appeal to the order designated in the notice. And the Second Circuit addressed the state-sponsored terrorism bar to appeals from denials of foreign sovereign immunity. Plus the scope of remand appeals, the prison-mailbox rule applied to electronic filing, and more.
A new assistant paw-fessor/junior paw-ssociate joined Final Decisions.
That didn’t leave a lot of time to write this month’s roundup. So this month is mostly quick notes. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t cases of interest.
July was a fairly quiet month. But there were still a few decisions worth discussing.
Quick roundup this month, starting with another expansion of the scope of qualified-immunity appeals.
Last month saw the Supreme Court wrap up its appellate-jurisdiction docket for the term. The Court held that district courts must stay actions after ordering arbitration so long as a party requests a stay. The Court also held that another deadline—the time to appeal MSPB decisions—is not jurisdictional.
The courts of appeals also issued several decisions of note. The Tenth Circuit rejected the government’s efforts to obtain pure Bivens appeals. The Federal Circuit held that a denial of PREP Act immunity was not appealable via the collateral-order doctrine. And the Third Circuit explained that Rule 23(f) appeals should involve novel and unresolved questions concerning class certification—not novel and unresolved questions on the merits. Plus much more, including multiple decisions on the meaning of claims, counts, theories, and orders when it comes to discretionary appeals.
April was a very busy month, with dozens of decisions and developments worth mentioning. Let’s get started.
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