Posts in category “Monthly Roundup”

June was arbitration-appeals month. In its third and last decision of the term relating to appellate jurisdiction, the Supreme Court held that district courts must stay proceedings on the merits pending an interlocutory arbitration appeal. In the courts of appeals, the Third Circuit reviewed the denial of a motion to dismiss that effectively sought arbitration.…

May was quite a month for appellate jurisdiction.

We saw two Supreme Court decisions—one on preserving legal issues via denied summary-judgment motions, and one on the non-jurisdictionality of immigration exhaustion. And the government has agreed that cert is appropriate to address the reviewability of exceptional-hardship determinations in immigration appeals.

In the courts of appeals, there were significant decisions on the scope of Rule 41—does it apply only to entire actions or also to discrete claims?—and…

The two main events in April were probably the Sixth Circuit’s potential expansion of Microsoft Corp. v. Baker and oral argument in the Supreme Court case on preserving issues raised in denied summary-judgment motions.

But there were several other decisions of note. Two courts addressed class-certification appeals under Rule 23(f)—one explaining the standards for granting Rule 23(f) petitions and another holding that it can address standing in those appeals.…

The highlight from last month is probably the Second Circuit’s conclusion that it did not need to address its own jurisdiction when the district court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction. The decision was an immense, erroneous, and very likely unintentional expansion of federal appellate jurisdiction.

There was also a fascinating D.C. Circuit decision on what it means to be a “party” when appealing discovery orders directed at others.…

February produced a variety of decisions and developments of note. I discussed many of these in posts throughout the month, which are summarized and linked below. There were also some developments on the issue of whether denials of church-autonomy defenses are immediately appealable via the collateral-order doctrine—a divided Second Circuit denied rehearing en banc on the issue, and a new cert petition asks the Supreme Court to address these appeals.…

I’ve put the weekly roundup on hiatus for a now. In its place, I’m going to try (emphasis on try) more individual posts and monthly roundups.

So here is the first monthly roundup, covering the appellate-jurisdiction highlights of January 2023. It features a cert grant on a long-simmering circuit split, a new circuit split on contempt appeals, some pendent appellate jurisdiction, and a new cert petition on another split.…