Posts in category “Weekly Roundup”

Last week saw a trio of decisions on appeal deadlines. The Fifth Circuit appears to have held that the 30-day window for filing a notice of appeal in a civil case is not jurisdictional, which means that courts can excuse late notices. The Sixth Circuit addressed the effect of stricken post-judgment motions on the appeal deadline.…

Last week saw a divided Third Circuit address when a district court decision is, practically speaking, an appealable injunction. The Third Circuit also issued two decisions holding that the scope of a qualified-immunity appeal includes prior denials of immunity. The Ninth Circuit explained why a request for attorneys’ fees does not stop the appeal clock (and cannot be re-characterized as a Rule 59 motion).…

Last week saw a new split on whether the government can appeal the denial of its motion to dismiss a qui tam suit. The Eleventh Circuit held that a defendant could not appeal the denial of a renewed challenge to the plaintiff’s proceeding anonymously. Sitting en banc, that court also addressed its caselaw on the scope of certain immigration appeals.…

Last week saw the First Circuit join the list of courts with internally inconsistent law on when subsequent events save a premature notice of appeal. An Eleventh Circuit decision produced three separate opinions on the collateral-order doctrine’s application to appeals from the denial of state-action immunity. The D.C. Circuit held that overlap between resolved and unresolved claims made a Rule 54(b) appeal improper.…

Lots of interesting appellate-jurisdiction decisions last week. The Third Circuit allowed what looked to be a pure interlocutory appeal of the Bivens question. The Ninth Circuit held that the government could not immediately appeal the denial of its motion to dismiss a qui tam suit, at least when the government had not intervened.…

Last week saw a slew of Ninth Circuit decisions of note. The court addressed appeals after some claims have been dismissed without prejudice, Perlman appeals, and cumulative finality. The Seventh Circuit also had its own cumulative-finality decision when a plaintiff appealed rather than amend its complaint. Several courts addressed the facts they should take as true for purposes of a qualified-immunity appeal.…

Relatively brief roundup this week. A split Ninth Circuit held that it lacked jurisdiction to review an order directing class-wide arbitration when the defendant wanted individual arbitration. The Third Circuit applied the blatant-contradiction exception to review the genuineness of fact disputes in a qualified-immunity appeal. And the Seventh Circuit required an amended notice of appeal to challenge a post-judgment order refusing to unseal records.…

Last week, the Eleventh Circuit addressed its appellate jurisdiction after some claims have been voluntarily dismissed without prejudice. The Fourth Circuit held that defendants can forfeit the Bivens question in an interlocutory qualified-immunity appeal. The Federal Circuit reviewed a non-final order from the Veterans Court. And the reply in support of cert was filed in a case that asks the Supreme Court to address the scope of remand appeals under 28 U.S.C.…

Last week was eventful. The Tenth Circuit joined the Fourth and Ninth Circuits in holding that an exception to § 1447(d)’s bar on reviewing remand orders allowed review of only the expressly excepted grounds for removal. All three of those decisions could be on their way to the Supreme Court. In a case involving service of process via Twitter on a former head of state, the D.C.…

Last week saw two decisions in which courts had to reject fact-based qualified-immunity appeals. A new cert petition asks if the government can use mandamus to take interlocutory appeals in criminal cases that are not otherwise authorized by statute. The Fifth Circuit addressed the appealability of decisions severing or transferring third-party admiralty claims.…