A blog on practice in the Nation’s second-most powerful court

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Appellate procedure

The D.C. Circuit’s jurisdictional trap in agency appeals

If you ever challenge federal agency actions, you’ll want to note a decision of the D.C. Circuit published last week. Everybody knows that, in federal ...
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Court

D.C. Circuit releases deluge of published opinions

Oral arguments ended in May, but the D.C. Circuit’s still churning out published rulings. Nine were issued this past week: a decision under the Internal ...
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Baby elephants
Statutory interpretation

Major questions v. elephants in mouseholes

Do you know the difference between the major-questions doctrine and the no-elephants-in-mouseholes principle? If you ever find yourself litigating against federal agencies, it’s a distinction ...
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Administrative law

D.C. Circuit throws shade on legislative history and Chevron

Are you a litigator looking for a federal case that (a) rejects legislative history, or (b) frowns on applying Chevron deference in the face of ...
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Briefing

The power of (strategic) concessions

A decision of the D.C. Circuit this past week shows the power of strategic concessions. The case involved a federal rule mandating shutoff valves in ...
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Appellate procedure

Federal Circuit judge sues her fellow judges in D.C. district court

Yesterday, in federal district court in DC, Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman sued her fellow judges for trying to oust her from the Federal Circuit. ...
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Civil Prodecure

How many facts does a complaint need to survive?

It’s been a decade-plus since Twombly (2007) and Iqbal (2009), but courts are still fleshing out the answer to that question. This past week, the ...
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Class Actions

D.C. Circuit rules on fail-safe classes and standards for 23(f) review

If you handle class actions, you’ll want to read the D.C. Circuit’s decision this past week on so-called fail-safe classes, a vexing topic that has ...
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Criminal Law

Criminal appeals in the D.C. Circuit versus other circuits

The court issued one published opinion this past week, a decision reviewing a criminal sentence for bank fraud. No. 21-3053, United States v. Otunyo. The ...
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Appellate procedure

Party? Hardly.

This week, the D.C. Circuit considered when a nonparty to a case can nonetheless appeal an order in the case. Answer: almost never. As the ...
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