3rd Circuit Court

Which firms, legal groups, law profs signed briefs supporting Perkins Coie in challenge to punitive Trump order?

Amicus briefs supporting Perkins Coie are piling up in its challenge to a punitive order against the law firm signed by President Donald Trump.

Apr 8, 2025 8:52 AM CDT

Federal judge’s warning about potential violence after Trump’s comments was not ethics violation, 3rd Circuit says

A federal judge didn't violate ethics rules when he commented about the potential for violence when “people in positions of authority” make negative comments about a judge or the judge’s family members, according to a federal appellate judicial council.

Mar 25, 2025 3:29 PM CDT

Supreme Court will review Colorado ban on conversion therapy for LGBTQ minors

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide whether a Colorado ban on conversion therapy for LGBTQ minors—which aims to change sexual orientation or gender identity through counseling—violates the First Amendment.

Mar 10, 2025 1:38 PM CDT

Forget originalism; some conservatives back ‘common-good constitutionalism,’ its embrace of strong rule

Adrian Vermeule, a professor at Harvard Law School, is an “ideological lodestar” among conservatives who are impatient with originalism—the idea that the Constitution’s meaning can be determined by its text and the founders’ intent, according to a story by the New York Times.

Feb 19, 2025 11:37 AM CST

Using Westlaw headnotes to train competing AI legal research program isn’t fair use, judge rules

An appeals judge sitting by designation changed his mind Tuesday and partly ruled for Thomson Reuters in its lawsuit claiming that a legal research startup committed copyright infringement by training its artificial intelligence program using Westlaw headnotes.

Feb 12, 2025 2:30 PM CST

Stalled 3rd Circuit judicial nominee, a Muslim, criticizes ‘performative McCarthyism’ of review process

A Muslim judicial nominee for the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Philadelphia has asserted that the process for picking federal judges is “fundamentally broken” and based on “performative McCarthyism before video cameras.”

Dec 17, 2024 10:27 AM CST

2 federal judges have changed their minds about senior status; will 2 appeals judges follow suit?

After President-elect Donald Trump won a second term in the White House, two Democratic-appointed federal judges announced that they no longer plan to take senior status.

Dec 5, 2024 10:02 AM CST

Supreme Court orders reconsideration of appellate decision on youths carrying guns

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday told a federal appeals court to reconsider its decision that blocked a Pennsylvania ban on youths openly carrying guns during a state of emergency.

Oct 15, 2024 2:46 PM CDT

Death row inmate held in solitary confinement for 26 years can sue, federal appeals court rules

A death row inmate with a known history of serious mental illness can sue Pennsylvania’s corrections chief for holding him in solitary confinement for 26 years, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

Sep 26, 2024 9:22 AM CDT

Trump-appointed appeals judges are ‘superstars’ based on 3 measures, study says

Are federal appeals judges appointed by former President Donald Trump disproportionately “superstars in a tournament of judges”? The answer is yes, a new study says, based on three measures used in the past by the study authors.

Sep 12, 2024 3:01 PM CDT

TikTok can be sued over ‘Blackout Challenge’ that led to death, 3rd Circuit says

A federal appeals court has ruled that a mother of a 10-year-old Pennsylvania girl who died after copying a “Blackout Challenge” that appeared on her TikTok “For You Page” can sue the social media company.

Sep 3, 2024 2:53 PM CDT

Supreme Court won’t hear lawyer’s challenge to anti-bias ethics rule

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied certiorari in a challenge to a Pennsylvania ethics rule that bars lawyers from knowingly engaging in conduct that constitutes discrimination and harassment in the practice of law.

Apr 24, 2024 10:16 AM CDT

Apology sanctions for misleading court were ‘mild and fitting,’ 3rd Circuit rules in appeal by DA’s office

A federal judge did not abuse his discretion when he imposed “mild and fitting” sanctions on lawyers in the Philadelphia district attorney’s office for misleading statements made when they sought to vacate the death penalty in a double murder case.

Mar 12, 2024 3:55 PM CDT

Qualified immunity shield may depend on size and publication rate of federal appeals court, new report says

Qualified immunity “protects officials too much and our rights too little,” according to a new report by the Institute for Justice based on an analysis of more than 5,500 federal appeals decisions over an 11-year period.

Feb 7, 2024 8:47 AM CST

3rd Circuit judicial nominee opposed for ties to a group critics say amplifies ‘antisemitic speech’ and ‘terrorist propaganda’

The nomination of a BigLaw partner to serve on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Philadelphia should be withdrawn because of his service as a board member for a group with “a deep history of amplifying antisemitic speech, terrorist propaganda and anti-American rhetoric,” according to a letter to President Joe Biden by a group of Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Jan 31, 2024 9:14 AM CST