Supreme Court

Subscribe to Supreme Court

On April 25, 2022, the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear the plaintiff’s appeal in Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Company, 266 A.3d 542 (Pa. 2021), in which the Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck down the increasingly contentious “consent-by-registration” theory of personal jurisdiction. The theory deems corporate defendants to have consented to general personal jurisdiction (also known as “all-purpose” jurisdiction) in a forum based solely on its registration to conduct business there.
Continue Reading United States Supreme Court to Weigh in on Consent-by-Registration Theory of Personal Jurisdiction

In 1973, Congress amended the FTC Act by adding §13(b), giving the Federal Trade Commission equitable powers to remediate any violation of any law under its purview.  Using that power, the FTC has sought equitable monetary relief, including restitution and disgorgement. The lower courts routinely authorized such relief and Congress seemingly acknowledged the FTC’s power when it reauthorized the FTC Act.
Continue Reading In a Rebuke to Longstanding FTC Approach, Supreme Court Rules FTC Cannot Rely on “Injunction” Provision to Obtain Equitable Monetary Relief

Last week the Eleventh Circuit delivered a surprising blow to class action settlement practice finding that 19th century Supreme Court precedent “prohibit[s] the type of incentive award that the district court approved here–one that compensates a class representative for his time and rewards him for bringing a lawsuit,” a type of incentive award that is “commonplace in modern class-action litigation.” …
Continue Reading Eleventh Circuit Relies on 19th Century Precedent to Find That Class Representative Cannot Recover Commonly-Used Incentive Award

As previously reported in the Hunton Employment & Labor Perspectives Blog, last Thursday the California Supreme Court ruled that employees must be paid for time spent undergoing security checks before leaving work. The ruling comes two years after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals sought guidance on this issue under California law in the case of Amanda Frlekin v. Apple Inc.
Continue Reading California Supreme Court Holds Time Spent On Bag Checks Is Compensable

Recently, in Mission Product Holdings v. Tempnology LLC, the Supreme Court held that a trademark licensee may continue using a licensed trademark after its licensor files for bankruptcy and rejects the relevant license agreement. While a debtor-licensor may “reject” a trademark license agreement under Section 365 of the Bankruptcy Code, such rejection is only a breach of the agreement and does not allow the licensor to revoke the licensee’s rights.
Continue Reading In Mission Product Holdings, Supreme Court Decides That Trademark Licensee’s Rights Are Not Revoked by Licensor’s Rejection of a Trademark License in Bankruptcy

On June 25, 2018, the Supreme Court upheld a Second Circuit opinion that American Express did not violate antitrust law by prohibiting merchants from encouraging customers to use non-American Express credit cards.
Continue Reading Supreme Court Upholds AmEx Policy Prohibiting Merchants from Steering Customers to Use Other Cards

In a 5-4 decision with major implications for e-commerce retailers, the Supreme Court has closed the “online sales tax loophole” by holding that a state may collect sales tax from out-of-state sellers that do not maintain a physical presence in the state.
Continue Reading Supreme Court Decision Closes Online Sales Tax Loophole, Implications for E-Commerce Retailers