This roundup features a new split on appealing denials of anti-SLAPP motions under California law. The en banc 9th Cir. overruled its caselaw allowing these appeals, but only a few days later the Fed. Cir. held that these denials are appealable. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/the-month-in...

One week after the 9th Cir. overrules its caselaw permitting immediate appeals of anti-SLAPP denials under California law, the Fed. Cir. held that those denials are immediately appealable. No mention of the 9th Cir.'s en banc decision. #AppellateSky www.cafc.uscourts.gov/opinions-ord...

My September 2025 appellate-jurisdiction roundup features minute orders as separate documents, contract formation issues in arbitration appeals, pendent appellate jurisdiction over standing, and more. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/the-month-in...

My August appellate-jurisdiction roundup features a new circuit split on the deadline for appealing qualified-immunity denials. There were also interesting decisions on injunction appeals and remand appeals, plus some more qualified-immunity issues. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/the-month-in...

Interesting decision yesterday from the 11th Cir underscoring circuit precedent that could (and in this case did) catch the unwary. District ct granted a motion to dismiss but w/ leave to amend and with an order that the clerk should enter a separate dismissal order if the plaintiff didn't amend. 1/

Catching up on July's appellate-jurisdiction developments, with decisions on the collateral-order doctrine, dismissals of plaintiffs via Rule 41, failures to object to magistrate judges' orders, and more. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/the-month-in...

New appellate-jurisdiction roundup featuring decisions on relating forward notices of appeal, automatic stays for remand appeals, deficient final judgments, preservation, and much more. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/the-month-in...

The Fourth Circuit held that failure to object to a magistrate judge's order was a preservation issue, not a jurisdictional one. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/jurisdiction...

The Tenth Circuit had jurisdiction to review a civil-contempt order that imposed a $1,000/day fine. Although the ultimate sanction was not yet determined, it was sufficiently specific. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/contempt-app...

The Seventh Circuit explained both the problems of and the potential solutions to final judgments that fail to mention all claims. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/dealing-with...

Short post on the Supreme Court's decision in Parrish, which held that a premature notice of appeal relates forward to the district court's reopening of the appeal period. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/parrish-rela...

I say this with no irony. I love dorky procedural issues. I often write briefs like I am slogging through molasses, but let me loose on an appellate-jurisdiction question and my fingers fly.

Invoking the longstanding federal practice of cumulative finality—which often gives effect to premature notices of appeal—the Supreme Court held in Parrish that a premature notice of appeal related forward to the reopening of the appeal period. #AppellateSky www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

The Ninth Circuit held that an appeal from a remand order does not automatically stay the remand. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/ninth-circui...

The Fifth Circuit held that the government's failure to invoke an unconditional guilty plea waived the defendant's waiver of a suppression issue. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/waiving-or-f...

The Seventh Circuit held that it lacked jurisdiction to immediately review an order that narrowed—but not denied—the potential injunctive relief in an action. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/narrowing-v-...

New appellate-jurisdiction roundup, featuring effective injunction denials, appealing waiver-based remands, questioning the collateral-order doctrine and pendent appellate jurisdiction, and more. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/the-month-in...

A Fifth Circuit decision expressed some doubts about the collateral-order doctrine and pendent appellate jurisdiction. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/questioning-...

The Supreme Court will decide if defendants can immediately appeal from the denial of derivative sovereign immunity via the collateral-order doctrine. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/cert-grant-o...

The Supreme Court will address whether defendants can immediately appeal the denial of derivative sovereign immunity via the collateral-order doctrine.

A recent Sixth Circuit decision has me thinking that Carson's three-part test for effective injunction denials probably shouldn't apply when parties expressly sought a preliminary injunction. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/carsons-test...

Thanks so much to my wonderful 1Ls at W&M, and congratulations to all of them for making it through their first year of law school. law.wm.edu/news/stories...

The en banc Fifth Circuit overruled In re Weaver and held that 28 U.S.C. § 1447(d) does not bar review of waiver-based remands. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/appealing-wa...

The Fifth Circuit split over whether a party could appeal from the district court’s delay in deciding a preliminary-injunction motion and raised an interesting question of how to determine when delay = denial. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/claimed-urge...

This month's roundup features claims and theories for Rule 54(b), plus appealing TROs, denials of litigation privileges, denials of church-autonomy defenses, and more. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/the-month-in...

Finished my first year of teaching at William & Mary Law School. The 3L class does this really cool thing where they give hand-written thank you cards to every faculty member. Although I did not have a ton of 3Ls in my classes this year, I am continually impressed by their intelligence and diligence

The Third Circuit split over the meaning of "claims" for purposes of Rule 54(b), with the dissent arguing that distinct elements means distinct claims. But the majority has it right, as there's a difference between claims and theories of relief. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/claims-theor...

Really interesting 3d Cir. split over what counts as a "claim" under Rule 54(b). The majority said the district court resolved a distinct theory of recovery but not a claim. The dissent argued that post-Twiqbal we define claims by their elements. www2.ca3.uscourts.gov/opinarch/241...

The Eleventh Circuit addressed the immediate appealability of Florida’s absolute and qualified litigation privileges. Absolute was appealable. Qualified was not. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/appealing-fl...

New appellate-jurisdiction roundup, featuring the TRO v. preliminary injunction debate, Brady issues in qualified-immunity appeals, pendent appellate jurisdiction without appellate jurisdiction, and more. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/the-month-in...

Some blog catchup: The Second Circuit appeared to exercise pendent appellate jurisdiction over a plaintiff's cross appeal even though it dismissed the defendants' qualified-immunity appeal for a lack of jurisdiction. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/pendent-appe...

I put together some new data on the frequency of fact-based qualified-immunity appeals and the time it takes to decide them. My findings were almost identical to what I found in 2020: at least 43 fact-based appeals, an average of 431 days to decide. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/the-year-in-...

Yesterday, I filed an amicus brief in Parrish v. United States on the history and continued existence of the cumulative-finality doctrine. Huge thanks to William & Mary Law School's Appellate & Supreme Court Clinic for helping with this brief. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/new-amicus-b...

My new appellate-jurisdiction roundup features another rejection of pure Bivens appeals, Perlman appeals in the grand-jury context, mandatory stays during remand appeals, and much more. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/the-month-in...

Some recent 4th Cir. decisions illustrate the various approaches to cases in which the district court did not expressly resolve all claims. #AppellateTwitter finaldecisions.org/overlooked-e...

A divided Fourth Circuit held that a court must stay proceedings—and not process a remand order—if the defendant appeals before the district court can send the remand order to the state court. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/mandatory-st...

If you’re working on civil procedure projects, boy do we have a workshop for you! The tenth (!) annual Civil Procedure Workshop will be held at Richmond on June 2-3rd. Check out the link below and submit your abstract by March 3rd.

The 2d Cir. held that a grand jury target could take a Perlman appeal from an order directed to the target's attorneys, even after the Supreme Court's decision in Mohawk Industries, Inc. v. Carpenter. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/perlman-appe...

The 5th Cir. said that a government entity could appeal the denial of sovereign immunity without moving to dismiss/for summary judgment on immunity grounds. That's not how this should work—you need a denial of immunity for appellate jurisdiction. #AppellateSky www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/unp...

The 11th Cir. became the fifth court of appeals to reject pure Bivens appeals. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/one-more-rej...

The government is now 0-5 when it comes to taking pure Bivens appeals via the collateral-order doctrine. #AppellateSky media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub...

The latest appellate-jurisdiction roundup has something for (almost) everyone (who is interested in appellate jurisdiction), including a decertified §1292(b) appeal, what "appellate standing" really means, qualified-immunity appeals, and more. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/the-month-in...

A new cert petition asks if the denial of derivative sovereign immunity is immediately appealable via the collateral-order doctrine. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/new-cert-pet...

The Supreme Court will address whether a would-be appellant must file a second notice of appeal after a court treats the first notice as a motion to reopen the time to appeal under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a)(6). #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/cert-grant-o...

This 9thCir. decision has a lot of jurisdiction in it (appellate and otherwise). But the rule regarding notices of appeal and would-be intervenors is particularly interesting, generally requiring appeals before intervention is granted. #AppellateSky cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/me...

I'm thrilled to announce the creation of Final Decisions PLLC, an appellate boutique and consultancy focused on appellate jurisdiction. Through it, I hope to partner with lawyers facing complex appellate-jurisdiction issues. finaldecisions.org

The Sixth Circuit all but acknowledged that qualified immunity is not separable from an action’s merits. And such separation is necessary for a collateral-order appeal. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/qualified-im...

From a recent 6th Cir. decision in a qualified-immunity appeal. If this is correct—and it is—then qualified-immunity denials are not separate from the merits and should not be immediately appealable via the collateral-order doctrine. #AppellateSky www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf...

Yay, it’s here! If you want to know about the history of federal appellate procedure and how modern practice blends the traditions of the common law and of equity, please have a read. ⚖️ 🗃️ #AppellateSky #AppellateTwitter Full text here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

The Fifth Circuit held that a governmental defendant could appeal the denial of immunity despite being ordered to arbitrate the dispute. #AppellateSky finaldecisions.org/arbitration-...