The Editor's Note
Editor's Note · Oct 10, 2026
Nothing in today's intake carried an opinion. Every unassigned event is a freshly docketed complaint with no text and no ruling, so the assignment desk sits idle. That leaves the front page running on the week's published work, which remains strong enough to lead without filler.
The Ninth Circuit's Invisalign decision stays the hero. It revives the antitrust classes and holds that rule of reason, not per se treatment, governs the refusal-to-deal claims, which reorders how plaintiffs plead and how defendants move to dismiss in the dental-aligner and adjacent device markets. The lead duo pairs the Tenth Circuit's new split on judicial review of refugee-status terminations with the Eleventh Circuit's wrong-house raid ruling, which redraws the FTCA discretionary-function line while reviving the claim against the individual agent. Both change advice this week.
The top band keeps the Third Circuit's $61.6 million Sandoz vacatur, which reprices a pharma antitrust damages theory, alongside the Fifth Circuit's automatic-stay-of-remand holding in the Devon coastal suit and the DoorDash EFAA waiver, each of which affects live filing strategy. The Florida AI-citation fee sanction and the Second Department's break from the First Department on NYC tax class challenges round out the practice-shifting items.
The kills are all filings. The Multiplan antitrust complaints in the Northern District of Illinois, the Activemap patent batch in the Eastern District of Texas, and the scattered patent suits against Apple, Google, Microsoft and Pfizer are docket entries, not decisions. We do not report that a plaintiff sued; we report what a court did. If any of these produce a certification ruling, a Daubert order, or a dispositive motion decision, they return to the desk with an angle.
The front leans appellate this cycle because that is where the text is. Watch the Multiplan consolidations and the Activemap campaign for early motion practice, and watch for any district-court opinion to restore balance below the circuit level.
Editor's Note · Oct 9, 2026
No qualifying opinions crossed the wire for assignment today. Every unassigned event is a freshly filed complaint with has_text false and no fact sheet, and a filed caption is not a decision under our charter. We assigned nothing and killed the batch, logging each individually so a colleague can second-guess the call. Most are serial IP campaigns: Activemap filed three near-identical suits against retailers in the Eastern District of Texas, and patent plaintiffs hit Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Pfizer without anything for a reporter to write from. The MultiPlan and McDonald's antitrust complaints repeat existing dockets we are already tracking and will become news if and when a judge rules.
The front holds the Ninth Circuit's Invisalign revival as hero: rule of reason now governs refusal-to-deal class claims in the circuit, and antitrust class counsel will cite it tomorrow. The lead duo pairs the Eleventh Circuit's redrawing of the FTCA discretionary-function line in the wrong-house raid case with the Tenth Circuit's new split on reviewability of refugee-status terminations, two rulings that open or close courthouse doors. Top stories carry the Third Circuit's vacatur of the $61.6M Sandoz award, the Fifth Circuit's automatic-stay-on-remand holding in the Louisiana coastal litigation, and the Second Department's break with the First Department on NYC tax class challenges, an intra-state split worth a class litigator's attention.
We promoted the Third Circuit's word-limit ruling on adopted co-party arguments into more developments; appellate practitioners will adjust briefing math. District-court coverage stays thin this cycle, held to the two D.C. Circuit remands touching diversity and ripeness-stage fee power. We are watching the MultiPlan antitrust consolidation in the Northern District of Illinois for a certification or dismissal ruling, and the Activemap campaign for any early Alice motion that would give the pattern doctrinal content. When those produce opinions, they move from the kill log to the desk.
Editor's Note · Oct 8, 2026
Today's slate carries over a strong week of circuit output rather than chasing fresh filings, because every unassigned event in the queue is a new complaint with no opinion text. None of them has produced a ruling that would change a practitioner's advice, so the assignment desk sits idle and the kill log is long by necessity.
We keep the Ninth Circuit's Invisalign antitrust revival as hero. Holding that the rule of reason governs refusal-to-deal claims and reinstating the certified classes gives antitrust practitioners a usable framework and the clearest practice shift of the cycle. The lead duo pairs two live splits: the Tenth Circuit's holding that courts can review refugee-status terminations, and the Ninth Circuit's finality ruling on withdrawn bankruptcy appeals under Section 1291. Both deepen disagreements that appellate counsel will now brief.
Top stories run to doorway questions a litigator actually faces: whether Devon's appeal automatically stays remand, how the DoorDash EFAA waiver reshapes pleading under the arbitration carve-out, and the Kalshi swaps ruling that reopens state gambling enforcement. The Second Circuit self-employment tax holding narrows the limited-partner exception on a $141.5 million base, which reprices a class of fund-structure disputes.
The kills are almost entirely docket noise. The Activemap, NextGen, Performance Pricing, and Wearne patent complaints in EDTX and SDNY are serial filings with no court action; the MultiPlan and McDonald's antitrust complaints are the same. We do not cover complaints on filing alone, and the log says so for each.
The front still leans circuit-heavy. District coverage is thin, held by two civil-procedure pieces, and we have one Supreme Court entry. Watch the MultiPlan payer-pricing docket in ILND; if a certification or motion-to-dismiss ruling lands, it earns an assignment. Watch for any opinion out of the EDTX patent suits, which could surface venue or Alice fights worth the wire.
Editor's Note · Oct 7, 2026
No new decisions crossed the wire overnight. The four unassigned items are all freshly filed complaints with no opinion text, so there is nothing to assign today; a new antitrust or patent suit is a docket entry until a judge rules on something, and we kill all four on that ground. The MultiPlan and McDonald's filings will be worth watching only when motions to dismiss or certification briefing produce reasoning.
The front holds its shape from the week's circuit output. We keep the Ninth Circuit's Invisalign antitrust revival as hero: it reinstates certified classes and resolves how rule of reason governs refusal-to-deal theories, which reprices a category of distribution and standard-essential disputes. The lead duo pairs two splits a practitioner needs before an adversary cites them: the Tenth Circuit opening review of refugee-status terminations, and the Ninth Circuit's break with sister circuits on finality of withdrawn bankruptcy appeals under Section 1291. Both change where and when appeals can be taken.
Top stories run the DoorDash EFAA waiver, which shifts pleading strategy under the arbitration carve-out, and the Kalshi swaps ruling reopening state gambling enforcement. The Second Circuit's self-employment-tax holding on $141.5 million narrows the limited-partner exception for fund principals and belongs in front of tax and fund counsel.
Coverage leans appellate and civil-rights heavy this week. The district band is thin, carrying only the two D.C. Circuit-adjacent procedure pieces we had; with no district opinions arriving today, we cannot correct that imbalance without manufacturing stories. That is the gap to close as soon as trial-court opinions on discovery, Daubert, or certification come in.
Watch for the first district rulings in the MultiPlan antitrust docket and any early claim-construction activity in the EDTX Microsoft case. On the appeals side, the Oak Flat rehearing dissent signals a certiorari posture worth tracking.
Editor's Note · Oct 6, 2026
The circuits delivered several practice-moving decisions since yesterday, and the front reflects that. We lead with the Ninth Circuit's revival of the Invisalign antitrust classes, which holds that rule of reason governs refusal-to-deal claims. The reasoning will be cited in dominant-firm antitrust litigation well beyond the aligner market, and it reopens certified classes that had been dismissed. Behind it we run the Tenth Circuit's new split on judicial review of refugee-status terminations, which gives immigration practitioners an argument that did not exist in that circuit before, and the Ninth Circuit's bankruptcy-finality split on withdrawn appeals under Section 1291, which changes how appellate deadlines are calculated.
The top stories carry two California appellate employment rulings that change how harassment and arbitration claims get pleaded in the nation's largest employment-litigation state: the EFAA waiver holding against a DoorDash worker and the FEHA strict-liability limit. We also front the Ninth Circuit's PREP Act decision tying immunity to the injury alleged rather than the legal theory, which removes a common defense framing, and the Sixth Circuit's application of Tyler v. Hennepin to foreclosure-surplus takings.
We killed all four new entries on the wire. Each is a freshly docketed complaint with no opinion text, including the antitrust suits against MultiPlan and McDonald's and the patent and IP suits against Microsoft and Pfizer. Famous defendants do not make a complaint news; we will cover these when a dispositive or class ruling issues. No events arrived with text in unassigned status, so the desk made no assignments today.
The front remains circuit-heavy, with the district band thin. We are watching the district dockets for opinions out of the antitrust and IP filings above, and for any MDL or certification rulings that would let us balance the front toward the trial courts next week. The Oak Flat en banc denial has aged off the hero slot but remains available in the most-read rail.
Editor's Note · Oct 5, 2026
Today's wire runs long on the Federal Circuit and the Sixth Circuit, with four new patent and civil-rights opinions landing within an hour of each other. None of them displaces what the front already carries.
We held Oak Flat as the hero. Eleven judges writing to say a panel got RFRA and a sacred-site land transfer wrong reopens a live question for anyone litigating religious-exercise claims against federal property actions, and the denial of rehearing hands those practitioners a roadmap to the Supreme Court. The lead duo pairs the Ninth Circuit's Section 1291 split on withdrawn bankruptcy appeals, which changes how counsel time a notice of appeal, with the Sixth Circuit's Kalshi holding that sports-event contracts are not swaps, which revives state gambling enforcement against prediction markets and unsettles the preemption posture every one of those platforms has been relying on.
Among today's new arrivals, the Sixth Circuit's reading of the ADA's 60% entrance rule earns a top-stories slot because it narrows what a covered alteration triggers, which is daily advice for accessibility counsel and defendants in public-accommodation suits. The Federal Circuit patent affirmances go to Latest: both turn on forfeiture and a patentee's own data rather than new doctrine, so they inform without repricing a category of case.
We killed both new filings on the events wire. The Visa antitrust complaint in the Eastern District of New York and the Triteq trade-secret and patent suit in the Southern District of Texas arrived as captions with no text. A complaint is not a decision, and neither moves the law until a court rules. We will watch the Visa docket, since another interchange-fee theory against the networks could matter if it survives a motion to dismiss.
Watch the Supreme Court's voter-verification stay as the midterms approach, and watch whether any circuit answers the Ninth on bankruptcy-appeal finality.
Editor's Note · Oct 4, 2026
The front holds steady because the week's strongest decisions remain the week's news. Oak Flat stays the hero: eleven Ninth Circuit judges writing to say the panel erred keeps RFRA sacred-site transfer litigation alive, and that reasoning will be cited in the next land-exchange fight. The lead duo pairs two door-opening rulings. The Ninth Circuit's finality holding on withdrawn bankruptcy appeals under Section 1291 creates a clean split with sister circuits and resets appellate timing for anyone handling a BAP or district-court bankruptcy appeal. The Sixth Circuit's Kalshi ruling, that sports event contracts are not swaps, reopens state gambling enforcement against prediction markets and reframes the CFTC preemption argument those firms have leaned on.
Top stories carry the range our readers work in: the Second Circuit narrowing the limited-partner self-employment tax exception on $141.5 million, the Fourth Circuit recognizing Stingray tracking as a search while denying any remedy through immunity, the Supreme Court's pre-midterm stay reviving a modified voter-verification system, Sixth Circuit removal of Kentucky's PBM opioid suit, the Federal Circuit on definite-but-unenabled impossible claims, and the Sixth Circuit parking-citation retaliation revival. District coverage stays represented through the D.C. Circuit diversity-test vacatur and the Third Circuit ripeness-versus-fee holding.
We assigned nothing today. All three unassigned events are fresh complaints with no opinion text and no fact sheet: the Visa interchange suit in EDNY and two patent filings in Texas. A complaint is a caption and a theory, not a decision a practitioner changes course over. We will pick these up at claim construction, a remand ruling, or a dispositive motion, and the kill log says as much for each.
Watch the bankruptcy-finality split; a petition for rehearing or certiorari would move it fast. Watch whether other circuits respond to Kalshi as more states test enforcement. The district desk is thin this week, so we are looking for a discovery, Daubert, or certification opinion worth fronting next.