LAW

This is the time of year to reflect on the U.S. Supreme Court's past term and to anticipate an upcoming Monday in October.  The First Amendment was front-and-center last term, with the Court largely disfavoring governmental restrictions.  Commercial entities fared well; as a result of last term's decisions, they will face less litigation from both patent holders and out-of-state plaintiffs.  As usual, municipalities and civil rights litigants met with mixed results.  Click here for details about the 2016 term . . .

To date, the Court has taken a little over 30 cases for the 2017 term.  Larger companies and their employees will be interested in a series of cases regarding the legitimacy of agreements that bar employees from pursuing collective action against their employers.  In addition, the Court will address SEC regulations regarding companies' duty to disclose information to investors.  In a case that will have major implications for IP litigation, the Court will decide whether the USPTO's "inter partes review" process for analyzing the validity of existing patents deprives patent holders of a constitutional right to have property rights adjudicated by a jury in an Article III forum.  Municipalities, civil rights litigators, and the LGBT community are closely watching a case in  which a baker has asserted a constitutional right to a religious exemption from a Colorado law that prohibits public accommodations from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation.  A nd in a case with broad implications for privacy rights in the digital age, the Court will decide whether cellphones can be tracked without a warrant.  The term promises to be one for the history books.   Click  here  for more details about the 2017 term . . .

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PRACTICE

I am happy to report that my longstanding defense of the Oxford comma has been vindicated.  Ross Guberman of Legal Writing Pro surveyed thousands of judges, ranging from state trial-court judges to U.S. Supreme Court Justices, about their preferences and legal writers have much to learn from the results.  

In addition to the Oxford comma, judges want to see two spaces after periods and citations in the text rather than in footnotes.  

Click  here  to learn more . . .


AYESHA N. KHAN
Tel: (202) 836-7136

Formerly a Deputy Chief in the Appellate Section of the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, Ayesha has represented a party or a friend-of-the-court in dozens of U.S. Supreme Court cases, over one hundred federal and state appeals, and scores of trial-level cases.  She is admitted in MD and DC, every federal circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court.  In addition to handling appeals, she briefs and argues critical motions  at the trial level.  

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