Category Archives: Appellate Litigation
2nd Circuit Vacates Verdict in ATA Case against Arab Bank Due to Improper Jury Instructions
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Friday reversed a 2014 verdict that found the Jordan-based Arab Bank liable under the Anti-Terrorism Act for three separate Hamas-associated attacks in Israel between 2002 and 2003. The court, in Linde v. Arab Bank, PLC, found that the jury instructions had incorrectly allowed for a guilty verdict […]
Serving Process at the Embassy in FSIA Cases…..Not So Fast, Says the Fourth Circuit
Under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), American citizens are permitted to sue the limited number of foreign states that the U.S. State Department has designated as “State Sponsors of Terrorism” in a United States court if the plaintiff’s injury was caused by the state’s support of a terrorist organization. But how do you get personal […]
Ameer Benno Presents Lawline’s Second Annual SCOTUS Preview!
Last week, Erica Dubno and I presented Lawline’s Second Annual SCOTUS Preview. We addressed the following critical cases that are to be decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in its 2018 Term: Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission Gill v. Whitford Class v. U.S. Jesner v. Arab Bank McCoy v. Louisiana Christie […]
Dismissal of Anti-Terrorism Act Lawsuit against Twitter is Affirmed by the Ninth Circuit … but not on Section 230 Immunity Grounds
On January 31, 2018, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Fields v. Twitter, Inc. ruled unanimously to uphold a lower court’s dismissal of an Anti-Terrorism Act lawsuit that had been brought against Twitter after two American contractors were killed in Jordan in 2015 in an ISIS-related attack. The plaintiffs in the case — the families of […]
NINTH CIRCUIT RULES THAT INNOCENT BEHAVIOR IS SUSPICIOUS
In a recent court decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that a combination of non-suspicious driving characteristics can give rise to the suspicion of criminal activity sufficient to justify pulling over the motorist. A border patrol agent in a marked border patrol vehicle observed motorist Rufino Ignacio Valdes-Vega driving a […]
