Seventh Circuit Roundup Kian Hudson and Mark Crandley

In this month’s podcast, Kian and Mark address two cases dealing with two completely different but equally complex areas of federal law: securities litigation and Medicaid. In Alcarez v. Akorn, the Court examined the avenues of federal review of so-called “mootness fees” in securities litigation. These fees arise when securities plaintiffs sue over lack of disclosures but the case is rendered moot when the company later provides the disclosure. Mootness fees then sometimes become part of the ...

Mark and Kian return to discuss two of the Seventh Circuit's March 2024 opinions.In Garrick v. Moody Bible Institute, a split 2-1 panel (Judge St. Eve writing and joined by Judge Hamilton, with Judge Brennan dissenting) refused to exercise appellate jurisdiction over a district court order rejecting a motion to dismiss that was based on the church autonomy doctrine. Because they do not end the proceedings, decisions denying motions to dismiss are interlocutory and thus generally not immediate...

In this episode, Mark and Kian chat about two opinions the Seventh Circuit issued in February 2024.The first case, Chicago Joe’s Team Room v. Village of Broadview, is a long-running Section 1983 case brought by a would-be adult-entertainment venue against the Chicago suburb that prevented it from opening. In 2008, the district court found the suburb violated the First Amendment, and the parties then spent more than a decade litigating damages, which were based on a lost-profits theory. The ve...

The two cases Mark and Kian discuss in this episode each raise a tricky but important question.The first, Green Plains Trade Group, LLC v. Archer Daniels Midland Co., addresses how federal courts should discern the content of state law. The landmark Supreme Court case Erie Railroad v. Tompkins says federal courts should try to predict what the state supreme court would do. And in implementing this rule, the Seventh Circuit (like other federal appellate courts) has cautioned district courts fr...

In this month’s very special episode of Seventh Circuit Roundup, hosts Kian Hudson and Mark Crandley interview legendary Seventh Circuit litigator Tom Fisher. Tom recently concluded nearly two decades of service as Indiana’s solicitor general, a role that frequently led Tom to the Seventh Circuit courthouse. Indeed, few if any lawyers have argued more high-profile cases before the Seventh Circuit. In this interview, Tom shares his thoughts on how to find one’s way into appellate advocacy, tip...

The eighth episode of Seventh Circuit Roundup examines two cases dealing with important federal procedural statutes. First, In Re Venequip reviewed the requirements for a party in a dispute obtaining discovery in federal court under 28 USC 1782(a). In Venequip, the Seventh Circuit examined the requirements for obtaining discovery for an international suit and reviewed the role played by forum selection and choice of law clauses in that analysis. Second, the Court in Sudholt v. Country Mutual ...