U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

Rule Changes

Affirmed contempt finding but narrowed and remanded key remedy elements

On December 11, 2025, the Ninth Circuit mostly backed the trial judge's contempt finding that Apple played games with the anti-steering injunction. But the court clipped parts of the punishment — the same pattern this case keeps producing: Apple complies in a way that protects the money, and Epic comes back yelling "that's not compliance."

Updated Yesterday

Rule Changes

Ruled against DHS; case may proceed to Supreme Court

Venezuela first received Temporary Protected Status in 2021, shielding hundreds of thousands of its nationals from deportation. In January 2025, newly appointed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem moved to terminate that protection within days of taking office—an action that two federal courts have now ruled exceeded her statutory authority. On February 3, 2026, a federal judge in Washington, D.C. issued a parallel ruling blocking Noem's termination of Haitian TPS using nearly identical legal reasoning, finding 'substantial' likelihood the decision was motivated by 'hostility to nonwhite immigrants.' The pattern has since expanded: in December 2025, another federal judge blocked terminations for Honduras, Nepal, and Nicaragua on similar grounds, and in November 2025, a New York judge halted the Syria termination. Yet despite these rulings, the Supreme Court has repeatedly stayed lower court orders, allowing terminations to proceed while litigation continues.

Updated Feb 26

Rule Changes

Issued split decision on California open-carry ban

The Ninth Circuit just struck down California's ban on openly carrying guns in urban areas, ruling that a law affecting 95% of the state violates the Second Amendment. Judge Lawrence VanDyke wrote that open carry was widely protected at America's founding—exactly the kind of historical analysis the Supreme Court demanded in its 2022 Bruen decision. The ruling creates a circuit split with the Second Circuit, which said states can ban one form of carry as long as they allow the other.

Updated Jan 21