Jones v. City of Hutto reversed a judgment for a former mayor based on 42 § 1981, while also describing the limits for municipal liability for breach of contract claims,

On the contract issue, the Court noted that the Texas Local Government Code waives governmental immunity for certain written contracts, permitting a breach claim against a city, and held that a municipality’s attempted rescission of a valid separation agreement constituted a breach even where the employee retained the severance payment. At the same time, the Court reminded that Section 271.153(b) bars recovery of consequential damages such as lost profits or reputational harm. Here, the plaintiff “pursued and prevailed on his right to retain the separation payment made under the contract,” which was sufficient to support a potential award of attorney’s fees, but not to open the door to consequential losses.

The Court also clarified attribution principles relevant to contract liability. Disparaging statements by individual councilmembers did not establish breach by the municipality because they were not actions of the city or the council as a body; conversely, a formal council resolution purporting to rescind the agreement was attributable to the city and was the breach that impaired contractual rights. No. 24-50096, Oct. 7, 2025.

My friend Arturo Ayala recently forwarded me yet another interesting article by his agency about the market for supersedeas bonds, “Appeal Bonds in a World of Nuclear Verdicts and Higher Interest Rates.” Worth a look!

In Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP v. Bitgood, the Fifth Circuit vacated statutory damages awarded under the Lanham Act, remanding because the district court did not explain the statutory basis for its award in light of a gap in registration for the primary mark at issue. The panel rejected the argument that a prior panel’s footnote foreclosed statutory damages, characterizing that statement as dicta.

Central to the ruling was the Court’s recognition that statutory damages under 15 U.S.C. § 1117(c) require infringement of a registered mark under § 1114(1)(a). Because the “Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith” registration had lapsed during the relevant period, the panel concluded it could not assess whether the award could be sustained by other, similar registered marks allegedly “identical with, or substantially indistinguishable from,” the misused name. The Fifth Circuit also directed the district court to address a Seventh Amendment issue on remand. No. 24-20458, Oct. 23, 2025

Rose v. Aaron held that a damages award could not stand because it did not reflect restitution, reliance, or expectancy damages and lacked the necessary methodology to measure the plaintiff’s economic position had the contract been performed.

Specificaly, the Fifth Circuit that a damages award based on the cost of improvements to a ranch were not restitution (no benefit conferred on the breaching party), not reliance (expenditures were not made toward performing the contract), and not expectancy because the factfinder neither offset avoided costs nor quantified other claimed harms with objective evidence.

On expectancy damages in particular, the court faulted the absence of proof that the harms from the breach exceeded the gains the nonbreaching party realized by avoiding future performance, leaving the award ambiguous as to whether it placed the claimant in a better, equal, or worse position than full performance. No. 21-40718 (Oct. 17, 2025).

Hignell-Stark v. City of New Orleans returns to the seemingly evergreen topic of short-term rental regulation by the City of New Orleans. These are some of the holdings reached:

• Equal Protection. The Fifth Circuit struck down the City’s categorical ban on business entities holding owner or operator permits. Because natural‑person owners and juridical‑person owners are similarly situated for purposes of STR permitting, the City’s prohibition on business‑held licenses could survive only if it bore a rational relationship to a legitimate governmental interest. The court found none. The City’s livability and neighborhood‑character concerns relate to guest conduct and on‑site oversight, not the legal identity of the permittee.And the Court disagreed that corporate form would impede enforcement or increase administrative burdens, noting that the Code already limits concentration through one‑permit‑per‑block and one‑permit‑per‑person rules.
• First Amendment. The Court distinguished between permissible disclosure requirements and impermissible content restriction. It upheld requirements that STR ads include factual, uncontroversial information such as permit numbers, accessibility details, and bedroom/occupancy counts, as well as prohibitions on advertising unpermitted or over‑capacity rentals. By contrast, the rule that “each short‑term rental listing advertises only one dwelling unit” failed, because the City did not say how the “one‑unit‑per‑ad” limitation directly advances a substantial interest or why it is no more extensive than necessary, and the Curt declined to supply post hoc justifications.

No. 24-30160; Oct. 7, 2025

OSR Enterprises AG v. REE Automotive, Ltd. affirmed the district court’s conclusion, in a forum non conveniens analysis, that Israel is an adequate alternative forum for a trade-secret dispute:

• Extraterritorial injunctive relief: Faced with competing expert declarations about whether Israeli courts would issue extraterritorial injunctions for trade-secret misappropriation, the Fifth Circuit concluded the evidence did not show Israel would leave the plaintiff with “no remedy at all.” The plaintiff’s showing of what is “very likely” under Israeli law, disputed by the defense expert, was insufficient to rebut adequacy.
• Availability of unfair competition relief: Even assuming some uncertainty about Israel’s Commercial Torts Law, the Court held that adequacy does not require identical causes of action or relief. Because Israeli law recognizes trade secret misappropriation and would provide some remedy, Israel remained adequate even if certain claims might be limited.
• Self-incrimination privilege and access to evidence: The Court also rejected the argument that Israeli witnesses’ potential invocation of a self‑incrimination privilege undermines adequacy, noting that adequacy typically turns on whether remedies are clearly unsatisfactory, rather than evidentiary privileges. The Court also noted that key third-party witnesses are in Israel and would likely be beyond the compulsory process of a U.S. court, undercutting claims that American proceedings would materially improve access.

No. 24-50779; Oct. 10, 2025.

Stone v. Graham, 449 U.S. 39 (1980), holds:

“Posting of religious texts on the wall  serves no such educational function. If the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effect at all, it will be to induce the schoolchildren to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate and obey, the Commandments. However desirable this might be as a matter of private devotion, it is not a permissible state objective under the Establishment Clause.“

Consistent with that precedent, in Roake v Brumley, a Fifth Circuit panel affirmed an injunction against a Louisiana law requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in school classrooms, Nevertheless, the full Court has voted to take the case en banc (interestingly, a somewhat overheated effort to get immediate en banc review of this case was rejected 14-3 soon after the trial court’s ruling was appealed.

A challenging administrative law issue, about certain airline fee-disclosure requirements, produced a panel opinion that agreed with FAA’s authority but remanded for consideration of new information. The Fifth Circuit recently voted to take the case en banc.

A Louisiana statute requires that cancellation of an insurance policy be done in a certain way; the Fifth Circuit affirmed judgment for the insurer in Williams v. GoAuto Ins. Co.: “What is necessary prior to cancellation is that the insurer had “receipt” of notice of cancellation sent by the premium finance company. … This is a modern statute set in current times, and company computers do much that individuals once did. GoAuto’s method of receiving the notice and reacting to it satisfies the statute.” No. 24-30646 (Oct. 3, 2025).

Providing fuel both to those who argue (a) that the claimed invasion of the United States by rogue Venezuelans is not, in fact, a high-priority item on the national agenda, and also to those who argue that (b) that the judiciary moves too deliberately to meaningfully engage questions of national security, the Fifth Circuit has voted to rehear en banc the case of W.M.M. v. Trump, about the President’s power to order certain deportations under the Alien Enemies Act.