The Fifth Circuit denied en banc review of ExxonMobil v. NLRB, a dispute about the NLRB’s decision to vacate an earlier decision and retry the matter (decried by Exxon as a political maneuver; defended by the NLRB as the result of a conflict for a board member involved in the earlier proceeding). A dissent from the denial of en banc review states the case against excessive “independence” for independent agencies, and also has some observations about party-presentation as applied to the evolution of the parties’ arguments during this long-lived case. No. 23-60495 (Dec. 17, 2025).

Inspired by a recent Seventh Circuit case involving similar facts (and the benefit of jurisdictional discovery), the Fifth Circuit reheard Ethridge v. Samsung and concluded that there was not personal jurisdiction in Texas over the plaintiff’s claim to have been injured by a flammable battery made by Samsung.

The new opinion summarizes: “Nothing in this opinion should be construed as answering whether the precise measures Samsung took to sell its products only to the industrial market create a necessary baseline for specific personal jurisdiction cases like this one. It is enough to say that Samsung affirmatively limited its contacts to approved manufacturers in Texas, and Ethridge has not shown that his injuries are related to those contacts.” No. 23-40094 (Dec. 15, 2025, on rehearing).

Wang challenged the constitutionality of a Texas law that restricts certain property acquisitions by persons domiciled in China. His claim failed for lack of standing: “We hold Wang lacks standing because he fails to allege an injury-infact. That’s for two independent reasons. The first reason (A) is that SB 17 does not arguably proscribe Wang’s conduct because he has failed to allege that he is domiciled in China. And the second reason (B) is that Wang has not alleged a substantial threat of future enforcement by the Attorney General.” Wang v. Paxton, No. 25-20354 (Dec. 11, 2025).

Font selection has global consequences, as the State Department returns from Calibri to Times New Roman (imho, the State Department should jettison both fonts and use a tasteful modern serif font, such as Equity or Book Antigua).

The reticulated python (right) can be found in South Asia. A “reticulated statute” was at issue in Baylor All Saints Medical Center v. Kennedy, in which the Fifth Circuit concluded that the district court had no jurisdiction to hear a Medicare-reimbursement dispute when agency review had not been exhausted. The Court noted: “To be sure, a court may waive the administrative exhaustion requirement if administrative remedies would be exhaustive … Howeer, the court does not reach [that issue]  because the case does not satisfy the ‘jurisdictional requirement that claims be presented to the agency.'” No. 24-10934 (Dec. 9, 2025).