Gavelocity
Daily slip-opinion summaries for practicing attorneys Updated weekday mornings · 10:30 CT

Seventh Circuit — U.S. Court of Appeals

20 opinions this month · page 1 Civil
Friday, August 14, 2026 3 opinions
Slip opinion No. 24-2947

Johnnie Savory v Allen Andrews, 24-2947

U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit Civil Civil Rights and Section 1983

  • Seventh Circuit reverses across the board, granting qualified or absolute immunity to all officers and the polygrapher on every claim.
  • Court clarifies its interlocutory jurisdiction to review undisputed record facts even when the district court flagged factual disputes without specifying them.
  • Essential reading for civil rights defense attorneys litigating decades-old wrongful conviction claims involving qualified immunity, fabrication of evidence, and coerced confession theories.
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Slip opinion No. 25-1627

Lynnette Kaiser v Alcoa USA Corp., 25-1627

U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit Civil ERISA and Benefits

  • Seventh Circuit affirms Rule 23(b)(2) class certification where injunctive relief predominates and reimbursement claims are merely incidental monetary relief.
  • Court reverses summary judgment based on judicial estoppel, finding Alcoa's prior statements in unrelated litigation were not 'clearly inconsistent' with its current position.
  • Essential reading for ERISA and labor litigators handling retiree benefits class actions, CBA vesting disputes, and judicial estoppel arguments across related litigation.
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Thursday, August 13, 2026 5 opinions
Slip opinion No. 25-2251

Sunco International Inc. v Jiangsu Sunco Boiler Co., Ltd., 25-2251

U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit Civil Business Law

  • Seventh Circuit affirms that non-signatories may compel arbitration under direct-benefits estoppel when claims are intertwined with the contract's terms
  • Corporate officers/directors are not automatically bound by their company's arbitration clause absent direct benefit or close connection to the dispute
  • Useful for business litigators and arbitration counsel handling motions to compel arbitration involving non-signatory affiliates, officers, or directors
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Slip opinion No. 25-2366

David McDonald v Trustees of Indiana University, 25-2366

U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit Civil Constitutional Law

  • Seventh Circuit affirms dismissal: professors lacked standing absent credible enforcement threat or objectively reasonable chilling effect from Indiana's intellectual diversity law.
  • Indirect statutory application through university boards and 'interim' labeling of policies do not categorically defeat standing, but weaken credibility of enforcement threat.
  • Useful for constitutional litigators handling pre-enforcement First Amendment challenges to state laws and institutional policies affecting speech, especially in higher education.
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Slip opinion No. 24-2017

Robert Ferguson v Aon Risk Services Companies, Inc., 24-2017

U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit Civil Insurance Law

  • Seventh Circuit affirms insurance brokers owe no duty to non-insured third parties absent explicit contractual intent to benefit them
  • Court holds mere reference to a party in a brokerage contract does not confer third-party beneficiary status under Illinois law
  • Useful for insurance coverage litigators and professional negligence defense counsel handling broker liability and third-party beneficiary claims
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Slip opinion No. 25-1392

Reginald Chapman v Eileen O'Neill Burke, 25-1392

U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit Civil Civil Rights and Section 1983

  • Seventh Circuit holds Rooker-Feldman does not bar § 1983 facial challenges to state DNA testing statutes, even after losing in state court
  • A prosecutor's professed willingness to allow DNA testing does not defeat Article III standing when she still controls and withholds the evidence
  • Useful for civil rights and post-conviction attorneys litigating § 1983 challenges to state DNA testing statutes or facing Rooker-Feldman/standing dismissals
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Wednesday, August 12, 2026 2 opinions
Slip opinion No. 24-3296

Frank William Bonan, II v FDIC, 24-3296

U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit Civil Administrative Law

  • Seventh Circuit holds Jarkesy's public rights exception covers FDIC breach-of-fiduciary-duty and unsafe/unsound-practice claims, permitting agency adjudication without a jury
  • Court declines to decide Article II removal-restriction constitutionality because petitioner failed to show compensable harm under Collins v. Yellen
  • Essential reading for banking regulatory defense counsel and administrative law practitioners litigating post-Jarkesy separation-of-powers and jury-trial challenges to agency enforcement
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Slip opinion No. 25-2129

Brian Pfalzgraf v Rusk County, Wisconsin, 25-2129

U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit Civil Civil Rights and Section 1983

  • Seventh Circuit holds officer lacked reasonable suspicion to frisk driver absent individualized facts suggesting he was armed and dangerous.
  • Court finds genuine fact dispute on extended-stop claim because body-camera footage did not clearly contradict officer's testimony about suspect's behavior.
  • Useful for civil rights litigators and municipal defense counsel handling Fourth Amendment traffic-stop, qualified immunity, and summary judgment disputes.
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Friday, August 7, 2026 9 opinions
Slip opinion No. 25-1067

Consolidated Chassis Management LLC v Northland Insurance Company, 25-1067

U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit Civil Insurance Law

  • Seventh Circuit holds mere adversity between insured codefendants, without an insurer-insured conflict, does not trigger the independent-counsel exception under Illinois law.
  • Court reverses judgment for insured, finding no 'diametrically opposed' interests and no actionable conflict from a promptly withdrawn reservation of rights.
  • Useful for insurance coverage counsel and litigators handling multi-insured defenses, reservation-of-rights disputes, and Illinois § 155 bad-faith claims.
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Slip opinion No. 25-1856

Elizabeth Schulte v Kenneth Leners, 25-1856

U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit Civil Civil Rights and Section 1983

  • Seventh Circuit denies qualified immunity for official's viewpoint-based deletion of comments from town website
  • Municipalities cannot pursue interlocutory qualified-immunity appeals; that defense protects only individual officials, not entities
  • Useful for §1983 and First Amendment litigators handling government social media, public comment forums, and qualified immunity defenses
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Slip opinion No. 24-2230

USA v Rishi Shah, 24-2230

U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit Civil General

  • New opinion from U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit
  • Case decided on 2026-08-07
  • See full opinion for details
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Slip opinion No. 24-3164

Maria DiFranco v City of Chicago, 24-3164

U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit Civil Employment Discrimination

  • Seventh Circuit holds informal, undocumented accommodations satisfy the ADA when they achieve the accommodation's practical 'ends,' not just its procedural 'means.'
  • Court affirms summary judgment where plaintiff attacked witness credibility but offered no affirmative evidence contradicting the employer's account of accommodation timing.
  • Useful for employment defense counsel litigating failure-to-accommodate claims and for civil litigators addressing proximate causation and credibility-based opposition to summary judgment.
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Slip opinion No. 25-1120

G. T. v Samsung Electronics America, Incorporated, 25-1120

U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit Civil Business Law

  • Seventh Circuit holds BIPA §§ 15(a) and (b) both require a defendant to have gained or exerted actual control over biometric data, not merely provided a tool.
  • Manufacturer that supplies device/software generating and storing biometric data locally on a user's own device does not thereby 'possess,' 'collect,' 'capture,' or 'obtain' that data under BIPA.
  • Useful for defense-side privacy litigators and tech companies facing BIPA claims premised on device features that create biometric data stored locally rather than on company servers.
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Slip opinion No. 25-1670

CSX Transportation, Inc. v Zayo Group, LLC, 25-1670

U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit Civil Property Law

  • Seventh Circuit holds railroad easements under Indiana law don't include right to exclude third parties from air/ground space absent operational disruption.
  • Court rejects continuing-trespass theory, holding limitations periods run from initial cable installation, not from ongoing presence of infrastructure.
  • Essential reading for utility, telecom, and railroad counsel litigating easement scope, licensing rights, and trespass statute-of-limitations disputes under Indiana law.
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Slip opinion No. 25-1755

James March v Town of Grand Chute, 25-1755

U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit Civil Civil Rights and Section 1983

  • Seventh Circuit grants qualified immunity to officials who fired a 'policymaker' town administrator over politically disloyal speech to investigators.
  • Court identifies three unresolved ambiguities in the Elrod-Branti 'policymaker corollary' doctrine, precluding a finding of clearly established law.
  • Essential reading for civil rights attorneys litigating First Amendment retaliation claims by public employees deemed policymakers, and for municipal defense counsel raising qualified immunity.
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Slip opinion No. 25-1808

James March v Ronald Wolff, Jr., 25-1808

U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit Civil Civil Rights and Section 1983

  • Seventh Circuit grants qualified immunity because the 'policymaker corollary' to Elrod-Branti remains unsettled on speech-based retaliation claims.
  • Court affirms rejection of cross-claims: retaliatory prosecution requires state action/no probable cause; class-of-one requires an identified comparator.
  • Useful for public-sector employment attorneys litigating First Amendment retaliation claims by policymaker-level employees and asserting/defending qualified immunity.
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Slip opinion No. 25-2604

Paul Johnson v Ridge Tool Manufacturing Company, Inc., 25-2604

U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit Civil Tort Law

  • Seventh Circuit affirms exclusion of design-defect expert who never tested his alternative design or addressed cost, compatibility, or safety tradeoffs.
  • Failure-to-warn claim fails without evidence of an alternative warning that would have prevented injury, even absent expert testimony.
  • Useful for product liability defense counsel challenging Rule 702 expert testimony and causation gaps in Illinois failure-to-warn claims.
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Tuesday, August 4, 2026 1 opinion
Slip opinion No. 25-3164

Shannon Golat v Audrey K. Swierawski, 25-3164

U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit Civil Employment Discrimination

  • Seventh Circuit holds a sworn EEOC charge may be treated as affidavit evidence at summary judgment, like a verified complaint.
  • Sporadic sex-based comments over five years were not severe or pervasive enough to sustain a hostile work environment claim.
  • Useful for employment litigators handling Title VII hostile work environment, retaliation, Rehabilitation Act accommodation, and summary judgment evidentiary issues.
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