The video game industry is not off the hook just yet. Former Rutgers football player, Ryan Hart, just got the go ahead from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals to continue his Electronic Arts lawsuit. Hart had sued EA for misappropriation of his likeness in their NCAA Football video games depicting a college football player similar to him when he played.

This case is about all balancing rights; a celebrity's rights of publicity and the video game company's rights of expression. The Third Circuit reversed the district court decision holding EA's college football video games were entitled to First Amendment freedom of speech protection.

What is the difference between a break and a recess?

That was the issue that the Third Circuit had to grapple with in their latest opinion. President Obama made a recess appointment for the National Labor Relations Board during an intrasession break of Senate -- but did he have the power to do so?

When I first stumbled upon the case of Mr. Pelullo, the first words that caught my eye were “mafia” and “organized crime.” He had been indicted, along with Nicky Scarfo, Jr. (the son of a convicted crime family boss), in a white-collar mortgage company takeover scheme that had allegedly bilked millions from the public company’s coffers (and by extension, the shareholders).

Plus, he has a blog. Bloggers love blogs.

An appellate brief is anything but brief.

In the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, the body of principal briefs can be up 30 pages (or 14,000 words/1,300 lines), and the body of reply briefs can be up to 15 pages (or 7,000 words/650 lines). That’s a lot of paper, and it doesn’t even include the tables, statements, arguments, certifications, attachments, covers or fancy bindings.

Of course, we’re not talking about only one copy of each brief. Until today, parties were required to file 10 paper copies of each brief under Local Appellate Rule 31.1.

But that has changed.

Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, immigration officials “shall take into custody any deportable alien who has committed various crimes” when the alien is released from detention for those crimes. Officials hold those aliens without any possibility of release while awaiting their removal proceedings. It’s known as mandatory detention.

So what qualifies as a release from detention? And do immigration officials have to wait at the jailhouse door for an alien’s release, or can they take their sweet time taking an offender into custody?

If you have clients who are lucky enough to have millions in the bank and a home in the Virgin Islands, you might want to brush up on a recent tax ruling from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals about residency requirements.

Residents of the Virgin Islands pay income taxes to the Virgin Islands Bureau of Internal Revenue (VIBIR) rather than the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Appellants Richard and Lana Vento (the Ventos) filed a joint 2001 income tax return with the VIBIR. Their three daughters also filed their 2001 income tax returns with the VIBIR. The United States claims that the Ventos and their daughters should have filed those returns with the IRS instead.

The proper tax jurisdiction depends on whether they were bona fide residents of the Virgin Islands as of December 31, 2001. Here, there were multiple answers to that question.

Last year, the Sixth Circuit surpassed the Ninth Circuit as the most-reversed federal appellate court, according to the ABA Journal.

This term, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals is looking like a real contender for the most mistaken crown.

Last month, the Supreme Court reversed the Philadelphia-based appellate court in Millbrook v. U.S. and Comcast Corp et al v. Behrend. This week, it added two more cases to that list: US Airways v. McCutchen and Genesis Healthcare Corp. v. Symczyk.

Shawn Allison, a native and citizen of Jamaica, entered the U.S. without inspection in 1994. In 2011, the Department of Homeland Security charged him with removability as an alien present without being admitted or paroled. Allison conceded removability, but disputed his date of entry. The immigration judge found him removable as charged.

Allison filed an application for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). While he admitted that he was never physically harmed in Jamaica, he claimed to fear returning “because the Jamaican police and local gangs are anti-American and would torture or physically injury him. He further asserted that he would be targeted as a deportee from America.”

Is anyone surprised that Allison failed to persuade the courts with that argument?

We finally have a new judge on the Third Circuit bench.

Tuesday, the Senate confirmed New Jersey Judge Patty Shwartz by a 64-34 vote for a seat on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, The Associated Press reports. She will fill Senior Judge Maryanne Trump Barry's seat.

Judge Barry took senior status in June 2011; President Obama nominated Judge Shwartz for the appellate court later that year.

Under the Hyde Amendment, a district court in a criminal case “may award to a prevailing party, other than the United States, a reasonable attorney’s fee and other litigation expenses, where the court finds that the position of the United States was vexatious, frivolous, or in bad faith, unless the court finds that special circumstances make such an award unjust.”

Louis Manzo thinks he deserves a Hyde Amendment payout. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals disagrees.