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Last week, the Eleventh Circuit held that a conspiracy need not be unlawful to introduce co-conspirator statements under Federal Rule of Evidence 801(d)(2)(E), reversing the district court's exclusion of certain statements. The court held that the government could admit a co-conspirator's statements against a defendant even if it failed to establish a criminal conspiracy "[s]o long as those statements were made during and in furtherance of a joint venture that included an opposing party" under [...]

In Jack Daniel's v. VIP Products, the U.S. Supreme Court was asked to decide whether a chewable "Bad Spaniels" dog toy shaped like a bottle of Jack Daniel's whiskey violated Jack Daniel's trademark rights. VIP claimed its dog toy was First Amendment free speech under the Rogers test—which protects unauthorized trademark use if the use is artistically relevant and not explicitly misleading. But the Court unanimously rejected VIP's argument and held that Rogers does not apply when the challenged mark [...]

KEY POINTS Courts will now interpret federal statutes without being required to accept an agency's "permissible" interpretation of an ambiguous statute. The Administrative Procedure Act requires courts to exercise independent judgment when deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority. Courts may still give persuasive weight or "careful attention" to an agency's views about ambiguous statutes, but the court must decide the best reading of the statute and resolve the ambiguity. SUMMARY THE CHEVRON DOCTRINE [...]