An appellate court ruled on Thursday that the Federal Aviation Act preempts the state regulation of all airlines. The decision came in a long-running litigation in which major carriers have been accused of conspiring to keep cargo shipping rates artificially high.

Munger, Tolles & Olson will represent Bank of America and co-defendant Merrill Lynch, while Reed Smith will represent the various Countrywide entities named as defendants in the $10.5 billion suit that AIG and its lawyers at Quinn Emanuel filed against the bank last week over soured mortgage-backed securities.

By Buckley, P.J., Tom, Andrias, Saxe, Marlow, JJ. 6220-6220A. Joseph W. McGarr, as Executor of the Estate of Kathleen M. Mooney, plf-ap, v. The Guardian Life Insuran

The full case caption appears at the end of this opinion. FERNANDEZ, Circuit Judge: Katuria Smith, Angela Rock, and Michael Pyle (collectively Smith) brought this action o

U.S. District Judge Sue Robinson in Delaware has once again punished the chip designer Rambus for shredding documents back in 1998 and 1999, shortly before it declared a patent war against much of the semiconductor industry.