11th Circ. Restores Mortality Table Case Against Energy Co.

By Kellie Mejdrich

The Eleventh Circuit on Tuesday reinstated a proposed class action against a Southern Co. subsidiary from married retirees who said outdated life expectancy data caused them to lose out on benefits, holding that a lower court erred in ruling federal benefits law didn't require using reasonable actuarial assumptions in annuity conversions.

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8th Circ. Finds GE Exempt For Liability In $230M Fund Fight

By Rae Ann Varona

General Electric Co. does not owe $230 million in pension obligations to construction employees covered by a boilermaker-blacksmith fund, the Eighth Circuit affirmed Tuesday, finding in a published opinion that GE qualified for a withdrawal liability exemption since "substantially all" of the employees worked in the building and construction industry.

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4th Circ. Shuts Down Suit Against PE Firm Over Plant Closure

By Patrick Hoff

The Fourth Circuit refused Tuesday to reopen a proposed class action claiming a private equity firm violated federal laws by abruptly shutting down a manufacturing plant, ruling decades-old U.S. Supreme Court precedent barred the former workers from suing simply to collect on a judgment against the manufacturer.

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Justices Won't Take Suit Against Teamsters Fund Overseers

By Kellie Mejdrich

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down a Teamsters retiree's bid for review of the dismissal of his proposed class action alleging that union multiemployer plan trustees and advisers allowed risky investments and hefty plan management fees, leaving in place a Second Circuit decision from November.

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Judge Tosses Anti-Pot Suit Over CMS Hemp Benefits Program

By Mike Curley

A D.C. federal judge has thrown out a challenge to a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services program to give Medicare beneficiaries access to federally legal hemp products, finding none of the groups or individuals who aimed to block the program have standing.

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Wiley Hit With Proposed Class Action Over Data Breach

By Christine DeRosa

Wiley Rein LLP has been hit with a proposed class action accusing the Washington, D.C., firm of negligence after the firm said a group that may be affiliated with the Chinese government accessed emails of firm personnel.

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Quinn Emanuel Sues To Collect $1.5M From Binance's Zhao

By Caroline Simson

Quinn Emanuel has filed suit in Washington, D.C., against former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, who was pardoned by President Donald Trump last fall, asking the court to enforce an arbitral award of nearly $1.5 million in unpaid attorney fees and other costs.

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Trump Admin Wants Federal Workers To Sign NDAs, Citing Leaks

By Bonnie Eslinger

President Donald Trump's administration ​on Tuesday announced that it wishes to require federal employees with access to sensitive government information to sign a nondisclosure agreement, citing recent leaks related to immigration enforcement operations and the release of personal information belonging to approximately 4,500 Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees.

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SPLC Says DOJ Indictment Is Baseless 'Retributive Campaign'

By Hailey Konnath

The Southern Poverty Law Center on Tuesday asked an Alabama federal court to throw out the Trump administration's indictment claiming it paid extremist group informants to "stoke racial hatred," arguing that it's a "top-down, retributive campaign" that constitutes vindictive prosecution.

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3rd Circ. Disapproves Of Judge's Quips In Fatal Crash Case

By Y. Peter Kang

The Third Circuit on Tuesday scolded a Pennsylvania federal judge for his "inappropriate attempted witticisms" while presiding over a lawsuit in which a parent blamed transportation companies for the deaths of his two children in a highway collision, saying the judge's "ill-conceived attempts at levity" in a fatal injury case could be misinterpreted by the public.

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Justices Order Redo In Immigration Judges' Free Speech Suit

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday reversed a Fourth Circuit order that had revived the immigration judges union's challenge to restrictions on their ability to speak publicly, finding the lower court abused its discretion by relying on arguments not raised by either party, and ordered further proceedings.

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Brief

Justices To Consider Taking Judge Newman Case On June 11

By Emily Sawicki

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to decide whether to take up U.S. Circuit Judge Pauline Newman's petition seeking to overturn her suspension from the Federal Circuit on June 11, according to a notice posted Tuesday.

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Comey Case Delayed Due To 'Gravity' Of Charges, Discovery

By Phillip Bantz

A North Carolina federal judge on Tuesday granted former FBI Director James Comey's unopposed request to postpone his arraignment and trial on charges he threatened President Donald Trump with a social media post of seashells, finding that ongoing discovery and the "gravity of the charges" favor an extension and "outweigh" any interests in having a speedy trial.

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Copyright Suits Against Jan. 6 Attys Won't Be Tossed

By Jared Foretek

Attorneys who represented Jan. 6 defendants will have to face a consultant's claims that they copied her jury-attitude report without permission after a D.C. federal judge rejected their arguments that their conduct fell under fair use and the public's right to access court records.

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Pirro, Blanche Fight DQ Bid In Attempted Assassination Case

By Christine DeRosa

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche are fighting a bid from the California man accused of an attempted assassination of President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner to disqualify them from handling the case.

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Beasley Allen Fails To Overturn J&J Talc Disqualification

By Adrian Cruz

A New Jersey federal judge affirmed the Beasley Allen Law Firm's disqualification from multidistrict litigation over Johnson & Johnson's talcum powder on Tuesday, determining that the firm has failed to provide a valid reason to back its attempt at a stay and temporary reinstatement into the matter.

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DHS Pauses ICE Home Entries Under Administrative Warrants

By Courtney Bublé

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told a Democratic senator earlier this month he's paused immigration agents' use of administrative warrants to enter private property, but has not officially revoked the controversial policy issued last year.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court this past week handled a broad mix of cross-border corporate control disputes, merger settlements, startup equity fights, advancement claims and board oversight litigation, while also weighing fallout from high-profile deals involving Microsoft Corp., The Boeing Co. and Nikola Corp.

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Titan Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Cohen Milstein's Brent Johnson

By Matthew Perlman

Brent W. Johnson is helping to pioneer the use of antitrust law to tackle collusion in low-wage labor markets with work that includes representing workers from poultry- and meat-processing plants in a pair of cases that led to more than $600 million in settlements last year.

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