Anthropic Judge Rejects Trump's Nat'l Security 'Blank Check'

By Lauren Berg

The U.S. Department of Defense's designation of Anthropic PBC as a supply chain risk to national security was not based on a credible threat, but rather was retaliation for the company's public criticism of the Trump administration's position in contract negotiations, a California federal judge ruled Thursday.

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Google Users' Atty Fee To Be In 'Realm' Of $147M, Judge Says

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge indicated Thursday that he won't give the full $147 million in fees sought by lawyers who won a $425 million class action verdict against Google for unlawfully collecting user information, but he said their "really excellent lawyering" deserves an amount "within that realm."

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Jeanie Buss Says Siblings' Lakers Sale Defies Court Order

By Craig Clough

Lakers controlling owner Jeanie Buss petitioned a California state court to halt efforts by her five siblings to sell the family's 17.8% share of the NBA franchise, saying the purported sale violates a 2017 court order that they take all reasonable steps to ensure she remains as the team's leader.

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XAI Trained Grok On Child Sex Abuse Images, Survivor Says

By Lauren Berg

Not only does Elon Musk's xAI knowingly allow Grok to create nonconsensual sexual images, including child sexual abuse material, it actually recycles those outputs to train the artificial intelligence chatbot and generate more abusive images, according to a new proposed class action filed in California federal court.

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Meta Staves Off 3D Artist's AI Training Suit, For Now

By Elliot Weld

A California federal judge has dismissed a Los Angeles-based 3D artist's proposed class action alleging Meta Platforms Inc. removed copyright management information from art that was used to train artificial intelligence, but gave the artist a chance to cure the suit's issues.

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Mass. Judge Halts USPS Mail Ballot Rule Before Midterms

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts federal judge late Thursday temporarily blocked the U.S. Postal Service from implementing a new rule allowing it to deny delivery of mail-in ballots from voters whose names are not on citizenship lists the Trump administration is compiling ahead of November's midterms.

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Enviro Groups Seek More Time To Fight Roadless Rule Repeal

By Joyce Hanson

Environmental groups have asked the U.S. Forest Service to extend a public comment period for its proposal to scrap a 25-year-old "Roadless Rule" that bars logging and road construction on tens of millions of acres of national forest around the country.

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Lack Of Reliance Dooms Uponor Leaky Pipes Class Action

By Mike Curley

A California federal judge has thrown out a proposed class action alleging Uponor Inc.'s plastic pipes were defective and prone to leaking, saying the homeowner plaintiffs failed to establish that they relied on or could have relied on any misrepresentations allegedly made by the company.

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23andMe Judge Slows Estimation Of Calif. Data Breach Claim

By Alex Wittenberg

A Missouri bankruptcy judge ruled Thursday he would split a process for dealing with data breach claims brought by the state of California against 23andMe into two stages, saying he would first decide whether the bankruptcy trust for the DNA testing company should be allowed to estimate the state's claims for damages.

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Fed. Circ. Hands Losses To Apple On 3 Smart Mobile Patents

By Adam Lidgett

Smart Mobile Technologies LLC came out victorious in a set of Federal Circuit decisions Thursday in a patent fight involving Apple Inc., with the appeals court refusing to revive the tech giant's challenges to certain patent claims and reversing the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's invalidation of other claims.

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NLRB Seeks To Permanently Block Calif. Fill-In Law

By Katherine Smith

The National Labor Relations Board urged a California federal court to bar a state law allowing the state labor board to perform certain duties if the national board cannot, arguing that recent decisions in other cases "confirmed" the court should find the law is preempted.

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Feds Want Ex-Google Engineer To Get Over 5 Yrs For AI Theft

By Dorothy Atkins

Prosecutors have urged a California federal judge to sentence ex-Google software engineer Linwei Ding to nearly 6 years in prison for stealing artificial intelligence trade secrets, while Ding argued that the government's suggestion is based on speculative evidence and he deserves only home confinement since he was acquitted of economic espionage.

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Ugg-Maker Beats Rival Footwear Co.'s Antitrust Suit, For Now

By Gina Kim

A California federal judge on Thursday tossed Quince's antitrust suit alleging Deckers uses sham trade dress litigation to block rivals, ruling Quince didn't sufficiently plead a sham litigation exception to the Noerr-Pennington doctrine, which immunizes businesses from antitrust liability for petitioning activity, but allowed Quince a chance to amend.

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States' Suit Says HHS Terms Threaten Family Planning Dollars

By Rachel Riley

Twenty-three states launched a lawsuit in Maryland federal court Thursday challenging the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' new conditions on federal funding for family planning services that they say would require recipients end support for "gender ideology," abandon diversity programming and drive patients toward parenthood and marriage.

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Importer Duped NJ Distributor To Steal Grocery Biz, Suit Says

By Jack McLoone

An importer of Korean food products purposefully mischaracterized why it was ending a relationship with its longtime distributor to gain direct access to a popular grocery chain, a New Jersey business told a federal court, asking a judge to rescind the resulting deals.

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The Expanding Litigation Front Against The Data Center Boom

A survey of environmental and land use claims raised in disputes over data center projects across the country shows that the outcomes of these disputes will have significant implications not only for the future of data center development, but for infrastructure projects in general, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

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Series

Taekwondo Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Taekwondo has taught me to recognize when to fight for a position and when to focus on finding a solution, and that the best outcomes are often achieved by solving problems — all of which has improved my work as a bankruptcy lawyer, mediator and Subchapter V trustee, says Amy Denton Mayer at Berger Singerman.

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Exclusive

Inside The $150M Immigration Contract That Wasn't

By Daniel Connolly

The leader of a small Houston-based law firm says she was "blindsided" by an announcement from the federal government that her 24-attorney shop had won a $150 million no-bid contract to represent thousands of immigrant children in deportation proceedings.

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ABA Faces Uphill Battle To Remain As Law School Accreditor

By Emma Cueto

The American Bar Association council responsible for accrediting law schools is fighting on multiple fronts to retain its status as a nationwide accreditor, fending off challenges at both the federal and state levels.

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Dems Say DOJ Opinion Aims To Foil Oversight Of White House

By Courtney Bublé

With midterm elections right around the corner, Senate Democrats are worried the new legal opinion from the U.S. Department of Justice could let the Trump Administration obstruct congressional oversight of the White House.

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Womble Bond Asks To Drop Dutch Software Client Over Rift

By Hayley Fowler

Womble Bond Dickinson is looking to pull its representation of a Dutch software company after five years of a bitter trademark battle, citing a "fundamental disagreement" that has allegedly made it impossible for the firm to move forward as counsel of record.

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