Two Ninth Circuit panelists cast doubt Wednesday on an attempt by a group of former University of Washington employees to revive claims that they were wrongfully fired after they refused COVID-19 vaccination on religious grounds, with one judge remarking that unvaccinated workers "make the risk worse" in a healthcare setting.
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TOP NEWS

Antivax Health Workers Fight Uphill At 9th Circ. Over Firings

By Rachel Riley

Two Ninth Circuit panelists cast doubt Wednesday on an attempt by a group of former University of Washington employees to revive claims that they were wrongfully fired after they refused COVID-19 vaccination on religious grounds, with one judge remarking that unvaccinated workers "make the risk worse" in a healthcare setting.

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Bad AI Citation Sanction Slashed Amid 7th Circ. Guidance

By Hailey Konnath

An Indiana federal judge Wednesday rejected a magistrate judge's recommendation that an attorney be sanctioned $7,500 for including faulty, artificial intelligence-generated legal citations in a discovery brief, pointing to recent Seventh Circuit guidance and sanctioning him $2,000 instead.

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Analysis

NCAA's Maze Of Eligibility Rules Is Athletes' Latest Target

By David Steele

A deluge of litigation targeting the NCAA's eligibility bylaws for allegedly limiting athletes' compensation has resulted in conflicting rulings from different courts, teeing up the possibility of a U.S. Supreme Court intervention.

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DISCRIMINATION

Black SEC Worker Claims Bias Suit Drove Retaliation

By Grace Elletson

A Black U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission employee filed a second employment discrimination suit against the agency, alleging she has been given unrealistic job expectations and placed on a performance improvement plan after claiming in court that her superiors discriminated against her.

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WAGE & HOUR

Missouri Budtenders Say Dispensary Group Mishandled Tips

By Mike Curley

A proposed class of budtenders for dispensaries run by GL Partners Inc. is suing in Missouri federal court, alleging the dispensaries are violating federal labor laws by sharing tips with managerial staff and otherwise mishandling them to use as petty cash or to balance cash registers.

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Brief

Home Delivery Co. Denied Full Pay, Breaks, Suit Says

By Benjamin Morse

A home delivery company used a shifting piece-rate and hourly pay system and denied workers required breaks, leaving employees uncompensated for travel time, standby work, overtime and interrupted meal periods, according to a proposed class action filed in Colorado state court.

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BENEFITS

Former Judge, NJ Judiciary Settle Pension Denial Fight

By George Woolston

A former New Jersey judge and the state judiciary have reached a settlement in her suit over the denial of her disability pension, according to a letter filed in state court.

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TRADE SECRETS

Aerospace Co.'s Bid Revived To Bar Alleged Secrets Use

By Elliot Weld

The Sixth Circuit has disagreed with a lower judge who declined to issue an injunction against an engineer accused of stealing trade secrets just before he left his old company for a rival, saying the facts "clearly weigh in favor of granting injunctive relief."

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Colo. Fence Co. Says Rival Stole Trade Secrets, Customers

By Rachel Konieczny

A Colorado fencing distributor has alleged in federal court that a private equity-backed competitor, its subsidiary and a former sales manager orchestrated a scheme to steal the distributor's trade secrets rather than pay $7 million to acquire the company.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

Series

Law School's Missed Lesson: Diagnose Before Arguing

Law school often skips over explicitly teaching students how to determine what kind of problem a case presents before they commit to a particular doctrinal path, which risks building arguments that are internally coherent but externally misaligned, says Melanie Oxhorn at Kobre & Kim.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

Analysis

BigLaw Deals Scandal Puts Boston Back On White Collar Map

By Chris Villani

A sweeping insider trading case involving information stolen from BigLaw firms shows a return to bread-and-butter white collar enforcement for Boston federal prosecutors and provides a morale lift in an office that has seen shifting priorities and staff turnover since the signature "Varsity Blues" takedown in 2019, veteran prosecutors told Law360.

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Goldstein Taps Ex-SG Prelogar Before Sentence, Likely Appeal

By Jeff Overley

One of the nation's most accomplished oral advocates, Tom Goldstein, revealed Thursday he has retained another of the nation's most accomplished oral advocates, Elizabeth Prelogar, ahead of his sentencing and likely appeal in a criminal tax case that has captivated the appellate bar.

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Immigration Judges' 'Anxiety' Dialed Up Amid Mass Exodus

By Emma Cueto

Current and former immigration judges spoke on a web panel Thursday about threats to the independence of immigration judges and the strains on the immigration system, such as a massive backlog of cases at a time when many judges have been pushed out or fired.

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Analysis

How Exxon Attys Beat A 10-Year-Old Securities Class Action

By Spencer Brewer

This month, Exxon Mobil's defense team helped deliver a clean sweep victory for the energy giant when a federal jury in Texas found the company did not lie to investors about the profitability of some operations.

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PBM Swaps Cravath For WilmerHale In Price-Fixing Suit

By Bonnie Eslinger

Pharmacy benefit manager Prime Therapeutics LLC has replaced counsel Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP with WilmerHale and another firm in an antitrust case in Michigan federal court brought by the state's attorney general.

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Bush-Appointed Missouri Judge To Take Senior Status

By Courtney Bublé

U.S. District Judge David Gregory Kays of the Western District of Missouri will take semi-retired status in May 2027, according to an update from the federal judiciary on Thursday.

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Feature

5 Podcasts To Keep IP Attys Entertained And Informed

By Theresa Schliep

Whether intellectual property attorneys are hitting the road for a family trip or kicking their feet up at home, podcasts about legal news can offer an easy way for them to stay in the know while (hopefully) not working this Memorial Day weekend.

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Promo that reads Law360 Pulse 2026 AI Survey

LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Alan Lescht & Associates

Anderson & Kreiger

Arnold Jacobowitz

Balon B. Bradley Law Firm

Beck Reed

Benesch

Brown & Connery

Continental PLLC

Cooley LLP

Cravath Swaine

DarrowEverett

Davis Graham

Delaney Legal

Dorsey & Whitney

Dykema

Edelson PC

Fisher & Phillips

Foley & Lardner

Goodwin Procter

HKM Employment Attorneys

Haynes Boone

Henning Strategies

Herrick Feinstein

Hickey Hauck

Kang Haggerty

Kaufman Drozdowski

Kendall Law Group PLLC

King & Spalding

Kobre & Kim

Latham & Watkins

Lauro & Singer

Matthew G. Miller PC

McKool Smith

Munger Tolles

Pacifica Law Group

Paul Weiss

Quinn Emanuel

Robbins Geller

Sidley Austin

Squire Patton

Volpe Koenig

Wachtell Lipton

Weil Gotshal

WilmerHale

Womble Bond

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Actelion Ltd.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp.

Burberry Group

Christian Louboutin SA

Consolidated Precision Products Corp.

Express Scripts Holding Co.

Exxon Mobil Corp.

Fordham University

Johnson & Johnson

KFC Corp.

Lowe's Cos. Inc.

Meta Platforms Inc.

NFL Enterprises LLC

National Collegiate Athletic Association

NiSource Inc.

Occidental Petroleum Corp.

PCC Airfoils LLC

Permira

Prime Therapeutics LLC

Smithfield Foods Inc.

Temco Logistics

Trex Co. Inc.

Vanity Fair

eBay Inc.

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Occupational Safety and Health Administration

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

U.S. Department of Agriculture

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Supreme Court

United States District Court for the District of Colorado

United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana