9th Circ. Rules Workers' Vaccine Bias Suit Must Go To Trial

By Dorothy Atkins

The Ninth Circuit ruled Friday that a jury must decide workers' religious-discrimination claims against the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife, finding the lower court erred in concluding the agency accommodated the workers' religious-exemption requests from a COVID-19 vaccine mandate by offering them limited reassignment options.

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4th Circ. Leaves Bulk Of $22M Wells Fargo ADA Verdict Intact

By Patrick Hoff

The Fourth Circuit ruled Friday that a $22 million jury verdict in favor of a former Wells Fargo employee who said he was terminated for seeking remote work was almost $2.9 million too high, telling the ex-worker to choose between a reduced award or a new trial.

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Trump Seeks Justices' Review Of DEI Grant Termination Case

By Madeline Lyskawa

The Trump administration is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Ninth Circuit decision requiring the federal government to reinstate research grants that were terminated due to presidential orders against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

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DC Circ. Voids Block On OMB Funding Freeze

By Jared Foretek

The D.C. Circuit on Friday vacated a district judge's block on the Trump administration's pause on a wide array of federal grants, loans and financial assistance, ruling that the Office of Management and Budget's rescission of the memorandum rendered the lawsuit moot.

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Roundup

Employment Authority: Why Whole Foods Can Ban BLM Attire

Law360 Employment Authority covers the biggest employment cases and trends. Catch up this week with coverage of why the National Labor Relations Board allowed Whole Foods to ban workers from wearing Black Lives Matter slogans, how drivers for ride-hailing apps could make their union strong, and three state wage-and-hour hotbeds to watch. 

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11th Circ. Won't Reopen ATF Worker's Disability Bias Suit

By Patrick Hoff

The Eleventh Circuit refused to revive a lawsuit alleging the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives forced an employee with a heart condition to accept a demotion rather than let her take unpaid leave, ruling the agency wasn't required to supplement the paid time off she had available.

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Brief

RTX Unit Beats Gender Hiring Bias Appeal In Connecticut

By Aaron Keller

RTX Corp.'s Pratt & Whitney aircraft unit prevailed a second time Friday against a female candidate's claim that she wasn't hired because of her gender, with a Connecticut appeals court affirming gender wasn't a motivating factor and that some of the woman's arguments rested on hearsay.

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GoDaddy Fired Designer After Sex Bias Complaint, Suit Says

By Rachel Riley

A former user experience designer for GoDaddy claims the web services company falsely promised her a "principal" title when hiring her, then punished and ultimately ousted her for complaining when two men with less experience were given the high-ranking status, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in Washington federal court.  

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Ex-Software Engineer Says His ADHD Led To Bias, Firing

By Kia Fatahi

An open source software developer fired an engineer after he raised concerns about disability discrimination in the workplace, was denied accommodations for his attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and had his symptoms labeled as performance problems, according to a case removed to North Carolina federal court Thursday.

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Papa John's Wage Deal Is 'Collusive Fiction,' Judge Says

By MJ Koo

A North Carolina federal judge rejected a proposed $225,000 settlement that would resolve delivery drivers' wage claims against a Papa John's franchisee, finding the deal was a "collusive fiction" that benefited the company and class counsel rather than the drivers, who would likely receive no more than $35,000.

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Uber, DoorDash Lose Most Of NYC Tip Prompt Suit

By Benjamin Morse

A New York federal judge kept alive DoorDash and Uber's compelled-speech challenge to New York City laws requiring delivery platforms to display a tipping prompt at or before checkout that includes an option of at least 10%, but tossed their remaining five claims.

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Pa. Hospital Worker Sues Over Unpaid Campus Walking Time

By MJ Koo

Over 1,000 hourly workers at a University of Pittsburgh Medical Center facility have accused the employer of requiring them to badge in only upon reaching their workstations, leaving them uncompensated for time spent walking to and from their posts, according to a suit filed in state court.

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Ex-Google Engineer Wins Partial Acquittal After IP Theft Trial

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge acquitted an ex-Google software engineer of espionage charges Thursday while upholding his trade secret theft conviction, ruling that although trial evidence showed his trade secret theft was "ad hoc, disorganized and feeble," such evidence isn't enough to prove he intentionally colluded with the Chinese government.

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Union Pacific Loses Bid To Block BIPA Class Claims

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois federal judge on Thursday certified a class of more than 22,000 truck drivers accusing Union Pacific of violating Illinois' biometric privacy law and denied the railroad's bid for summary judgment, finding that the finger scans in question fall in the purview of the statute and rejecting the railroad's federal preemption and government-contractor defenses.

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Cook Medical Hit With Data Breach Class Suit

By Danielle Ferguson

A medical equipment manufacturer failed to protect employees' sensitive data from a cyberattack, potentially exposing their personal information to the dark web, a former employee alleged in a new proposed class action in Indiana federal court.

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Fed. Circ. OKs Firing Of IRS Worker Flagged By Goddaughter

By Zak Kostro

The Federal Circuit affirmed the termination of an IRS employee whose goddaughter reported her to the agency for accepting compensation or gifts in exchange for preparing tax returns for others, upholding a decision by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board.

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Ex-Mass. Cannabis Chair Says Ouster Was Retaliation

By Julie Manganis

Massachusetts' former top cannabis regulator says efforts to remove her from the role were retaliation by the state treasurer and other officials for flagging alleged conflicts of interest, regulatory violations and fraud.

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WWE Sanctions Ruling Pins Down Spoliation Lesson

The Delaware Chancery Court’s recent verdict in favor of WWE investors may be the most carefully calibrated spoliation sanctions decision in recent memory, and it should reshape how counsel approach their motions — including in federal court, says Ricky Weingarten at Slarskey.

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How Does In-House Pay Compare? Take The Law360 Survey

How do in-house salaries vary across industries, roles, and organizational revenue? What compensation tools are companies using to lure top talent? Help Law360 Pulse answer these questions and more in this year's In-House Compensation Survey.

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Analysis

The Race Is On To Confirm Trump's Judges By Year-End

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump nominated 11 judges this past week, meaning 19 nominees are now in the pipeline. But how many can the Senate confirm before the end of the year, given that it will mostly be absent and consumed by the midterm election? 

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Trump Admin Moves Toward Nixing ABA's Accreditor Status

By Emma Cueto

The Department of Education has made a preliminary finding that the American Bar Association is not in compliance with the department's regulations and standards as an accreditor of law schools, a move that comes as the ABA seeks to modify or repeal standards related to diversity, equity and inclusion in an attempt to preserve its accreditor status.

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Law Schools Flooded With Applicants For 3rd Straight Year

By Tracey Read

This year's U.S. law school applicant pool is up nearly 8% over 2025, with significant growth in Asian and Black prospective attorneys, according to new data from the Law School Admission Council.

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Divided 2nd Circ. Backs DQ Of Acting NDNY US Attorney

By Stewart Bishop

The Second Circuit on Friday upheld a lower court's decision that found the acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York, John Sarcone III, was unlawfully serving in his position when he obtained grand jury subpoenas of the New York attorney general's office.

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Fla. Attorney Fined, Referred To Bar For Unapologetic AI Use

By Madison Arnold

A Florida attorney is the latest to be sanctioned for his use of artificial intelligence, after a Florida state appeals court found Friday that his filings contained at least 46 hallucinations.

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Wiley Data Breach Class Action Dropped As 2 Sides Confer

By Emily Sawicki

A Florida resident pursuing negligence and unjust-enrichment claims against Wiley Rein LLP over a data breach voluntarily dismissed his proposed class action on Friday while leaving the door open to refile, one day after the firm told the D.C. federal court that the two sides were "conferring" on next steps.

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Gov't To Take 9th Circ.'s Bar Of Nev. US Atty To High Court

By Madison Arnold

The U.S. government asked the Ninth Circuit to stay its ruling disqualifying Nevada's top prosecutor from assuming that role without Senate confirmation, saying it plans to take the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Trump Says Pardon Atty Ed Martin Leaving For Midterms

By Courtney Bublé

U.S. pardon attorney Ed Martin will be leaving the administration to work on the midterm elections, President Donald Trump announced on Friday.

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Judge's Job Bid Sinks Conn. Atty's Homicide Conviction

By Brian Steele

Former Cramer & Anderson LLP partner Robert L. Fisher Jr. is entitled to a new manslaughter trial because the presiding judge at his original trial "created an appearance of a lack of impartiality" when he did not disclose to the parties that he had applied for an oversight job with the state prosecutor's office, an appeals court ruled Friday.

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Roundup

Balancing The Scales: Diminished Capacity, Sentencing Rules

By Orlando Lorenzo

The Michigan Supreme Court has overturned 25 years of state precedent by reviving the diminished capacity defense, and the justices in Pennsylvania said the Legislature is out of time to craft new sentencing guidelines for second-degree murder. Here, Law360 highlights access to justice stories arising from litigation, verdicts and judgments you may have missed.

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Roundup

UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Megan Norcott

The past week in London has seen former Liberal Democrat MP Mark Oaten sue a fur auction house, private equity and pensions magnate Edmund Truell hit by a commercial fraud claim and Charles Russell Speechlys file a contract claim against two of its previous clients in the Middle East.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

A California federal judge told Meta that its in-house attorney was absolutely wrong about what constitutes attorney-client privilege and should take an ethics course. And a bipartisan group of 128 ex-judges have asked the Florida Bar to investigate Homeland Security's general counsel for his attacks on sitting judges. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.​

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Eversheds Sutherland, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP and McDermott Will & Schulte lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after Maryland's tax court held that the state's first-in-the-nation digital advertising tax violates the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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