'Restore Coherence': Trump Admin Told To Fully Fund SNAP

By Lauren Berg

The Trump administration must fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in full this month, a Rhode Island federal judge ruled Thursday while admonishing the government for "entrenching delay" of benefits for the 42 million low-income Americans who rely on food assistance.

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Black Exec Who Confronted McDonald's CEO Loses Bias Suit

By Patrick Hoff

McDonald's defeated a Black former security executive's suit alleging he was fired for confronting the company's CEO about racial disparities, with an Illinois federal judge ruling his remarks about social inequities weren't protected by federal law.

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Egg Producers Blamed Bird Flu While Fixing Prices, Suit Says

By Craig Clough

A New York grocer filed a proposed class action Thursday in Indiana federal court against the nation's largest conventional egg producers and two industry publications accusing them of a price-fixing conspiracy they falsely blamed on years-old bird flu outbreak.

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6th Circ. Becomes Latest To Reject NLRB's Thryv Remedy

By Emily Brill

The Sixth Circuit is the latest court to weigh in on the National Labor Relations Board's 2022 decision that employers must cover any financial hits that workers take due to company misconduct, joining the Third and Fifth circuits and opposing the Ninth Circuit in ruling that the board overstepped.

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Philly 'Whiz Honor' Judge Suspended In Ethics Case

By Bonnie Eslinger

A Philadelphia judge under investigation amid accusations that he sought to influence the sentencing of a friend of rapper Meek Mill was suspended without pay on Thursday, according to a court order. 

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Consumers Sue Tilray Over Protein Claims In Hemp Product

By Jonathan Capriel

International cannabis lifestyle and consumer packaged goods company Tilray Brands Inc. was hit with a proposed class action in California federal court by a woman who claims it overstates the amount of protein consumers will get from eating its "Just Hemp" protein powder.

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Seafood Co. Workers Urge 11th Circ. To Rehear ESOP Fight

By Kellie Mejdrich

Workers for a seafood company urged the Eleventh Circuit to rethink a panel's decision in October that upheld dismissal of their suit accusing the company of employee stock ownership plan mismanagement, arguing the full court should overturn appellate precedent that led to the three-judge panel's decision.

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Food Co. Can't Keep Worker's Wage Suit In Federal Court

By Irene Spezzamonte

A food and beverage company wrongly assumed that all its employees were subject to overtime violations alleged in a worker's proposed class action, a Washington federal court ruled, remanding the case to state court on the grounds that the company overestimated the amount of money at stake.

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Deals Rumor Mill

Pfizer Matches Novo's $10B Metsera Bid, And Other Rumors

By Al Barbarino

Pfizer Inc. reportedly raised its offer for Metsera Inc. to match a $10 billion bid from Novo Nordisk Inc., as a bidding war and legal squabble play out between the drugmakers. Among other deal-related rumors, Apollo Global Management Inc. reportedly dropped its bid to take private pizza chain Papa Johns International Inc., and new developments emerged as Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. weighs potential sale options.

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Series

Mindfulness Meditation Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Mindful meditation enables me to drop the ego, and in helping me to keep sight of what’s important, permits me to learn from the other side and become a reliable counselor, says Roy Wyman at Bass Berry.

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Lawmakers Rip Judges Over Anonymous High Court Criticism

By Ryan Boysen

Two Republican lawmakers have asked Chief Justice John Roberts to rein in judges who've anonymously criticized the U.S. Supreme Court's flurry of "shadow docket" rulings, but a full-on investigation appears unlikely.

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Atty Exits Bankruptcy Case Amid Judge Romance Fallout

By Emily Sawicki

The embattled wind-down trustee for defunct life insurance bond seller GWG Holdings in a Houston Chapter 11 case has resigned from the role amid the fallout from her secret romance with a then-bankruptcy judge in the Southern District of Texas.

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Trump Taps Ex-Kansas AG Deputy For DOJ Legal Policy Role

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump has nominated Dan Burrows, a White House official and former chief deputy attorney general of Kansas, to be assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Legal Policy.

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Goldstein Loses Bid To Trim Tax Charges Before Trial

By Jared Foretek

A Maryland federal judge Thursday handed SCOTUSblog co-founder Tom Goldstein a series of losses on pre-trial motions aimed at trimming the 22 federal tax charges he'll face at trial next year, ruling that many of the motions involved factual disputes fit for trial and keeping the government's case intact.

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Tom Girardi's Brother, Bankruptcy Trustee Settle Legal Fees

By Lauren Berg

The brother of disgraced attorney Tom Girardi and the trustee for their now-defunct law firm, Girardi Keese, have reached an agreement resolving John Girardi's claim seeking legal fees for cases he worked on after leaving the firm, the trustee told the California bankruptcy court.

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Atty Ordered Detained After Harassment Of BigLaw Attys

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas federal judge on Thursday ordered U.S. marshals to put an attorney accused of cyberstalking other attorneys at BigLaw firms in jail until trial, saying the attorney has continued to make harassing online posts while on pretrial release and didn't attend mandatory mental health treatment.

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Judge Mehta 'Still Digging Out' From Google, Oath Keepers

By Bryan Koenig

U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta said Thursday he is still playing catch-up from a period during which his time was spent with virtually nothing but the Google search case and the prosecution of Oath Keepers charged with sedition and other crimes from the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol.

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DOJ Gives Comey Seized Materials, Balks At Grand Jury Docs

By Lauren Berg

The U.S. Department of Justice Thursday informed a Virginia federal court that it has handed over to former FBI Director James Comey materials seized under years-old search warrants, but it will challenge a magistrate judge's order to produce grand jury materials.

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Ex-DOJ Staffer Cleared After Tossing Sandwich At CBP Officer

By Elaine Briseño

A D.C. federal jury on Thursday found former U.S. Department of Justice employee Sean Dunn, who threw a Subway sandwich at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer, not guilty of misdemeanor assault.

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2nd Circ. Orders New Look At Trump's Hush Money Case

By Aaron Keller

In a published opinion, the Second Circuit on Thursday ordered a federal district judge to take a fresh look at President Donald Trump's attempt to move his New York hush money conviction to federal court, citing the U.S. Supreme Court's 2024 presidential immunity ruling as grounds for reconsidering the case.

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Miss. Judge, US Atty Nominees Held Up In Committee

By Courtney Bublé

Consideration of judicial and U.S. attorney nominees for Mississippi has stalled in committee over tensions between senators that are unrelated to the nominations, according to the Senate Judiciary Committee chair's office.

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