9th Circ. Rejects Challenge To Wash. Abortion Coverage Law

By Rachel Riley

Revisiting a church's First Amendment challenge to a Washington law mandating that certain health insurance plans include abortion coverage, a divided Ninth Circuit panel Monday concluded that the Cedar Park Assembly of God failed to point to evidence that Washington's Reproductive Parity Act targets religious conduct.

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DOD's HIV-Positive Enlistee Ban Is 'Irrational,' 4th Circ. Told

By Tom Lotshaw

An attorney for people barred from joining the military for being HIV-positive called the policy irrational at a Monday en banc hearing at the Fourth Circuit, as some judges asked why they should scuttle that policy and overstep deference normally afforded to military leaders.

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Global Wound Care Settles $1.5B FCA Claims For $525M

By Hailey Konnath

Bankrupt specialty medical practice Global Wound Care has agreed to pay up to $525 million to the federal government to resolve False Claims Act claims with a price tag of $1.5 billion, part of a settlement it said "provides the only viable pathway" to resolution and moving forward with a reorganization.

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Neb. Justices Again Reject Challenge To Medical Marijuana

By Sam Reisman

The Nebraska Supreme Court has rejected another effort to void medical marijuana legalization ballot initiatives that voters approved by large margins, saying the cannabis reform opponent who brought the suit lacked standing to bring his complaint.

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Abbott To Pay $385M To End FCA Claims Over Infant Formula

By Emily Field

The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday said that Abbott Laboratories has agreed to pay nearly $385 million to end False Claims Act allegations over the manufacture of contaminated infant formula at locations in Michigan and Arizona.

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Analysis

Motor Vehicles Lead Product Liability Litigation, Report Says

By Emily Field

An overall rise in recalls of motor vehicles tracks with an increase of product liability lawsuits over autos in recent years, as motor vehicle lawsuits made up half of all product liability lawsuits outside multidistrict litigation filed in 2025, according to a new report by Lex Machina.

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Albertsons Owes $2.2B For Opioids, Wash. Says As Trial Ends

By Ben Adlin

Albertsons should pay $2.2 billion to address opioid-related harms in Washington, attorneys for the state argued at the close of a two-month bench trial Monday in contending that the pharmacy failed for years to appropriately identify and review suspicious prescriptions that fueled the state's overdose crisis.

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DOJ Suit Over NY Medicaid Program Is 'Baseless,' Court Told

By Gianna Ferrarin

New York officials and the state's chosen steward for managing its $10 billion Medicaid home-care program fired back at U.S. Justice Department allegations that the bidding process for that contract was a sham, telling a federal court the suit is politically motivated and legally deficient.

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Conn. Budget Official Deserves 10-Year Sentence, Feds Say

By Aaron Keller

Federal prosecutors say former Connecticut budget official Konstantinos Diamantis deserves to spend between roughly 10 and 12½ years in prison after being convicted of accepting bribes, committing extortion and lying to federal agents, arguing "his greed, corruption and abject lack of integrity" require time behind bars.

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NC Residents Lose Class Cert. Bid In Hospital Antitrust Fight

By Hayley Fowler

A state court judge has denied class certification to a group of residents in western North Carolina in their healthcare antitrust case, saying they fell short of showing classwide impact in the form of allegedly increased premiums and decreased quality of care.

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Atty Says NFL Parkinson's Claims Ban Lacked Due Process

By Elaine Briseño

An attorney barred from representing claimants seeking NFL concussion settlement funds was denied basic due process during an audit of his work, he has argued in asking the Pennsylvania federal court to vacate his sanctions.

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Aetna Tells 5th Circ. DOL Can't Block Aramark Suit Arbitration

By Kellie Mejdrich

Aetna Life Insurance Co. urged the Fifth Circuit on Monday against the U.S. Department of Labor's argument that uniform company Aramark Services Inc.'s health claims dispute with the insurer should remain in court, arguing a Texas judge erred in declining to enforce the parties' binding arbitration agreement.

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Leidos Settles Ex-Worker's Tobacco Fee Suit

By Kellie Mejdrich

Information technology company Leidos has struck a deal to settle an ex-worker's proposed class action alleging violations of federal benefits law over a roughly $600-a-year health plan surcharge on employees who used tobacco, parties told a Virginia federal court.

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ERISA Smoking Suit Must Be Arbitrated, Dollar General Says

By Emily Brill

The Sixth Circuit should scuttle a proposed Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action against Dollar General by reviving and granting the company's motion to compel individual arbitration, Dollar General argued, saying a Tennessee federal judge didn't follow the right procedure when dispensing with the motion.

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Ex-Perrigo VP Escapes Some Price-Fixing Claims From AGs

By Brian Steele

A Connecticut federal judge has tossed most of the claims against a former Perrigo executive in sprawling generic-drug price-fixing litigation brought by state enforcers, holding there is insufficient evidence he entered into antitrust conspiracies related to more than a dozen dermatological drugs, but teeing up a handful of other claims for trial.

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Eli Lilly's $200M Fraud Suit Is Still Defective, Church Cos. Say

By David Minsky

Companies affiliated with the Church of God in Christ urged a Florida federal judge to dismiss Eli Lilly's amended lawsuit alleging a $200 million-plus fraud scheme to resell the Trulicity diabetes drug on the secondary market, saying the latest complaint still lacks specificity despite including more claims. 

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Ga. Health System Shaved Workers' Time, Suit Says

By Benjamin Morse

A Georgia health system shorted workers on pay by rounding their time punches, excluding work performed before and after scheduled shifts from their total hours, according to a proposed class and collective action filed in federal court.

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Former Trump Assistant To Co-Lead Covington Policy Practice

By Jack Rodgers

Covington & Burling LLP said Monday the firm has hired a former assistant to President Donald Trump, who served in the president's first administration as director of the Domestic Policy Council and most recently owned a federal consulting business in Washington, D.C.

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Intersecting Investigation Risks Loom In Next Congress

Taken together, two July D.C. Circuit decisions and a recent U.S. Department of Justice opinion on executive privilege may affect the procedural defenses and privilege protections available to targets of oversight in the upcoming Congress, and companies should begin preparing now, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

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How States' 'Perry Mason Moment' Led To $17B Meta Deal

By Dorothy Atkins

A recent landmark $17.1 billion settlement with Meta Platforms Inc. may have never happened if it weren't for a quick-thinking trial attorney and his close-knit team of lawyers representing 29 states, who worked together to swiftly shift strategies midtrial.

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Ashurst Perkins Aided $230M ICap Ponzi Scheme, Suit Claims

By Ben Adlin

Ashurst Perkins Coie pocketed millions of dollars in legal fees by providing services to clients it knew were operating a Ponzi scheme that ultimately swindled investors out of nearly $230 million, plaintiffs claimed in a Washington state lawsuit accusing the firm of aiding and abetting fraud.

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Trump Taps Ex-DOL Official To Serve As EEOC Top Cop

By Anne Cullen

The White House nominated a former Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP attorney who previously led the U.S. Department of Labor's contractor compliance arm to serve as the general counsel of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

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Washington Sen. Murray Vows To Block Trump US Atty Pick

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump's nominee to be U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington is under fire from one of the home state senators who vowed to use every avenue possible to block him.

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Fla. Judge Won't Pause Trump-IRS Settlement Sanctions

By Jack McLoone

The Florida federal judge who barred President Donald Trump and others from citing a settlement resolving what she characterized as a sham $10 billion case against his own Internal Revenue Service won't pause her sanctions order while the president appeals to the Eleventh Circuit.

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4th Circ. Appears Split On Reviving Comey, James Indictments

By Jared Foretek

Partisan splits were apparent Tuesday on the Fourth Circuit panel hearing the Trump administration's challenge to a federal district judge's dismissal of the indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, with two of the three judges appearing to agree an improper appointment doomed the cases.

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Brief

Calif. Judge Charged Over Fatal Crash With Bicyclist

By Craig Clough

California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Tuesday that his office charged Kings County Superior Court Judge Kendra Weber with a misdemeanor count of vehicular manslaughter, alleging she struck and killed a bicyclist.

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