Trump Taps 3rd Surgeon General Pick, Drops Casey Means

By Mark Payne

President Donald Trump nominated his third pick to be surgeon general on Thursday, withdrawing consideration for Casey Means after her confirmation stalled in the Senate. 

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Gov't Pauses Medicaid Data Use For ICE Amid Injunction Fight

By Ben Adlin

The Trump administration agreed at a hearing Thursday to temporarily halt the use of 22 states' Medicaid data for immigration enforcement purposes until a San Francisco federal judge clarifies the boundaries of an injunction that the largely Democratic-controlled states had accused the government of flouting.

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Jury Begins Mulling If Doctors Are Liable For Fatal Overdose

By P.J. D'Annunzio

A Philadelphia jury on Thursday began deliberations in a lawsuit accusing two doctors of enabling a 26-year-old man with chronic back pain to become hooked on opioid painkillers and fatally overdose.

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Trump Says Fixed-Price Procurement Deals Will Be Default

By Madeline Lyskawa

President Donald Trump issued an executive order Thursday making fixed-price contracts the default for federal contracting, as a part of an effort to tackle "unpredictable costs, bloated overhead, and weak performance incentives," which the president attributed to cost-reimbursement contracts.

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Early Release Denied For Pharmacist With Blood Cancer

By Susan Smiley

A former pharmacist on Wednesday was denied an early release from his 35-month sentence for his role in a $5.6 million fraudulent prescription scheme, as a Michigan federal judge said the Bureau of Prisons was providing sufficient treatment for the pharmacist's blood cancer.

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Fla. Judge Denies FTC Sanctions In Fake Health Benefits Suit

By David Minsky

A Florida federal judge Wednesday denied the Federal Trade Commission's request for sanctions against two siblings accused of destroying evidence in a lawsuit claiming they sold $91 million of fake Affordable Care Act plans, saying it's "too much of a leap" to find they violated a temporary restraining order.

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Debt Collectors Owe Charity Care Notice, Wash. Justices Say

By Lauren Berg

Just as hospitals must inform low-income patients they might qualify for financial assistance, so too must agencies collecting on medical debt, the Washington Supreme Court clarified Thursday.

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Mental Health Co. Can't Undo Jury Verdict In NC Wage Suit

By MJ Koo

A mental healthcare company's bid to throw out a jury verdict finding it willfully violated federal and state wage laws fell short because its post-trial arguments lacked supporting evidence, a North Carolina federal judge ruled Thursday.

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Express Scripts, Cigna Seek End To Ohio PBM Price Suit

By Mark Payne

After the Sixth Circuit ruled that a legal dispute between Ohio and a group of pharmacy benefit managers belongs in federal court, Express Scripts and Cigna now want dismissed the lawsuit accusing them of participating in an antitrust conspiracy that is driving up prescription drug prices. 

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Roundup

NC Biz Court Bulletin: Corporate Raid, MV Realty Settlement

By Hayley Fowler

A major case settled in the North Carolina Business Court in April as new lawsuits emerged, including a complaint by health information technology company IQVIA Holdings Inc. accusing its former top brass of orchestrating a corporate raid and defecting to a competitor. In case you missed this story and others, here are the highlights.

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Medtronic User Says Data Hack Exposed 9M Client Records

By Hailey Konnath

A Medtronic customer filed a proposed class action Thursday accusing the medical device company of failing to safeguard more than 9 million records containing personally identifiable information — including health information — exposed in a data breach earlier this month.

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Acadia Investors Get Final OK For $179M Deal, Atty Fees

By Katryna Perera

A Tennessee federal judge has given final approval to a $179 million settlement between investors and Acadia Healthcare Co. Inc., ending a class action that alleged the company misled investors about the strength of its U.K. operations.

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Brief

Judge Gives $27M Settlement Final Nod In DuPont PFAS Case

By Jonathan Capriel

A New York federal judge has granted final approval to a $27 million deal between DuPont and the Hoosick Falls residents who claimed the company's chemicals contaminated their drinking water for years, damaging their property values and leaving toxic levels of "forever chemicals" in their blood.

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Kroger's Health Plan Tobacco Fee Shirks ERISA, Suit Says

By Grace Elletson

Supermarket giant Kroger violated federal benefits law by requiring workers to pay an extra fee through their health plan if they used tobacco while failing to give them a fair opportunity to avoid the charge, according to a proposed class action filed in Ohio federal court.

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Immigrant Minors Lose Bid To Block Repeat Sponsor Vetting

By Lauren Berg

A Washington, D.C., federal judge Thursday refused to block a Trump administration policy requiring that previously approved custodians reapply to sponsor "unaccompanied" children while the minors are held in government facilities, finding that the plaintiffs have not established the government is likely acting contrary to law.

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Brief

Feds Appeal Order Freezing CDC Childhood Vaccine Changes

By Carolyn Muyskens

The Trump administration said late Wednesday that it's appealing a court order that stopped its pared-down childhood vaccine schedule from going into effect.

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Carbon Health Says It Needs Another $11M In DIP Financing

By Emily Lever

Carbon Health Technologies said it needs another $11 million in debtor-in-possession financing to bring its loan total to $30.5 million, as it is on the verge of running out of money to continue operating its business in Chapter 11.

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Goodwin, Davis Polk Lead Avalyn's Upsized $300M IPO

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Biotechnology firm Avalyn Pharma Inc. began trading publicly Thursday after raising $300 million in an upsized initial public offering.

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Monthly Merger Review Snapshot

By Matthew Perlman

A pair of door manufacturers ended a landmark private merger challenge, state enforcers are gearing up for a potential Live Nation breakup bid following a crucial jury win, and a separate group of states and DirecTV are challenging Nexstar's $6.2 billion deal for rival broadcaster Tegna.

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Previewing FDA National Priority Vouchers In Psychedelics EO

President Donald Trump's recent executive order on psychedelic drug access represents a watershed moment in federal drug policy, but its significance lies in two distinct regulatory pathways, the first being the Commissioner's National Priority Vouchers, which offer a significant opportunity to compress U.S. Food and Drug Administration review, say Kimberly Chew at Husch Blackwell and Odette Hauke at Odette Alina.

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Why Product-Based Public Nuisance Claims May Be Waning

The Maryland Supreme Court's recent decision in Express Scripts v. Anne Arundel County is the latest in a national trend of rulings rejecting product-based public nuisance claims — but other forms of government litigation against companies that allegedly increase the cost of public services are likely to continue, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

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What's At Stake For Employers In Fight Over Visa Pause

For employers that rely on foreign talent, the Trump administration’s suspension of immigrant visa issuance for the nationals of 75 countries is creating practical problems, and a recently filed lawsuit challenging the pause could determine whether consular processing, for some, ceases to be an individualized process, says attorney Lisa Eisenberg.

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Series

Playing Magic: The Gathering Makes Me A Better Lawyer

The competitive card game Magic: The Gathering offers me a training ground for the strategic thinking skills crucial to litigation, challenging me to adapt to oft-updated rules, analyze text as complicated as any statute and anticipate my opponent’s next moves, says Christopher Smith at Lash Goldberg.

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How They Won It

How Sullivan & Cromwell Won An $18B 'Bet The Country' Case

By Chris Villani

It is not often that a Second Circuit ruling is hailed as "the greatest legal achievement in national history" by a country's president, but that's what happened after a team from Sullivan & Cromwell LLP persuaded the appellate panel to nix an $18 billion judgment against Argentina.

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Jones Day Beats Sanctions Bid In $2M Fee Dispute

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois state judge has ruled that Jones Day can pursue punitive damages on several of its claims in a lawsuit alleging a former client made a series of unlawful transactions to avoid paying over $2 million in legal fees, and also denied sanctions sought by the ex-client against the firm.

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Google $700M Deal Nears Approval As Judge Questions Fees

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge said Thursday he would likely give final approval to Google's $700 million antitrust deal with states and consumers, but criticized the accompanying request for $85 million in attorney fees, calling the 100,000 hours the consumers' counsel said they spent on the case "grotesquely bloated."

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'Christian Witch' Says Jenner & Block Must Face Vax Bias Suit

By Grace Elletson

A former Jenner & Block LLP employee told an Illinois federal judge that she didn't need to disclose that she's a "Christian witch" in order to seek an exemption to the law firm's COVID-19 vaccine requirement, urging the court to reject her ex-employer's bid to toss the case.

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Senate Advances Mont. Judge Pick Rated Unqualified By ABA

By Courtney Bublé

A judicial nominee for the District of Montana who was the only nominee of the second Trump administration so far to receive a "not qualified" rating from the American Bar Association advanced out of committee on Thursday.

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Judge Denies Push To Stop Closed Immigration Hearings

By Tom Lotshaw

A D.C. federal judge denied a Minnesota human rights organization's request to block immigration judges from restricting public and press access to proceedings, ruling that it failed to show an immediate threat of future harm from unlawful hearing closures.

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J&J Says Ill. Ruling Backs Beasley Allen's DQ From Talc Suits

By George Woolston

Johnson & Johnson told a New Jersey federal court that a recent ruling in Illinois backs the Beasley Allen Law Firm's disqualification from multidistrict litigation over its talcum powder.

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LSC Decries House Subcommittee's Proposed Budget Cut

By Marco Poggio

The nation's largest funder of civil legal aid condemned a House appropriations proposal to slash its budget for fiscal year 2027 by more than half, warning Thursday the reduction could leave nearly 3 million Americans without help for critical civil legal problems.

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Ex-Husch Blackwell Partner Urges Discovery In ERISA Dispute

By Daniel Moritz-Rabson

A former Husch Blackwell LLP partner has urged a Missouri federal court to ignore the firm's request for summary judgment in a dispute over employee retirement benefits, arguing discovery should proceed in the proposed class action.

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Hub Hires: Weil Gotshal, Reed Smith, Morgan Lewis

By Chris Villani

April showers bring legal hires in Boston, with several attorneys on the move. Weil Gotshal snagged an international trade lawyer from Kirkland & Ellis, Morgan Lewis added an attorney from Hunton, and Reed Smith continued to expand its new Boston office.

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