Ed Dept. Can't Cancel K–12 Mental Health Grants Worth $1B

By Ben Adlin

A Washington federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration on Tuesday from terminating nearly $1 billion in K–12 mental health grants serving 15 states, finding that the plaintiff states are likely to prove the U.S. Education Department bypassed federal procedures when attempting to cut off the funds.

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Judge Mulls Pausing Medicaid Work Rule For 'Frail' Recipients

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts federal judge said Tuesday he anticipates deciding by the end of the week whether the Trump administration will have to pause part of a new rule states must follow in determining whether medically frail Medicaid recipients are exempt from new work or school requirements.

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Teva Can't 'Literally Whine' Of Being Held To DOJ Admissions

By Bryan Koenig

A Pennsylvania federal judge has taken Teva to task for trying to avoid being held to its admissions of price-fixing in a $225 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, ruling that Humana can use those admissions in one of the first bellwether trials in sprawling multidistrict litigation.

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No COVID Immunity For Mich. Hospitals In Malpractice Revival

By Susan Smiley

Just because a motion is unopposed doesn't mean it should be granted, Michigan appellate judges said in a published opinion Tuesday, reversing a trial court's decision that the Pandemic Health Care Immunity Act shielded Beaumont Hospital Farmington Hills from a medical malpractice suit.

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Analysis

340B Appellate Cases To Watch In The 2nd Half Of 2026

By Mark Payne

Drugmakers are pressing appellate judges in the back half of 2026 to strike down state laws blocking them from restricting 340B contract pharmacy arrangements. Law360 Healthcare Authority has the cases to watch.

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Nursing Facility Pays $15M In Calif. AG's Understaffing Suit

By Gina Kim

Sweetwater Care and its affiliates agreed to resolve the California attorney general's consumer protection suit alleging they understaffed their skilled nursing facilities in more than 14,000 instances, exposing patients to neglect, abuse and injury with delayed care, while the defendants accepted nearly $200 million from Medicare and Medi-Cal.

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NJ Nursing Home On Hook For Hypothermia Death Verdict

By Y. Peter Kang

A New Jersey appellate panel on Tuesday affirmed a $450,000 jury verdict against a nursing home accused of negligently keeping a resident's room like an "icebox," which caused her death from hypothermia, saying the verdict was supported by sufficient evidence.

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Ortho Practice Owes More Damages After Sex Bias Verdict

By P.J. D'Annunzio

A Pennsylvania-based orthopedic practice and a group of five female employees who accused the healthcare provider and its related entities of sex discrimination came to an agreement Tuesday on how much back and front pay should be awarded to the plaintiffs months after a federal jury awarded them $4.35 million.

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Eating Disorder Pros Group Ducks Antitrust Suit For Good

By Bryan Koenig

An Illinois federal judge permanently dismissed a proposed antitrust class action Monday accusing the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals of forcing specialists into expensive group memberships to obtain important certification, concluding the plaintiffs haven't shown that the organization has the needed market power.

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Elevance Wins Initial Toss Of 401(k) Forfeiture Suit

By Kellie Mejdrich

Elevance Health won dismissal of a proposed class action from a worker who challenged forfeiture spending from an employee 401(k) plan, convincing an Indiana federal judge Tuesday that the allegations failed to state a claim for violating federal benefits law.

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Tribal Nonprofit Says Feds Wrongly Denied Washeteria Funds

By Crystal Owens

An Indigenous Alaskan corporation is suing the United States and Health and Human Services officials after it says they unlawfully rejected a funding agreement that would allow it to help provide access to clean drinking water, personal hygiene and healthcare services to rural villages and the city of Wales.

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Union Pacific Won't Hire Drivers Using Opioid Meds, Suit Says

By Holly DeMuth

Union Pacific Railroad Co. refuses to hire train drivers who take certain medications for opioid use disorder without evaluating their cases individually, in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to a proposed class action filed in Wisconsin federal court.

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3rd Circ. Upholds Alecto Health's Small-Biz Ch. 11 Plan

By Emlyn Cameron

The Third Circuit affirmed Tuesday that hospital owner Alecto Healthcare Services' streamlined Chapter 11 and the resulting plan confirmation withstood an appeal by a creditors' group.

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Where The Justices Aligned In Appellate Authority Ruling

The real story of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in T.M. v. University of Maryland Medical System Corp., finding that a doctrine designed to curtail duplicative litigation prevents federal district courts from reviewing state court decisions, is in how the justices together revisited an obscure, century-old jurisdictional doctrine, says Alex Dimitrief at Zeughauser Group.

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Rare DOJ Military Bias Suit Shows Peril Of Co. Admissions

Although the government rarely litigates Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act claims against private employers, Opara v. UV Memory Care demonstrates that it will do so when an employer's own admissions build the case, potentially resulting in significant compliance obligations and long-term consequences, says Bradford Kelley at Littler.

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Trader In BigLaw Deal-Tipping Scheme To Plead Guilty

By Chris Villani

A Florida resident is set to plead guilty to his alleged role in a sweeping scheme to trade on insider information about impending acquisitions that was stolen from major law firms, according to a court filing Tuesday.

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Simpson Thacher Stock Work Hurt 2 Companies, Jury Told

By Madison Arnold

The chief financial officer for an insurance company told a Florida jury Tuesday that a stock drop for Patriot National Inc. — which is suing Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP for malpractice for allegedly putting together a shoddy securities offering — dramatically affected his own business as well.

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AT&T Whistleblower Told To Cut Facts From Ethics Case Filing

By Sue Reisinger

Former AT&T in-house counsel and whistleblower Theodore Marcus has been asked to delete part of his response to professional misconduct charges pending against him in Washington, D.C., because the filing allegedly contains privileged information.

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1st Circ. Asked To Save Mayer Brown $21M Fee Bid In RI Suit

By Linda Chiem

The American Trucking Associations told the First Circuit that its attorneys at Mayer Brown LLP reasonably justified their request for $21 million in fees and costs after securing "substantial" wins in long-running litigation over Rhode Island's truck tolling program, disputing a district court's determination that the trucking trade group wasn't actually a "prevailing party."

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Winston Taylor Seeks Sanction Against Ex-Client Hunter Biden

By Rae Ann Varona

Winston Taylor urged a D.C. state court on Monday to sanction its former client Hunter Biden in its legal bills collection suit, saying the former president's son destroyed Signal communications that would have proved he understood that he owes the law firm more than $50,000.

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Court Is In Session Whenever A Judge Says It Is, 6th Circ. Told

By Susan Smiley

Court is wherever and whenever a judge says it is, counsel for a Detroit judge told a Sixth Circuit panel Tuesday, arguing that subjecting a student to a mock arrest and trial because she fell asleep during a field trip was within his jurisdiction.

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Senate Confirms Jay Clayton As National Intelligence Chief

By Madeline Lyskawa

The U.S. Senate voted Tuesday to confirm Jay Clayton as director of national intelligence, two weeks after Clayton, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, refused to answer who he thought won the 2020 election during his confirmation hearing.

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Queens Defenders Head Gets 3.5 Years For Looting The Nonprofit

By Pete Brush

A Brooklyn federal judge on Tuesday sentenced the former director of the Queens Defenders to more than 3.5 years in prison after the longtime attorney admitted to a course of embezzlement that destroyed the group dedicated to legal services for the poor.

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