1st Circ. Doubts Harvard Grant Fight Belongs In Claims Court

By Chris Villani

The First Circuit Monday appeared skeptical that a lower court erred in backing Harvard University in a suit over the Trump administration's bid to freeze more than $2 billion in grant funding, suggesting that the case had been decided in the proper venue.

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5th Circ. Hints CMS Medicare Advantage Rule May Violate APA

By Spencer Brewer

A Fifth Circuit panel seemed hesitant to buy an argument that a rule from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services dealing with Medicare Advantage plan overpayments went through proper rulemaking steps, asking Monday if the agency's argument that it can change its rationale "upends" rulemaking procedures.

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'Shocking' COVID Vaccine Appeal Meets Skeptical 2nd Circ.

By Brian Steele

A Second Circuit panel expressed doubt Monday that Yale healthcare workers who resisted the COVID-19 vaccine could blame a private entity for alleged constitutional violations, with one judge saying the appeal is the stuff of pro se filings, and it was "shocking" to see that an attorney had brought it.

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Justices Mull Courts' Authority To Hear Vets' Benefits Suit

By Madeline Lyskawa

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday appeared split on whether the Veterans' Judicial Review Act bars federal district courts from presiding over constitutional challenges to statutes affecting veterans' benefits, with justices questioning both sides' interpretation of the law's no-review clause.   

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Justices Want SG's View On 3 Antitrust Cases

By Matthew Perlman

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday called for the solicitor general's view in antitrust cases involving hard drive component prices, allergy testing and treatment, and insulin products sold through a drug discount program.

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Justices Won't Review Pregnancy Center Vandalism Case

By Gianna Ferrarin

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday said it will not review the conviction of a Florida woman for conspiring to violate a federal statute that prohibits intimidation and obstruction of people trying to access reproductive health facilities.

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Supreme Court Won't Take Up DOD Workers' Vax Bias Suit

By Patrick Hoff

The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to review a suit alleging the U.S. Department of Defense unlawfully refused religious requests for exemptions from COVID-19 prevention protocols, leaving in place a Fifth Circuit ruling that workers hadn't tied their beliefs to masking and testing policies.

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High Court Won't Hear Chicago Workers' Vaccine Appeal

By Celeste Bott

The U.S. Supreme Court again refused Monday to weigh in on a challenge to COVID-19 vaccine and testing requirements for Chicago city workers, declining to take up the case after the Seventh Circuit refused to revive their lawsuit in December.

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Justices Won't Hear Minn. Indian Child Welfare Act Case

By Crystal Owens

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to hear two foster parents' challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act after the Minnesota Supreme Court determined they don't have standing to take on the bedrock law on claims of constitutional equal protection rights.

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Justices Pass On Challenge To New York Diet Pill Law

By Dan McKay

The U.S. Supreme Court won't take up a First Amendment challenge to a New York prohibition on the sale of weight-loss and muscle-building supplements to minors.

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Justices Reject Deportation Risk Advice Case

By P.J. D'Annunzio

The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it won't examine the issue of whether defense counsel is obligated to inform noncitizen clients in criminal proceedings about the risk of deportation present in all related legal matters, including civil cases. 

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Worker Fired After Flu Vax Rift Can't Get High Court Traction

By David Aaro

The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to hear a Black former health system employee's challenge to the dismissal of her suit alleging that racism, as opposed to noncompliance with the company's flu vaccine requirement, got her fired.

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Brief

High Court Won't Review Medical Tape Antitrust Case

By Matthew Perlman

The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to review a case accusing medical supplies group purchasing giant Vizient Inc. of locking in hospital customers, after the lower courts found a medical tape supplier failed to define a market that Vizient allegedly monopolized.

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Feds Aim To Improve Health Cost Clarity With Final Reg

By Grace Elletson

The federal government unveiled a final rule Monday intended to make it easier to understand healthcare pricing information that President Donald Trump's first administration required private-sector healthcare plans to disclose, a move that agencies said was needed because previous regulations triggered a deluge of data.

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9th Circ. Revives Antitrust Suits Against Invisalign

By Rae Ann Varona

The Ninth Circuit on Monday reversed Invisalign-maker Align's summary judgment win in two class actions accusing the company of monopolizing the clear teeth aligner market, saying in a published opinion that Align's true reason for ending tech interoperability with a rival is still up for dispute.

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5th Circ. Backs Surgical Stapler Death Suit Dismissal

By Emily Field

The Fifth Circuit on Friday upheld a lower court's decision to dismiss a suit against Johnson & Johnson and its medical device subsidiary Ethicon Endo-Surgery Inc. over a surgical stapler implicated in a man's death for failing to provide notice before filing suit.

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Drug Discounter's $48M Arbitration Award Tossed For Fraud

By Carolina Bolado

A Florida federal judge vacated a $48 million arbitration award won by a drug discounter for unpaid commissions for pharmacy claims under an agreement with an Illinois-based pharmacy benefit company, finding the award had been procured by fraud.

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Groups Ask DC Circ. To Revive CMS Hemp Program Case

By Sam Reisman

A coalition of interests challenging a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services program to provide patients access to federally legal hemp products told the D.C. Circuit on Monday that a lower court was wrong to dismiss their petition.

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Chancery Allows Discovery In Boehringer Trade Secrets Fight

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court Monday allowed Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. to move ahead with discovery in its trade secrets fight against United Therapeutics Corp., but rejected the drugmaker's request for a rapid-fire forensic discovery schedule, finding Boehringer waited too long to justify that level of emergency relief.

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Securities Roundup: 7 Rulings You May Have Missed

By Jessica Corso

Federal judges from California to New York and several states in between issued a slew of decisions last week that determined the fates of shareholder lawsuits against a major health insurer, a New York bank that nearly failed in 2024 and a diagnostic company accused of hiding its challenges as COVID testing demand ebbed. 

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Boston Health Worker Says Firing Followed Fraud Concerns

By Carolyn Muyskens

A former program director in Boston's health department says he was fired after refusing to enroll new clients until his concerns about fraud in a home visiting program were addressed, according to a lawsuit filed in Massachusetts state court.

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Catholic Org. Funding Cut Wasn't About Faith, Mich. Says

By Gianna Ferrarin

A Catholic charity is improperly attempting to insert a prior religious liberty case over Michigan's foster care policies into current litigation challenging the charity's de-designation as a provider of treatment for substance use disorder, state officials have argued in a brief seeking dismissal.

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Air Ambulance Co. Says Pilot's 'Inattention' Wasn't Willful

By Hayley Fowler

A pilot's actions in the cockpit during a patient transport flight that crashed in the mountains of North Carolina don't rise to the level of gross negligence or warrant punitive damages, an operator of air ambulance helicopters said in seeking to purge those claims from a personal injury suit.

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Verogen Genealogy Website Can't Escape DNA Privacy Suit

By Joyce Hanson

A California federal judge has preserved a proposed class action against the owner-operator of a genetic genealogy website, finding that the plaintiffs sufficiently showed that a technical loophole wrongly let law enforcement circumvent user opt-out privacy settings.

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Masimo's $634M Apple IP Win Boosted By $184M In Interest

By Rae Ann Varona

A California federal judge on Monday ordered Apple Inc. to pay Masimo Corp. $184 million in prejudgment interest on top of a $634 million damages award for infringing a Masimo pulse oximetry patent through an Apple Watch feature, rejecting Apple's contention that such interest was not warranted.

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Inspired Healthcare Gets OK For $713M Sale

By Rick Archer

A Texas bankruptcy judge Monday gave Inspired Healthcare the go-ahead to sell 30 of its senior living communities for $713 million after being told objections to how the sale proceeds will be handled will themselves be handled another day.

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Abbott FCA Deal Shows Enforcement Adequacy Quandaries

Abbott Laboratories’ recent False Claims Act resolution illustrates several tricky questions that both prosecutors and defense counsel must address when weighing whether a civil enforcement action alone adequately addresses allegedly wrongful conduct, says James Koukios at MoFo.

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Analysis

Judge Clevenger's Intellect Defined His Time On Fed. Circ.

By Dani Kass

Newly retired Federal Circuit Judge Raymond Clevenger has an "exceptionally keen intellect" that allowed him to spot holes or new paths in cases that the parties or fellow panel members hadn't explored, his former colleagues told Law360.

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Sotomayor Warns Judges: Don't Scare Your Jurors

By Brandon Lowrey

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Monday criticized an Alabama trial court judge who frightened a pool of prospective jurors by ordering the arrest of a latecomer to jury selection, saying in a statement accompanying a denial of certiorari in the case that fear can undermine a defendant's right to an impartial jury.

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Quinn Emanuel Seeks $750K After Defeating Buzbee Suits

By Lynn LaRowe

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP is seeking nearly $750,000 in attorney fees after defeating claims in Texas state court that it conspired with rapper Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter to retaliate against prominent Houston plaintiffs attorney Tony Buzbee and two of his former clients.

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9th Circ. Pauses Rogoff's Return As Seattle US Atty

By Jack Karp

The Ninth Circuit has put on hold a Washington federal judge's decision to reinstate Roger Rogoff as Seattle's top federal prosecutor, a post Rogoff held for less than an hour before he was fired by President Donald Trump.

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Jackson Walker Deal Stalled By Standing Issue, Trustee Says

By Lauren Berg

The U.S. Trustee's Office told a Texas federal judge that its settlement with Jackson Walker LLP to disgorge fees from cases touched by scandal is on ice while a bankruptcy judge examines the watchdog's standing to seek such relief.

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Eckert Seamans Says Data Breach Harm Is Only Speculative

By James Boyle

Pittsburgh-based law firm Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott LLC told a Pennsylvania federal judge on Friday a pair of proposed class actions claiming damages from a data breach at the firm have not made specific complaints of actual harm caused by the breach and should be dismissed.

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