NJ Parents' Suit Challenging Storing Baby DNA Gets Tossed

By Dorothy Atkins

A New Jersey federal judge tossed a proposed class action Friday challenging the Garden State's practice of keeping newborn babies' residual blood spots without parental consent, finding the parents haven't alleged viable Fourth or Fourteenth Amendment claims, in part because the state agreed to destroy the blood spots at issue.

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HHS Says Wash. Has No Stake In Noncitizen Medicaid Fight

By Rachel Riley

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is fighting Washington state's bid to join a legal challenge to the Trump administration's attempts to withdraw federal Medicaid funding for certain noncitizens receiving supplemental security income, arguing Friday the state has pointed to "speculative downstream effects" of the targeted policy.

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Ohio High Court Clarifies Juror-Bias Challenge Standard

By Y. Peter Kang

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled Monday that trial judges must disqualify prospective jurors when bias or unwillingness to follow the law is proven valid, overruling portions of two earlier decisions that allowed greater judicial discretion in such cases.

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MVP: Sheppard's Eric Newsom

By Dan McKay

Eric Newsom of Sheppard advised University of California, San Diego Health as it worked with California's largest public healthcare district to establish a new regional health system that will expand access to clinical care in San Diego County, earning him a spot as one of the 2026 Law360 Healthcare MVPs.

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Splenda Maker Says Cancer Claims Weren't Protected Speech

By Corey Rothauser

Splenda maker TC Heartland LLC urged the Fourth Circuit to revive its defamation suit against a scientist over her public warnings about the sweetener, arguing that the First Amendment does not shield statements that misrepresent research or rely on concealed test results.

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Patient Can Refile Mich. Nurse Assault Suit In State Court

By Susan Smiley

A Michigan federal judge on Monday granted a plaintiff's bid to dismiss her lawsuit accusing Sinai-Grace Hospital of enabling one of its former nurses to commit sexual assault, allowing her to refile in state court.

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ICE Says Calif. Detention Facility Meets Improvement Order

By Madeline Lyskawa

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement urged a California federal judge to reject immigrant detainees' claims that it's failing to abide by a preliminary injunction requiring humane conditions and independent monitoring at a detention facility in the Mojave Desert. 

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Pharmacy Hit With NJ Suit Over GLP-1 Marketing

By George Woolston

A compounding pharmacy deceptively and falsely marketed its GLP-1 compounded weight loss medications as safe, effective, clinically supported and personalized, according to a proposed class action filed in New Jersey federal court.

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Meta Users Win Class Cert. In Pixel Healthcare Data Suit

By Lauren Berg

A California federal judge certified four classes of Facebook users who allege Meta Platforms collected their personal health information through data tracking tools on healthcare providers' websites, rejecting the social media company's attempts to attack the predominance of common issues.

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UK Health Co. Can't Exit Psilocybin Trade Secrets Theft Suit

By Adam Lidgett

A Maryland federal judge has refused to let a British healthcare company dodge a lawsuit alleging it stole trade secrets relating to a novel method of treating depression with psilocybin, the active ingredient in psychoactive mushrooms.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court last week allowed a stockholder claim over R1 RCM Inc.'s $8.9 billion buyout to proceed, while investors in Meta Platforms Inc. sued to block a stock restructuring they say would let CEO Mark Zuckerberg sell billions of dollars in shares without giving up control of the company.

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Vaccine Co. Investors Want Final OK Of $6M Settlement

By Sydney Price

Investors of now-bankrupt vaccine company Gritstone Bio Inc. have asked a California federal court to grant final approval to a $6 million settlement resolving claims that its former CEO failed to disclose the company's inability to carry out a $423 million government contract for COVID-19 vaccine research it was granted in 2023.

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Pennsylvania Healthcare Group Hits Ch. 11 To Sell Hospital

By Clara Geoghegan

Holy Redeemer Health System filed for Chapter 11 protection in Pennsylvania to address about $441 million in liabilities, sell its hospital and restructure its senior and life care medical divisions.

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Weight Loss Biz Files Ch. 11 With $28M Debt

By Emily Lever

A telehealth company focused on weight loss has filed for Chapter 11 protection in Delaware with $28 million in liabilities and a dual-track plan to either sell its assets or reorganize.

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Cancer Therapy Co. Karyopharm Hits Ch. 11 With Merger Plan

By Alex Wittenberg

Pharmaceutical company Karyopharm Therapeutics Inc. on Monday filed for Chapter 11 protection in a Texas bankruptcy court with $441.5 million in debt and a plan to merge with biotechnology firm Ayrmid Ltd.

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Lessons For Cannabis Dispensaries From Web Tracking Suits

The trajectory of health-tracking litigation in Florida and elsewhere suggests that patient privacy claims will not disappear quickly, so dispensaries should audit their sites, tighten consent and align their disclosures with their actual practices, say attorneys at Buchanan Ingersoll.

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BigLaw Attys Step Up To Help Voters In Midterm Elections

By Jack Karp and Lynn LaRowe

Attorneys from several BigLaw firms are volunteering across the country to make sure voters don't run into problems casting their ballots or having those ballots counted in Tuesday's midterm elections.

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Brief

Winston Taylor, DLA Piper Match Milbank Pay Scale

By Tracey Read

Two more BigLaw firms have opted to match the new associate salary scale set by Milbank LLP in June.

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Analysis

Judiciary Stuck In AI Rulemaking Rut As Attys, Judges Protest

By Jeff Overley

Judiciary efforts to enact rules for the artificial intelligence age are mired in concerns about burdens on litigators, the tensions between burgeoning technology and snail-paced policymaking, and how to even define AI. And despite vivid examples of AI's risks, officials are inching toward mothballing the prominent project.

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Judge Orders Chicago US Atty To Testify In Misconduct Probe

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois federal judge has ordered Chicago's top federal prosecutor and three assistant U.S. attorneys to testify under oath about potentially false statements made to her in a now-dismissed criminal conspiracy case against anti-ICE protesters, saying Monday that the government's shifting explanations about communications with DOJ leadership suggest prosecutors misled the court about outside involvement in the prosecution.

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NY State Bar Says Attys Can't Bill Time Saved By AI

By Andrea Keckley

The New York State Bar Association has told lawyers not to bill clients for the time they saved by using artificial intelligence, or for the time it took to learn a new AI tool.

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Interview

SEC's Top Cop On Building A 'Nimble' Enforcement Division

By Jessica Corso

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has lost hundreds of enforcement employees and seen significant restructuring of its regional offices over the past two years, but the Division of Enforcement's director said that hasn't stopped him from building a "nimble" program that is focused on more than just the number of cases filed.

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Monthly Merger Review Snapshot

By Matthew Perlman

The Federal Trade Commission caused a pair of playground equipment makers to abandon their planned merger, Canadian enforcers upended a deal for the Green Giant brand in the country and state attorneys general reached settlements for several regional deals.

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