White House Must Restore Press Passes To CNN, Others

By Jared Foretek

A D.C. federal judge ordered the White House to immediately reinstate White House access for CNN, Politico and MS Now on Thursday morning, writing that the outlets were likely to succeed in claiming that their abrupt ban from the building last week violated their Fifth Amendment procedural due process rights.

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Paramount Judge Won't 'Rubber Stamp' States' Merger Deal

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge questioned state enforcers Thursday about the details of their proposed settlement to resolve antitrust litigation challenging Paramount Skydance's planned $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, telling counsel, "The court isn't a rubber stamp," and "I've got questions, and I'm not the only one."

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Nintendo Wins $4.5M Default Against Reddit Moderator Archbox

By Ben Adlin

An Arizona resident and Reddit moderator known as archbox must pay $4.5 million to Nintendo of America Inc. for allegedly making and distributing illegal copies of Nintendo Switch video games, according to a default judgment handed down Wednesday by a Washington federal judge.

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Wachtell-Advised People Scraps $18B Take-Private MGM Bid

By Nate Beck

People Inc. said it has withdrawn a June proposal to purchase all public shares of MGM Resorts International and take the company private, with advice from Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz. 

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Deals Rumor Mill

PE And Activist-Driven Moves Lead The Week's Deal Rumors

By Al Barbarino

Activist investors are turning up the pressure on companies including Six Flags Entertainment and Knife River, while private equity firms GTCR and Reverence Capital are weighing a sale of asset manager Allspring Global Investments, and Clayton Dubilier & Rice and Warburg Pincus are in talks to jointly acquire Canaccord Wealth.

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Issa Copyright Bill Looks To Combat Foreign Website Piracy

By Elliot Weld

A California lawmaker has introduced a bill that would allow U.S.-based copyright holders to seek federal court declarations that foreign websites are engaged in copyright piracy and then to have the sites blocked in the U.S.

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Roundup

ITC Takes On Patents, Trade Secrets In Large Decision Drop

By Dani Kass

The U.S. International Trade Commission issued a flood of decisions this week on investigations in which imports are being evaluated to see if they infringe patents or misappropriate secrets, including three cases where it will reconsider holdings from administrative law judges.

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Analysis

Calif. Bill Deals Blow, But Not Knockout, To Tracking Suits

By Allison Grande

A California bill awaiting the governor's signature is poised to reduce the swell of litigation under the California Invasion of Privacy Act, but the narrow scope of the pending lawsuit ban leaves open other avenues for plaintiffs to target the widespread use of website tracking technologies.

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FTC Eyes Tech Cos.' Profits In Fight Against Online Scam Ads

By Sarah Jarvis

The Federal Trade Commission said Thursday it wants input on whether it should update rules for preventing impersonation scams online, homing in on ad optimization tools that have helped scammers net billions from consumers while allowing tech companies to "internalize the revenue but externalize the risk."

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TikTok Loses Bid To Trim Kids' Data Privacy Suit In Calif.

By Rae Ann Varona

A California federal judge on Thursday refused TikTok's bid to trim claims from a proposed class action alleging that the platform exploits the private information of users under 13, saying at a hearing that the question of whether previous TikTok settlements bar the plaintiffs' claims should be saved for later.

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Brief

Ticketmaster Offers Sheeran Refunds After Mass. AG Demand

By Julie Manganis

Ticketmaster will facilitate refunds to customers who no longer want to attend pop star Ed Sheeran's two concerts this weekend at Gillette Stadium, in Foxborough, Massachusetts, following a demand letter from the state's attorney general, her office said Thursday.  

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RICO, Antitrust Suit Over Pa. Sen's Ph.D. Scholarship Culled

By Bryan Koenig

A Pennsylvania politician's lawsuit against the University of New Brunswick, its officers and a former Ph.D. candidate is down to a single claim, against the doctoral candidate, after an Oklahoma federal judge rejected the other allegations focused on suggestions of academic fraud in the politician's own Ph.D. scholarship.

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Game Publishers Eye Doc Request In Valve Antitrust Case

By Joyce Hanson

Video-game publishers accusing Valve Corp. in a federal antitrust lawsuit of manipulating arbitration pacts with gaming customers have questioned the gamers' bid for access to the publishers' purportedly protected materials as the gamers fight a separate case against the digital content company.

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Google, Ex-Engineer End Suit Over Pregnancy-Loss Firing

By Ben Adlin

Google LLC and a former software engineer who sued the company over allegations that she was wrongfully fired for taking time off following the unexpected loss of a pregnancy agreed to dismiss the worker's lawsuit with prejudice, according to a Western District of Washington filing in the case Wednesday.

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Bipartisan Senate Bill Aims To Tighten Telecom Cybersecurity

By Christopher Cole

A bipartisan Senate bill filed Thursday would aim to ramp up cybersecurity in the telecom industry by creating a system for providers and suppliers to voluntarily certify that they meet security standards.

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FCC Warns Broadcasters To Comply With Renewal Guidelines

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

The Federal Communications Commission has warned broadcast licensees to comply with renewal processing guidelines, but nevertheless directed the Media Bureau to process five pending applications that failed to prepare their compliance records properly.

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Cayuga Tribe Fights to Keep Caesars Sports Betting Suit Alive

By Crystal Owens

The Cayuga Nation is asking a district court to reject a bid by Caesars Sportsbook to dismiss the tribe's lawsuit, arguing that the gambling giant's arguments largely rest on a misplaced premise that its New York gambling license allows it to accept wagers from every location within the state.

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Ex-Google CEO's Rape Accuser Can't Undo $12M Arb. Loss

By Craig Clough

A California judge on Thursday told a woman who accused former Google CEO Eric Schmidt of sexual assault that he will not vacate a $12 million arbitration award in Schmidt's favor, saying she appeared to have ignored the arbitrator's orders just like she disregarded his own, and asking, "Why did you do that?"

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FCC Robotics Restrictions Raise AI Compliance Risks

A recent "covered list" update from the Federal Communications Commission places restrictions on foreign-produced advanced robotic devices’ ability to obtain new authorizations, creating a framework that is poorly suited to continuous artificial intelligence updates, and raising several transactional and contractual challenges, says Kim Larsen at Stinson.

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Series

Playing Bid Whist Makes Me A Better Lawyer

As a child, I viewed bid whist as a family tradition and a source of friendly card game competition, but as a lawyer, I see it as a tool that has helped me cultivate skills like communication, teamwork, risk assessment and composure, says Keyonn Pope at Riley Safer.

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Litigation Spending To Keep Climbing While Biz Risks Mount

By Ryan Boysen

Big companies will increase their litigation budgets yet again next year, as navigating legal risk is now an essential element of achieving strategic business goals, according to a new report.

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Seyfarth Failed To Guard Client Data From Hack, Suit Alleges

By Lauren Berg

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on Thursday was hit with a proposed class action in Illinois federal court accusing it of failing to protect its current and former clients' personal information after the Chicago-based law firm this month disclosed a recent data breach.

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PACER Experiences Outages Of Some Court Dockets

By Matt Perez

PACER, the online public repository of federal court documents, experienced technical errors on Wednesday and Thursday preventing some users from accessing certain court dockets.

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New Eastern La. Judge's 5th Circ. Bid Goes To Full Senate

By Courtney Bublé

U.S. District Judge Anna St. John of the Eastern District of Louisiana, who was confirmed to her current post in March, is one step closer to being elevated to the federal appeals bench.

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Fla. Judge To Get Reprimand For Remark On Shooting Attys

By Madison Arnold

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a public reprimand of a state district court judge for "intemperate and caustic" comments about shooting attorneys during a hearing.

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Congressional Probes Raise Legal, 'Reputational' Risks

By Phillip Bantz

An array of companies and executives may face investigations over their dealings with the Trump administration if Democrats take control of Congress, raising the possibility that some may refuse to comply. But experts say holding out hope for a mass pardon or expecting the Justice Department not to pursue contempt charges is a risky bet.

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Analysis

5 Circuit Splits To Watch At The High Court

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court has been deciding fewer and fewer cases over the past three decades, with its caseload reaching a historic low just last term. While attorneys believe several factors have contributed to that trend, they say one of the most consequential is the court's apparent declining interest in resolving circuit splits. 

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Trump's Antitrust Pick Advances Amid Independence Worries

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump's pick to lead the antitrust division at the U.S. Department of Justice advanced to the Senate floor on Thursday, despite Democratic concerns about agency independence.

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Sen. Hyde-Smith's Opponent Seeks Blue-Slip Transparency

By Courtney Bublé

Four years ago, Scott Colom — the son of the first African American elected to the chancery bench in her region of Mississippi — was nominated for a federal judgeship. Now he's running for Senate against the senator who blocked his confirmation.

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Ed. Dept. Committee Sidesteps ABA Accreditation Issue

By Ryan Boysen

A key U.S. Department of Education committee on Thursday declined to weigh in on whether an American Bar Association council should remain a federally recognized accreditor of law schools, a day after the panel deadlocked on different proposals over the hot-button issue.

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