Trump Media Wants Fees For News Orgs. Tossed In $1.5B Suit

By Carolina Bolado

President Donald Trump's social media company asked a Florida state court to reconsider an order awarding several news outlets the costs they incurred defending Trump Media's $1.5 billion defamation lawsuit, arguing that the court lacked jurisdiction to issue the order once the claims had been withdrawn.

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Feds Can Release More Documents Under Epstein Law

By Andrea Keckley

A New York federal judge granted the federal government's request to unseal documents in a 2015 civil lawsuit filed by the late Virginia Giuffre, a Jeffrey Epstein accuser who sued Ghislaine Maxwell a decade before her death last year.

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Selena Gomez Sued For Fraud By Mental Health Co. Investors

By Gina Kim

Pop star Selena Gomez and her mother were sued for securities fraud Thursday in Delaware federal court by investors in their mental health startup, Wondermind, who pointed to the former Disney star's "abject dereliction of her duties" to build the company until an investigation published last year detailed its "state of utter disarray."

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Deals Rumor Mill

Bezos Backs Liverpool Deal, GameStop May Pivot, And More

By Al Barbarino

Jeff Bezos could be nearing his first foray into sports team ownership with a stake in Liverpool FC, GameStop may be rethinking its $55.5 billion pursuit of eBay, and Anthropic is talking with investors about launching the largest initial public offering ever. 

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XAI Can't Send Grok User's Privacy Suit To Texas, Judge Says

By Gina Kim

Elon Musk's xAI lost its bid to have a Grok user's proposed privacy class action sent to Texas, after a California federal judge ruled Thursday that Grok's platform, including its sign-up and chat screens, doesn't give reasonably conspicuous notice of its terms containing a mandatory forum selection clause. 

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Supreme Court's Apple App Store Pause Lifted After 24 Hours

By Bryan Koenig

Following the expiration of a roughly 24-hour pause on the App Store dispute between Apple and Epic Games, Apple put a 15% commission on the table Thursday to try to comply with a mandate forcing it to dramatically cut what it charges for App Store sales.

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Customers Can't Depose Google, Apple CEOs, 9th Circ. Says

By Gina Kim

The Ninth Circuit has denied a group of consumers' petition for writ of mandamus challenging a lower court's order rejecting their repeated requests to depose Google's and Apple's CEOs and several other executives in antitrust litigation alleging the search engine giant shut out competitors.

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DOJ Backs X Corp.'s 5th Circ. Advertiser Boycott Appeal

By Bryan Koenig

The U.S. Justice Department backed X Corp. on Wednesday by arguing in a Fifth Circuit amicus brief that a Texas federal judge botched the antitrust injury analysis when tossing a lawsuit accusing Mars, CVS, Nestle, Lego, Tyson Foods and other advertisers of agreeing to boycott the social media platform after Elon Musk's purchase.

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DOJ's HPE Merger Settlement Approved Over State Objections

By Matthew Perlman

A California federal judge approved a controversial settlement struck by the U.S. Department of Justice to end a case challenging Hewlett Packard Enterprise's $14 billion purchase of Juniper Networks, despite concerns from state enforcers about political influence in the settlement process.

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'Anticompetitive Friction': Google Must Fix App Store Search

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge Thursday ordered Google LLC to streamline the steps for Android users to find rival app stores as part of his court-ordered remedies in antitrust litigation won by Epic Games Inc. against Google, saying the current user process includes "anti-competitive friction" to discourage competition.

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DirecTV Says Nexstar Suit Discovery Damning But Incomplete

By Nadia Dreid

DirecTV says documents produced by Nexstar Media Group and the two companies accused of conspiring with the massive multimedia conglomerate to fix prices for retransmission fees already show that collusion was happening, but Nexstar is dragging its feet on producing the rest.

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Sierra Nevada Gets FCC OK For High Frequency Flight Sensor

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission gave the green light to Sierra Nevada Co. LLC's request to operate enhanced flight vision systems in the 92-95.5 gigahertz spectrum band.

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Wireless Cos. Want FCC Protection In Upper Microwave Bands

By Christopher Cole

Top wireless carriers are seeking assurance from the Federal Communications Commission that it will not craft new rules in the upper microwave spectrum bands that could lead to interference with their licensed use of the airwaves.

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FCC Told Foreign Drone Ban Could Hinder Public Safety Work

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

A nonprofit that donates drones to public safety agencies and science programs has urged the Federal Communications Commission to reconsider a potential ban on foreign-made military-grade drones.

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DirecTV Says Tegna Board Issue Proves Injunction Is Needed

By Nadia Dreid

DirecTV is pointing the Ninth Circuit toward a recent court order clarifying that when a federal judge told Nexstar and Tegna to remain separate while a challenge to their $6.2 billion merger plays out, that also meant they weren't allowed to put Nexstar execs on Tegna's board of directors.

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Festival Director Must Face Suit Over Drakeo's Killing

By Craig Clough

The festival director of a concert where rapper Drakeo the Ruler was killed backstage cannot escape a consolidated wrongful death suit brought by the artist's family and associates, with a Los Angeles judge ruling Thursday that a triable issue of material fact remains regarding the entity's role at the event.

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777 Partners Gets New DIP Offer After Contentious Hearing

By Alex Wittenberg

Investment firm 777 Partners told a Texas bankruptcy judge on Thursday that it had received a competing offer to fund its Chapter 11 case, two days after the judge ended a hearing on the company's bankruptcy financing by imploring the debtors to come up with an alternative proposal.

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Series

Going To Hardcore Shows Makes Me A Better Lawyer

While government contracts law and the hardcore scene may seem entirely unrelated, in my experience, both are about community, focus, being prepared for the unexpected and managing chaos, says Isaac Natter at Fluet.

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Anti-DEI Group Asks FTC To Probe Law Fellowship Program

By Dorothy Atkins

An advocacy organization against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives filed an antitrust complaint with the Federal Trade Commission Wednesday, accusing Sponsors for Educational Opportunity of engaging in anticompetitive practices by allegedly colluding on DEI metrics and falsely advertising its program.

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Baker Botts Atty Cleared Of Defamation In Inventor's Suit

By Carolina Bolado

A Florida federal judge on Thursday tossed a defamation claim against a Baker Botts LLP patent attorney after agreeing with a magistrate judge's conclusion that an inventor had not shown that the lawyer's comments to a reporter were defamatory.

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NYC Bar Committee Calls For Nationwide AI Rules Framework

By Andrea Keckley

A New York City Bar Association committee concluded in a policy paper published Wednesday that artificial intelligence tools "may assist legal work but cannot substitute for professional legal judgment," calling for a national framework to be built into the Model Rules of Professional Conduct governing its use.

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Trump Picks Ex-Arkansas SG, Walmart Lawyer For 8th Circ.

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump has announced that he's looking to elevate Judge Lee Rudofsky of the Eastern District of Arkansas to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

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State Farm Attys Admit Filing Motions Full Of AI Hallucinations

By Jonathan Capriel

A law firm representing State Farm has admitted that its pretrial motions contained citations to nonexistent cases and legal quotes, errors that were seemingly "hallucinations" generated by AI software designed for lawyers and caught by the plaintiff's attorneys as they prepared for trial in a California state court case about fire damage coverage.

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Brief

DOJ Fraud Division To Reach 500 Staffers This Month

By Courtney Bublé

By the end of the month, there will be about 500 attorneys and staff in the U.S. Department of Justice's new fraud division, with more to come as time goes on.

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JP Ward Attorney Exodus Delays Pa. Labor Trafficking Suit

By Matthew Santoni

A "staffing disruption" at the Pittsburgh law firm J.P. Ward & Associates led the firm to request a stay of a labor-trafficking case against hotels in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, after the firm was reduced to one attorney and two staff members, according to court filings.

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