$190K Or $1.9M? Goldstein, DOJ 'At Impasse' Over Forfeiture

By Jeff Overley

Tom Goldstein and the U.S. Department of Justice aired dramatically divergent views Wednesday of a looming financial penalty for his fraud convictions, with the famed appellate advocate voicing constitutional objections to the DOJ's request for almost $2 million and revealing that prosecutors spurned a far smaller offer.

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Trump Sued Over 'Corrupt' $100K Early Truth Social Access

By Craig Clough

Online news outlet The Intercept and the Freedom of the Press Foundation sued President Donald Trump Wednesday in New York federal court, accusing him of violating the Constitution with an "extraordinary, corrupt, and unconstitutional" scheme by allowing paying customers to receive advance access to official presidential announcements through Truth Social.

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Raskin Asks Ellison To Speak To Congress About Merger

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., has asked Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison to appear for a transcribed interview to explain the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger.

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WSJ Says Binance Sued Because It's Unhappy With Facts

By Stewart Bishop

The publisher of the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday urged a Manhattan federal judge to deep six a defamation suit brought by Binance over reporting about internal investigators at the crypto exchange who were allegedly fired after flagging Iranian sanctions violations, saying the company is just unhappy with the way the Journal reported the facts.

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Jury Picked For Meta Social Media Addiction Trial

By Bonnie Eslinger

A landmark federal trial in California over allegations that Meta social media platforms harm children's mental health is ready to begin after a jury was impaneled Wednesday — a selection process in which no prospective juror would say that Facebook or Instagram are safe for kids.

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Disney, Warner Fight AI Co.'s Bid To Trim Copyright Case

By Ivan Moreno

Disney, Warner Bros. and NBCUniversal urged a California federal court on Wednesday to reject Midjourney's bid to narrow their copyright lawsuit, arguing the artificial intelligence company is misreading the U.S. Supreme Court's March ruling limiting secondary copyright liability for internet service providers and that the decision does not foreclose claims of intentionally promoting infringement.

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Spotify Urges Permanent Toss Of Rapper's Bot-Streaming Suit

By Taylor Bowie

A rapper alleging that Spotify allows fraudulent bots to manipulate streaming data once again failed to show how his commercial association with the platform ascends to a "special relationship" under California law, Spotify said in a motion to permanently dismiss the amended complaint filed Tuesday.

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'Donnie Darko' Producer Sues Over Profits, Sequel Rights

By Craig Clough

Film producer Adam Fields sued two companies that own the rights to "Donnie Darko" in California state court, alleging they have reported negative profits for the cult classic and have denied him his contractual rights to participate in a sequel.

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Q&A

She Has A Point: Shutts & Bowen's Jodi-Ann Tillman

By Dani Kass

Jodi-Ann Tillman of Shutts & Bowen LLP was brought into patent infringement litigation over drum technology just months before trial, and her performance earned high praise from opposing counsel, Foley & Lardner LLP partner Laura Ganoza.

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Analysis

Trump Pick Sets Stage For More Fights Over FCC's Power

By Christopher Cole

A move by the White House to fill the third Republican vacancy on the Federal Communications Commission — but leave a long-empty minority seat on the five-member board unfilled — sets up what will likely be more pitched battles over not only the FCC's powers, but its future composition.

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Brief

Zuckerberg Must Sit For Deposition In AI Copyright Suits

By Ivan Moreno

A California federal judge has rejected Meta Platforms' attempt to prevent a deposition of CEO Mark Zuckerberg in four artificial intelligence copyright cases, adopting arguments from publishers and authors who contend Zuckerberg has firsthand knowledge of company decisions concerning Meta's AI development efforts.

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NJ Justices See No Mental State Tie To Daniel's Law Damages

By George Woolston

The New Jersey Supreme Court held Wednesday that there is no mental state required for damages to be established under the state's judicial privacy law, answering a question that the Third Circuit said could help the federal appeals court determine the law's constitutionality.

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Apple Gets Brief Pause In App Store Case From High Court

By Matthew Perlman and Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a brief stay Wednesday in a case from Epic Games targeting Apple's App Store policies, after the district court refused to put the case on hold while the justices review a contempt order against Apple.

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Mich. Panel Backs TV Station In Reporter's Sex Bias Suit

By Melanie Dorsey

A former WXYZ reporter lost her sex discrimination suit when a Michigan state appeals court ruled the Detroit station had legitimate reasons for paying a male reporter more and that comments about her "distracting" forehead were not direct evidence of sex bias. 

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NYC Probes Polymarket, Kalshi Over Ads Targeting Minors

By Sarah Jarvis

The New York City Council announced Wednesday that it is investigating Kalshi, Polymarket, Coinbase and Gemini Titan for potentially false, deceptive or abusive advertising tactics for their prediction market platforms, expressing concerns about marketing directed toward young people.

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SpaceX On Hunt For More Spectrum

By Nadia Dreid

SpaceX is hungry for more spectrum, telling the Federal Communications Commission it ought to set "aggressive, technology-agnostic" buildout milestones in order to get new wireless satellite services to market just as the company unveils plans to build its own terrestrial network.

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Brief

Live Nation Settles Luke Bryan Fan's Concert Assault Suit

By Brian Steele

A Connecticut concertgoer has dropped a federal lawsuit alleging Live Nation Worldwide Inc. was negligent for failing to stop a "prolonged" fight at a Luke Bryan concert that resulted in another fan assaulting the plaintiff and causing a traumatic brain injury.

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How New Counter-Drone Rule Will Reshape Event Security

A new interim final rule on counter-unmanned aircraft systems creates one of the most structured regulatory frameworks yet adopted for mitigating unauthorized drone activity, with implications for law enforcement, airport and stadium operators, drone companies, and public event organizers, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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Avoiding Sponsor Conflicts As NCAA Patch Rule Takes Effect

A new rule allowing schools to add corporate sponsor patches to athletes' uniforms may create a conflict with students' individual name, image and likeness agreements with competing brands, requiring negotiated contract provisions to reduce the legal risks, says Evan Rosenberg at Morritt Hock.  

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How Data Broker Laws Are Reaching Consumer-Facing Cos.

As states, most recently New Jersey, expand the scope of data broker laws to cover some customer data sharing, consumer-facing companies should reassess advertising, vendor and partner arrangements to determine whether they trigger registration, contracting and governance obligations, says Sam Castic at Hintze Law.

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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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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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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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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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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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