Florida Board Must Testify In Book Ban Suit, 11th Circ. Says

By Craig Clough

A split Eleventh Circuit panel held Monday that current and former Florida school board members cannot invoke legislative privilege to avoid testifying about why they removed specific library books, finding that the privilege protects their adoption of book removal policies but not the decisions applying those policies to particular titles.

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11th Circ. Upholds Producer's Financing Scheme Conviction

By Hailey Konnath

The Eleventh Circuit on Tuesday refused to disturb the conviction and sentencing of a producer accused of stealing $68.7 million from film and theater investors and producers, ruling that the producer hasn't shown that the district court made any mistakes.

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Mariah Carey Defeats Brother's $20M Memoir Defamation Suit

By Hailey Konnath

A New York judge has thrown out Mariah Carey's brother's $20 million defamation suit claiming his sister defamed him in her 2020 memoir, "The Meaning of Mariah Carey," ruling that he hasn't adequately alleged she knowingly or recklessly made false statements about him.

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Sher Tremonte Exiting Defense Of Combs In Abuse Civil Suits

By Pete Brush

A Manhattan federal judge gave Sher Tremonte LLP leave to stop representing Sean "Diddy" Combs in two private sexual abuse damages cases Tuesday, bringing to at least three such matters the litigation boutique has dropped in New York citing communication breakdown and nonpayment.

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Retired Judges Say DOJ's Ethics Complaint Is Meritless

By Courtney Bublé

A coalition of 61 retired federal judges has admonished the U.S. Department of Justice for filing a complaint against federal judges in Minnesota for speaking to a newspaper about the Trump administration's immigration crackdown in their state.

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Authors Bring Copyright Suits Targeting Meta's AI Training

By Elliot Weld

Hundreds of authors have sued Meta Platforms Inc. claiming their works were used improperly to train the artificial intelligence models Llama and Muse, adding to a pile of federal court cases accusing the tech giant of subverting copyright protections to build AI.

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Marvin Gaye's Heirs Sue Mich. Hotel Over Music Copyrights

By Melanie Dorsey

The adult children of legendary Motown singer Marvin Gaye and several music publishers have accused a suburban Detroit hotel and its owner of willfully violating copyright law by playing protected songs without permission despite years of warnings and repeated attempts to secure a licensing agreement.

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FBI, FTC Tip Sites Vulnerable To Spying, Sen. Wyden Warns

By Rae Ann Varona

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Trade Commission's online tip lines and other government websites are vulnerable to spying, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said in a letter urging the executive branch to upgrade security technology for the websites.

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Ashley St. Clair Can't Toss XAI Forum Clause Suit

By Craig Clough

A Texas federal judge refused Tuesday to dismiss xAI's lawsuit accusing political commentator and influencer Ashley St. Clair of violating its terms of service by suing in New York over allegations that Grok generated sexually explicit images of her.

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OnlyFans Auto-Renew Suit Belongs In Calif., Not England

By Lauren Berg

A proposed class action alleging OnlyFans' parent company used unlawful subscription auto-renewals does not belong in the United Kingdom, a California federal judge ruled Tuesday, finding that pushing the case to an English court would "substantially diminish" Golden State residents' right to bring consumer class actions.

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Meta To Rereview MDL Privilege Claims Under Special Master

By Dorothy Atkins

Meta Platforms Inc. has agreed to have an independent special master rereview potentially thousands of documents the company withheld as privileged in social media addiction multidistrict litigation, after a California federal judge criticized Meta's privilege claims and refused to let Meta use an AI tool to rereview 170,000 documents at issue.

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Meta Glasses Record Convos Without Being Asked, Suit Says

By Rae Ann Varona

Meta Platforms' artificial intelligence glasses are secretly listening in on people's conversations, according to a user who has alleged in a putative class action filed in California federal court that his glasses recorded several of his communications despite him not saying the smart glasses' trigger words.

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Google Makes Last DC Circ. Push Against DOJ's Search Win

By Bryan Koenig

Google took one final swing Monday at upending a D.C. federal judge's rulings faulting it for monopolizing online search and forcing it to prop up search engine rivals with data and syndicated results, telling the D.C. Circuit that the U.S. Department of Justice's case targets earned market dominance.

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T-Mobile Beats Spectrum Foe's Antitrust Counterclaims, Again

By Bryan Koenig

Investment firm WCO Spectrum must paint a much wider, more cohesive picture of how T-Mobile's mid-band spectrum practices have anticompetitively edged it out of buying up spectrum leases from high schools and colleges, according to a California federal judge's ruling Monday once again tossing counterclaims lodged in T-Mobile's racketeering suit.

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FCC Urged To Maintain Radio Station Ownership Caps

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

Two organizations representing musical artists have asked the Federal Communications Commission to keep media ownership limits on radio station groups in place.

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Sinclair Says 5G Broadcast Bid Rests On 'Speculation'

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

TV station chain Sinclair Inc. has opposed a petition before the Federal Communications Commission that would allow low-power TV stations to use the emerging 5G Broadcast standard, saying petitioners haven't provided evidence that would help the agency evaluate the technology's risk of potential interference. 

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Fla. Judge Recuses Self In GOP's Suit Over Dems' Attack Ad

By David Minsky

A Florida state judge on Tuesday recused herself in a lawsuit brought by the Republican Party of Florida, which is trying to stop its Democratic counterpart and others from running a television political attack ad telling viewers that grand jurors determined state officials had misappropriated $10 million.

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Meta Wins Stay Of Wash. Ad Case Amid High Court Cert. Bid

By Ben Adlin

A Washington state judge on Tuesday granted Meta Platforms Inc.'s request to pause a permanent injunction requiring "full compliance" with a state political advertising disclosure law, agreeing to put the requirement on hold while the company asks the U.S. Supreme Court to review the law's constitutionality.

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AGs' Paramount Settlement Reflects States' Growing Influence

The recent California federal court approval of the California v. Paramount Skydance settlement illustrates how state attorneys general are gaining new independence and influence, and companies must account for state enforcement when assessing merger risks ahead of a deal's closing, say attorneys at Norton Rose.

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Kagan: High Court 'Blinded Itself' To Election Ruling Effects

By Katie Buehler

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan criticized her conservative colleagues' approach to deciding election law cases Tuesday, saying they often rule without considering the real-world consequences of their decisions. 

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Polsinelli Seeks Sanctions For 'Knowingly False' IP Suit

By Elliot Weld

Law firm Polsinelli PC has asked a Tennessee federal judge to sanction a medical device company for advancing what it says were "knowingly false and materially incomplete" positions in a suit accusing the firm of pursuing bad faith patent infringement claims on behalf of a client.

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'Petulant' Attorney Behavior Requires New Trial, 5th Circ. Says

By Cara Salvatore

The Fifth Circuit ordered a new trial Friday for a woman who was halted while speaking at a Louisiana local council meeting, saying defense lawyers for two council members threw "a skunk into the jury box" with a bevy of improper maneuvers.

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Feds Offer Up-Front Payments For Fraud Whistleblower Tips

By Lauren Berg

The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday announced the creation of a whistleblower incentive program offering up-front monetary awards for tips that lead to criminal fraud charges.

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Atty Used Legal Cred To Prop Up Ponzi Schemes, DOJ Says

By David Aaro

A Florida attorney was arrested Tuesday on charges of using his legal bona fides to help run two Ponzi schemes that swindled investors out of nearly $2 million, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Ex-NOLA Injury Atty Gets 32 Months For Staging Crashes

By Christine DeRosa

A former New Orleans personal injury attorney has been sentenced to 32 months in prison for his role in a scheme to fake vehicle accidents with tractor trailers and other commercial vehicles so he could pursue lawsuits and extract settlements.

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