Microsoft CEO Defends Role In OpenAI's Rehiring Of Altman

By Dorothy Atkins

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella testified Monday in a California federal jury trial over Elon Musk's challenge to OpenAI's for-profit conversion, denying that he demanded OpenAI's board reinstate ousted CEO Sam Altman while acknowledging that he offered to pay up to $29 billion to bring Altman and others to Microsoft.

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Justices Clear Way For Ala.'s Gerrymandered Map In Midterms

By Lauren Berg

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday opened the door for Alabama to use electoral maps that the justices previously found unconstitutionally diluted Black residents' voting power, following the court's recent ruling limiting the Voting Rights Act's use in challenging racial discrimination in congressional redistricting.

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Pennsylvania Justice Quits 'Changed' Democratic Party

By P.J. D'Annunzio

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice David Wecht announced Monday that he's leaving the Democratic Party to become an independent, citing concerns over what he views as growing antisemitism on the left of the political spectrum.

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11th Circ. Says Voter Suit Can't Rest On 'Shaken Confidence'

By Chart Riggall

An Eleventh Circuit panel ruled Monday that two Georgia voters lacked standing to sue the state over alleged irregularities in the maintenance of its voter rolls, finding that their "shaken confidence" in Peach State elections was not an actionable injury.

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NC Justices Asked To Clarify Leandro School Funding Opinion

By Abigail Harrison

The school boards of several low-wealth North Carolina counties are asking the state Supreme Court to elucidate a recent ruling that invalidated nine years of developments in the public school funding case known as Leandro, contending the opinion suggests the court usurped power in its jurisdictional conclusions.

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Senate Confirms 13 US Attorneys In En Bloc Vote

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate voted 46-45, along party lines, to confirm 13 U.S. attorneys on Monday as part of a larger nominations package.

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Trump Taps 6 Judges, Including Picks Needing Blue Slips

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump announced six judicial nominees on Monday, including picks for the Eighth and Tenth Circuits and two district court picks that needed support from Democrats.

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Trump Administration Strikes Deal With DC Golf Courses

By Alex Lawson

The U.S. Department of the Interior has struck a deal with the operator of three public golf courses in Washington, D.C., bringing momentary peace to a sticky fight over the Trump administration's effort to seize the properties.

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Fed's Bowman Says Bank Ratings Changes Are On The Way

By Jon Hill

Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman said Friday that regulators are preparing an overhaul of a key ratings system used for grading the condition of banks, casting it as part of a broader push to refocus bank oversight on so-called material financial risks.

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SEC Sends Plan To Nix Settlement 'Gag Rule' To White House

By Sarah Jarvis

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has submitted to the White House a plan for rescinding a more than 50-year-old policy of restricting defendants who settle enforcement actions from denying the claims against them.

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'We Need Your Help': Banks Rallied For Stablecoin Yield Fight

By Aislinn Keely

Banking groups are making a push for stronger language prohibiting stablecoin yield payments ahead of a looming Thursday markup of the Senate banking committee's long-awaited proposal to regulate crypto markets.

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EPA Faces Skepticism Over Steel Mill Rule Deadline Delay

By Jared Foretek

A D.C. Circuit panel appeared to splinter Monday on whether the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency violated the Clean Air Act when it delayed compliance deadlines for iron and steel mill pollution standards and said that the previous deadlines would be impracticable.

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Feds Say Congress Barred Challenge To Gulf Lease Sale

By Keith Goldberg

Federal regulators have said that environmental groups can't challenge the first in a series of offshore oil and gas lease sales mandated by last year's budget reconciliation bill, telling a D.C. federal judge that Congress' instructions were clear and precise.

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Feds Look To Halt Yellowstone Bison Cases For NEPA Review

By Crystal Owens

The U.S. Department of the Interior has asked a Montana district court to pause litigation challenging bison management at Yellowstone National Park, saying it intends to issue a supplemental analysis that will update the plan's final environmental impact statement.

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Justices Extend Stay On 5th Circ. Mifepristone Decision

By Dan McKay

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday extended a stay that preserved, for now, telehealth access to the abortion medication mifepristone.

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Wash. Says Novartis Isn't Harmed By 340B Drug Pricing Law

By Nadia Dreid

Washington is objecting to Novartis' attempt to block a state law that expands the discounts the drugmaker must provide under the federal 340B Drug Pricing Program, telling a federal court that worry about losing money doesn't constitute irreparable harm.

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Transgender Minor Patients Seek To Block DOJ Subpoenas

By Danielle Ferguson

A group of families asked a Maryland federal judge over the weekend to block the U.S. Department of Justice from obtaining private medical records of thousands of transgender minors across the country, saying subpoenas sent to medical providers violate their privacy.

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Copyright Office Sued Over Rejection Of AI 'Starry Night' Art

By Ivan Moreno

An artist behind a yearslong fight to register his artificial intelligence-generated artwork with the U.S. Copyright Office has sued the agency in California federal court, challenging its refusal to register the image inspired by Vincent van Gogh's "The Starry Night" — the latest action in a closely watched debate over whether copyright protection should extend to works created with AI. 

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Meta's Algorithm Needs Revamps, Judge Hears In $3.7B Trial

By Cara Salvatore

A computer science expert testified Monday that Meta should be ordered to revise minor users' content recommendation formula to prioritize safety as much as engagement, as part of the New Mexico attorney general's ongoing bench trial over teen mental health.

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Preservationists Sue To Stop Reflecting Pool's Blue Makeover

By Jared Foretek

A group of historic preservationists sued the Trump administration Monday in a bid to stop its blue makeover of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, asking a D.C. federal judge for a restraining order to stop the ongoing work while the case is heard.

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Brief

FCC Exempts Aircraft Security Sensor In Restricted Band

By Elaine Briseño

The Federal Communications Commission on Monday granted a waiver to an artificial intelligence surveillance company for the types of signals it can emit, finding it would serve the public by providing critical aviation security.

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Kalshi To Take Arizona Injunction Bid To 9th Circ.

By Aislinn Keely

Kalshi Inc. on Monday told the federal court overseeing its sports contract brawl with Arizona regulators that it's appealed an order denying its request to enjoin Arizona officials from enforcing state gaming laws against it to the Ninth Circuit.

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Tribes, Maine Seek Wins In Churchill Downs Gambling Dispute

By Joyce Hanson

Four tribes in Maine and the head of the state's gambling agency have asked a federal judge to hand them an early win in a lawsuit by Churchill Downs Inc.'s Oxford Casino over online betting, arguing that a recently enacted internet gaming law is valid.

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Brief

Colorado Justices Decline To Rehear Insurer Cooperation Suit

By Rachel Konieczny

The Colorado Supreme Court denied Monday a policyholder's bid for the court to rehear his case after the justices dismissed his claims last month and limited the reach of a Colorado law addressing procedural requirements for insurers asserting failure-to-cooperate defenses against policyholders.

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Minn. Justices Challenge County On Hilton Valuation Appeal

By Sanjay Talwani

Minnesota's justices quizzed counsel for Hennepin County on Monday on whether its arguments for its preferred method for valuing a Hilton-branded Minneapolis hotel and convention center could be enough to overturn a state tax court decision that adopted the owner's approach.

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Trump Administration Must Face NAACP, Unions' Ed. Dept. Suit

By Emily Brill

The Trump administration must continue facing claims that it overstepped its authority by attempting to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, with a Maryland federal judge saying a lawsuit brought by the NAACP and three unions is strong enough to survive the administration's dismissal motion.

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Agencies Pitch Employers Offering Voluntary Fertility Benefits

By Kellie Mejdrich

Federal agencies overseeing employer-provided health coverage proposed new rules aimed at expanding workers' access to coverage for infertility treatments and related health conditions by letting employers offer voluntary fertility health benefit policies for procedures such as in vitro fertilization.

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Fed. Circ. Scrutinizes Email Mishap In Decade-Old Wage Fight

By Tom Lotshaw

A Federal Circuit panel questioned Monday whether an email mishap that kept a U.S. Department of Defense employee from timely appealing his furlough was the employee's fault, after the U.S. Supreme Court gave him the green light to continue his 13-year-old fight.

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FTC Says BOTS Act Case Judge Overlooked Its Dismissal Arg

By Bryan Koenig

The Federal Trade Commission has asked a Maryland federal judge to rethink his decision refusing to end a constitutional challenge to one of its first online ticketing cases, contending the court never dealt with its primary argument for dismissal.

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FTC Warns Meta, Others To Abide By Anti-Revenge Porn Law

By Allison Grande

The Federal Trade Commission on Monday reminded Meta, Amazon, Apple and a dozen other tech giants of a looming deadline to comply with their obligations under the Take It Down Act to swiftly remove deepfake revenge porn from their platforms, warning that the issue is a "top priority" that the agency is prepared to quickly start enforcing.

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Texas Sues Netflix Over 'Staggering' Data Logging

By Mike Curley

The state of Texas sued Netflix Inc. on Monday, alleging that it misled consumers by promising not to harvest or log their viewing data while quietly doing exactly that and selling that information to advertisers and other outside firms without users' consent.

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Texas, LG Ink Deal To End Claims Of TV Data Collection

By Spencer Brewer

The Texas Office of the Attorney General and LG Electronics USA Inc. on Monday struck a deal to end the state's claims that LG unlawfully spied on consumers, with LG agreeing to obtain consent for certain data collection through smart television technology.

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Trump Asks Federal Circuit To Pause Trade Court Tariff Ruling

By Hailey Konnath

President Donald Trump on Monday asked the Federal Circuit to block the U.S. Court of International Trade's order last week deeming his temporary global 10% tariffs unlawful, arguing the trade court misinterpreted the legislative history of the Trade Act.

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Georgia To Cut Income Tax Rate To 4.99%

By Maria Koklanaris

Georgia will lower its income tax rate, increase standard deductions and provide temporary exclusions for tax on some overtime pay and cash tips under legislation signed Monday by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.

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Brief

Australia Preparing Decisions On Capital Gains Tax Issues

By Kevin Pinner

Australia is preparing determinations and guidance on five issues related to capital gains taxation, including when anti-avoidance laws may be applied to multiple deferrals of liabilities and how the tax applies when a cryptocurrency is pegged to another cryptocurrency, the Australian Taxation Office said Monday.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court this past week handled a varied mix of settlement approvals, political office disputes, transaction fights, emergency injunction bids and questions over how far the court can go to preserve records for litigation outside Delaware.

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9th Circ. Says DHS' English-Only Notice Met Due Process

By Ganesh Setty

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security had no duty to inform a noncitizen in her native language about her obligation to update her address after moving, the Ninth Circuit ruled, finding that its notice in English sufficed for due process.

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DOJ Says NM Laws Obstruct Federal Immigration Powers

By Britain Eakin

The U.S. Department of Justice sued New Mexico and Albuquerque over state and city efforts to limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, saying the measures prohibit agreements the federal government has relied on for decades to carry out immigration enforcement in the state.

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DHS Says Latinos' Citizenship Proof Suit Too Speculative

By Ganesh Setty

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security urged a Texas federal court Monday to toss a lawsuit from Latino U.S. citizens accusing it of unlawfully requiring citizens to carry proof of citizenship, arguing they haven't identified any specific policy.

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6th Circ. Becomes 3rd To Reject Trump's No-Bond Policy

By Britain Eakin

A divided Sixth Circuit panel ruled Monday that 11 noncitizens were improperly detained under the mandatory detention provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act, joining the Second and Eleventh circuits in holding that noncitizens arrested in the U.S. interior are entitled to bond hearings.

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New Jersey Says ICE Access Suit Violates 10th Amendment

By Britain Eakin

New Jersey has urged a federal judge to dismiss the Trump administration's suit challenging Gov. Mikie Sherrill's February executive order limiting immigration officials' access to state property without a warrant, arguing the federal government is trying to commandeer state property.

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Rochester Says Feds' Bid To Win Sanctuary Fight Premature

By Ganesh Setty

The city of Rochester told a New York federal court that the Trump administration has jumped the gun in seeking a quick win in its challenge to the city's sanctuary immigration policies, arguing that there are several outstanding issues of fact.

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NJ AG's Office Avoids Defense Of Prosecutor In Ethics Case

By Jake Maher

The New Jersey Office of the Attorney General does not have to defend a county-level prosecutor in an ethics case over allegations he withheld exculpatory evidence, a state appeals court ruled in a precedential decision Monday.

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NY Ethics Panel Finds US Attorney Committed Misconduct

By Courtney Bublé

The New York Attorney Grievance Committee has found that President Donald Trump's pick leading the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of New York engaged in "professional misconduct" last summer, according to a letter released on Monday.

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Tribal Nations Back Muscogee In Okla. Jurisdiction Fight

By Joyce Hanson

Several Native American tribes in Oklahoma and a nonprofit intertribal organization have voiced their support for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation as it asks the Tenth Circuit to block Tulsa County's district attorney from exercising criminal jurisdiction on its reservation.

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FCC Plans First FM Radio Auction Since Authority Was Renewed

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission said Monday it will sell off construction permits for 132 FM radio channels, the first auction of its kind in years.

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Television Group Wants Affiliate Ownership Loopholes Closed

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

The American Television Alliance asked the Federal Communications Commission on Monday to close loopholes allowing transactions that bring competing network affiliates under common ownership, saying the current rules are being used to evade review.

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No Need To Halt Delayed Nexstar Deal, FCC Tells DC Circ.

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission told the D.C. Circuit on Monday there is no reason to block the FCC's staff approval of Nexstar Media Group Inc.'s planned $6.2 billion deal to buy Tegna Inc. since a California federal judge has already halted the broadcast merger during review.

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Cannabis Shop Alliance Decides To Drop Suit In DC

By Jonathan Capriel

A lawsuit seeking to halt the District of Columbia from penalizing and closing any more recreational marijuana shops was voluntarily dismissed after a federal judge told the organization behind the litigation that it likely didn't have standing to proceed.

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What Justices Are Focusing On In 'Skinny Label' Patent Case

Though Hikma v. Amarin appears to be a patent dispute that could reshape inducement doctrine in the pharmaceutical context, oral argument suggests the U.S. Supreme Court may treat this as primarily a pleading-stage dispute, with important unresolved questions lurking beneath the surface, says Shashank Upadhye at Upadhye Tang.

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1st Surveillance Pricing Law In Md. Reflects Broader Scrutiny

A new law will make Maryland the first state to target data-driven or surveillance-based price manipulation, highlighting increased scrutiny from federal and state enforcement agencies and policymakers as they consider whether new laws are required to regulate dynamic pricing, say attorneys at Pillsbury.

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The Growing Importance Of Nature-Related Disclosures

The International Sustainability Standards Board's recent vote to develop nonmandatory nature‑related disclosure guidance reduces immediate compliance pressure, but it does not eliminate the practical relevance of such risks for companies that already prepare sustainability reports or operate across jurisdictions with differing expectations, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

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Understanding The Insider Trading Gap In Prediction Markets

While the first-ever insider trading indictment involving a prediction market — the recent prosecution of a service member involved in the capture of Nicolás Maduro — comprised extreme facts and straightforward legal theories, future cases will test the bounds of insider trading law, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

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Binance Win Shows Constraints On Anti-Terrorism Act Claims

The Southern District of New York's recent ruling in Troell v. Binance illustrates that the Second Circuit's earlier decision in Ashley v. Deutsche Bank is holding weight with courts, and companies facing aiding and abetting risk should thus monitor evolving case law and assess exposure based on nexus allegations, say attorneys at Freshfields.

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Accelerated Psychedelic Therapy Pathways Require Caution

President Donald Trump's new executive order aiming to accelerate the approval of psychedelic drugs for the treatment of mental health disorders will likely bolster investigational psychedelic therapies, but parties within the psychedelic product supply chain will still need to prepare for potentially burdensome compliance requirements, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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Heppner Ruling Left AI Privilege Risk For Lawyers Unresolved

While a New York federal judge’s recent ruling in U.S. v. Heppner resolved a privilege question surrounding client-side artificial intelligence use, it did not address how to mitigate the risks that can arise when confidential information enters the operative context of an AI system used by an attorney, says Jianfei Chen at Quarles & Brady​​​​​​​.

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Analysis

Trading Scheme Is A 'Wake-Up Call' For BigLaw Compliance

By Chris Villani

The breadth of a decade-long insider trading scheme prosecutors say was fueled by stolen BigLaw merger information should jolt firms to reexamine their practices to close gaps in internal security, experts told Law360, even if totally eliminating bad actors is nearly impossible.

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Quinn Emanuel Founder Exiting Executive Chair Role

By Tracey Read

Four decades after high-stakes litigation firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan first opened in Los Angeles, founding partner John B. Quinn is stepping down as executive chairman of the firm effective immediately.

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ChatGPT Suit Points To Ups And Downs Of Pro Se AI Use

By Cara Bayles

A recent lawsuit against OpenAI highlights many of the hopes and anxieties about pro se litigants using generative artificial intelligence to churn out legal arguments. The technology raises concerns about confidentiality, hallucinations and ethical issues, but some access-to-justice advocates worry the lawsuit may hinder technology that might democratize legal services.

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Plaintiffs' Attys Sanctioned In Tylenol MDL, Sparking Appeal

By Gianna Ferrarin

A New York federal court sanctioned a plaintiffs' firm and its co-founder in federal multidistrict litigation by families alleging that prenatal exposure to acetaminophen can cause autism, saying they improperly shared confidential information from the case in related state court actions.

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Pa. Law Firm, Doctors Can't Shake Uber, FedEx RICO Suit

By Linda Chiem

A Pennsylvania federal judge said Monday that Uber and FedEx offered extensive and detailed allegations to press ahead with their racketeering lawsuit accusing a Philadelphia personal injury firm and local healthcare providers of scheming to fabricate medical records to inflate accident claims.

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