Analysis

College Sports Overhaul Still Uncertain Despite Senate Lift

By Alex Lawson

A yearslong effort to comprehensively regulate college sports surged ahead this week with the U.S. Senate's easy approval of bipartisan legislation, but lingering concerns about the bill's NCAA antitrust shield and other fraught policy fights are clouding its future.

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3rd Circ. Topples Materiality Rule For Securities Suits

By Carla Baranauckas

The Third Circuit on Wednesday revived a securities fraud class action against pharmaceutical company Ocugen Inc., scrapping a decades-old circuit rule that treated a stock price's failure to move after a corrective disclosure as conclusive proof that an alleged misstatement was immaterial.

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DOJ Accuses Judges Of Ethics Violations With Press Remarks

By Jack Karp

Several Minnesota federal judges ran afoul of their ethical obligations when they commented on President Donald Trump's immigration policies in a recent news article, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a judicial misconduct complaint filed Wednesday.

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Fla. Panel Says Hot-Car Conviction Needs Knowledge Element

By Parker Quinlan

A Florida state appeals court Wednesday ruled that a nanny convicted of felony murder after forgetting she left a 10-month-old inside a hot car should be tried again, saying prosecutors used an improper underlying charge as a basis for the felony murder charge.

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DOJ Atty Picked For Judgeship Probed On Fulton County Raid

By Courtney Bublé

A top U.S. Department of Justice official tapped for a federal judgeship faced questions from Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday about the department's investigation in Fulton County, Georgia, over Trump's allegations of fraud in the 2020 election.

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Fed HQ Review Finds Cost-Control Failures, No Crimes

By Jon Hill

A Federal Reserve watchdog said Wednesday that it has found no potential criminal violations tied to overbudget renovations of the central bank's headquarters, a more than $2 billion overhaul that became a focus of White House attacks on former Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

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11th Circ. Seems Wary Of Ga. Campaign Finance Challenge

By Kelcey Caulder

The Eleventh Circuit appeared reluctant Wednesday to revive the Libertarian Party of Georgia and the Georgia Green Party's challenge to a Peach State campaign finance statute they say gives traditional political parties an unfair advantage, pressing their attorney on whether they had standing to sue. 

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Fed Finalizes Update To Open Stress Test Models

By Sarah Jarvis

The Federal Reserve Wednesday finalized changes to how it stress tests banks, saying that new steps, such as inviting public comment on the scenarios used in the exams, would lead to greater transparency and public accountability.

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Treasury Sets Plans For State Stablecoin Regime Reviews

By Aislinn Keely

The Treasury Department implemented its procedures for reviewing and approving state-level stablecoin licensing frameworks Wednesday, issuing an interim final rule that would give states some flexibility in meeting a looming deadline to submit their regimes for stablecoin issuers.

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11th Circ. Skeptical Of PACE Lenders' CFPB Rule Challenge

By Jon Hill

An Eleventh Circuit panel on Wednesday appeared poised to reject an industry challenge to Biden-era Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rules for providers of property-assessed clean-energy loans, repeatedly questioning claims that the agency overstepped its authority.

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Chase Gets Trump's $5B Fla. Debanking Case Sent To NY

By Dorothy Atkins

A Florida federal judge on Wednesday granted JPMorgan Chase Bank NA's motion to transfer President Donald Trump's $5 billion debanking case to New York, agreeing with the bank that the president and his businesses fraudulently joined JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon in an attempt to keep the litigation in Florida.

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Biz Groups Urge 5th Circ. To Back Texas Derivative-Suits Limit

By Mike Curley

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Texas Association of Business on Wednesday urged the Fifth Circuit to uphold the dismissal of a Southwest Airlines shareholder's derivative suit, saying Texas law properly blocks such suits for those who hold less than 3% of shares.

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Senate Leaders Unveil Project Permitting Overhaul

By Keith Goldberg

U.S. Senate energy and environmental leaders on Wednesday unveiled bipartisan legislation aimed at speeding up the permitting of infrastructure projects, and said they hope to get the bill through the chamber during the lame-duck session following November's elections.

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Trump Says S. Korea Investing $54B In Alaska Gas Pipeline

By Jack McLoone

South Korea will invest about $200 billion in various U.S. energy projects, including $54 billion for a long-awaited Alaska liquid natural gas pipeline, as part of a deal trading investments in the U.S. for preferential tariff treatment, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday.

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Utility Hasn't Billed For Almost 10 Years, Conn. Agency Told

By Brian Steele

A small Connecticut water company has not issued bills to its customers in nearly a decade, violating a prior regulatory order and raising concerns that customers will ultimately owe enormous sums, according to a petition asking the state's energy regulator to investigate.

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Wyo. Asks To Intervene In Suit Over Lease Sales To Oil Cos.

By Rachel Konieczny

Wyoming urged a Colorado federal judge to allow the state to intervene in environmental nonprofit groups' lawsuit challenging the leasing of public lands in Colorado and Wyoming for oil and gas development, saying it could stand to lose millions of dollars in future revenue.

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3 States Ask High Court To Block Abortion Shield Laws

By Dan McKay

Louisiana, Arkansas and Alabama urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to strike down shield laws for reproductive care in New York, California and Massachusetts, alleging they illegally allow the mailing of abortion medication into states that restrict or ban abortion.

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Judge Backs CMS' Contested Organ Procurement Metrics

By Mark Payne

Federal health officials didn't violate federal law when they implemented a competitive rule that will alter how organ procurers are rated by decertifying low performers, a Florida federal judge ruled, a holding that could bring wide changes to the organ donor network. 

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FTC Asks Texas Court To Keep Trans Health Suit Intact

By Spencer Brewer

The Federal Trade Commission asked a Texas federal court to keep intact its lawsuit against World Professional Association for Transgender Health, saying Tuesday that it adequately pled that the organization published medically dubious, self-serving trans guidelines that push "dangerous and experimental treatments."

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Analysis

IP Notebook: AI Dilution, Alamo TM, India Copyright Ruling

By Ivan Moreno

An unsettled copyright theory over competition from artificial intelligence-generated works and a trademark clash between Texas and an association representing descendants of those who fought at the Battle of the Alamo lead this edition of Law360's look at emerging copyright and trademark issues.

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3rd Circ. Calls Westlaw AI Fight 'Ordinary Copyright Case'

By Ivan Moreno

The Third Circuit said the first appellate fight over artificial intelligence training and fair use ultimately came down to an "ordinary copyright case," affirming that Ross Intelligence infringed Thomson Reuters' Westlaw headnotes when it used them to train a competing legal research platform.

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Parler Ex-CEO Makes Final Trial Pitch For $100M Damages

By Cara Salvatore

The former CEO of social media site Parler made his final argument Wednesday that he was wrongly stripped of a stake worth up to $100 million, with his lawyer telling a Nevada jury a valuation finding the entire company worth $10.81 was "bunk."

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DC Says Rail Fee Doesn't Favor Local Carriers Over Others

By Jared Foretek

The Office of Attorney General for the District of Columbia has urged a federal judge to uphold its annual per-car fee on railroads against a challenge from the freight industry, arguing the charge is valid under the dormant commerce clause because it doesn't favor in-state interests over those outside the district.

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NCAA Wins Title IX Trans Suit, As Judge Finds No Fed. Aid

By Elaine Briseño

A Georgia federal judge has sided with the NCAA in a suit that challenged its former policy allowing transgender athletes to compete in women's sports, ruling the organization was not bound by Title IX restrictions because it received no federal funds.

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Newsom Signs New AI Worker Protections, Atty Limits

By Lauren Berg

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday signed a slate of laws aimed at placing guardrails on artificial intelligence, including protecting workers from job losses, limiting its use in the practice of law and strengthening safeguards against deepfakes.

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Senate Confirms Keith Sonderling As Labor Secretary

By Max Kutner

The full U.S. Senate late Wednesday night approved President Donald Trump's nomination of Keith Sonderling to serve as secretary of labor and to lead the U.S. Department of Labor.

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States Back AGs' 6th Circ. Bid To Keep RealPage Rent Claims

By Matthew Perlman

A contingent of 25 states is backing a Sixth Circuit appeal from several other state-level enforcers challenging settlements in private litigation that could block them from seeking damages over claims that landlords used RealPage's software to collude on residential rental rates.

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Texas AG Says ABA Stifling Law School Competition

By Spencer Brewer

The Texas Attorney General announced an investigation into the American Bar Association relating to alleged anticompetitive conduct in the association's accreditation of law schools, claiming Wednesday that the ABA "weaponized its accreditation authority" to push "unconstitutional racial and gender preference requirements."

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Newsom Signs Law Letting California Target Solo Monopolies

By Craig Clough

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Wednesday that expands California's Cartwright Act to allow the state to pursue monopoly and monopsony claims against a solo company, instead of requiring multicompany coordinated conduct, saying the bill is "leveling the playing field" for small businesses. 

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NJ Co. Says PPE Stockpiling Was Chinese Sovereign Activity

By Carolina Bolado

A New Jersey company accused of helping China hoard personal protective equipment to create a monopoly at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic told the Eleventh Circuit that a lower court erred in finding that the allegations fall within the commercial activity exception to sovereign immunity.

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Sen. Blackburn Sues Smith For Seizing Phone Records

By James Boyle

U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn alleges in a federal complaint filed Wednesday that Jack Smith illegally subpoenaed her phone records as part of an investigation into alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

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Senate Panel Seeks To Hold AI Giants Liable For Rogue Hacks

By Allison Grande

Several U.S. senators made a bipartisan push Wednesday to impose both civil and criminal liability on the makers and users of advanced artificial intelligence models for the misuse of these systems, arguing that such a move would give these companies more incentive to combat cyberattacks carried out by rogue AI agents and other potential harms. 

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Glock Wins Bid To Block Conn. Convertible Pistol Sale Ban

By Aaron Keller

A Connecticut federal judge Wednesday blocked a new state law that banned the advertising or sale of newly manufactured pistols if they can be "readily converted" into fully automatic weapons, agreeing with Glock Inc., an industry trade group and other challengers that the law is "likely unconstitutional."

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Baby Food Co. Will Keep Posting Test Results, Texas AG Says

By Jonathan Capriel

Baby food company Plum Organics has committed to continuing to publish heavy metal test results for its infant food products, according to a deal it signed with the Texas attorney general's office to end a state investigation.

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Trump's Rationale On Forced Labor Tariffs Misses, CIT Told

By Dylan Moroses

The U.S. Trade Representative's report justifying President Donald Trump's latest round of global tariffs based on imports produced with forced labor should prove insufficient, counsel for small businesses told a panel of U.S. Court of International Trade judges during oral arguments Wednesday.

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Brief

International Group Agrees To Tackle Excess Steel Capcity

By Dylan Moroses

The U.S., 31 other countries and the European Union agreed Wednesday to coordinate and strengthen trade measures against global excess steel capacity, according to a statement issued by the U.S. Trade Representative.

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Brief

Commerce Finds Chinese, Indian Electrodes Being Stockpiled

By Jack McLoone

Imports of electrodes used for smelting from India appear to have surged in response to the opening of a countervailing duty investigation, the U.S. Department of Commerce preliminarily found Wednesday, setting up possible retroactive duties on the goods.

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Bessent Owes $910K In Taxes As Limited Partner, Wyden Says

By Kat Lucero

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent should pay more than $910,000 in payroll taxes as a hedge fund limited partner after the Second Circuit ruled that such partners are subject to the self-employment tax, Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden said Wednesday.

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Judge Orders ICE Reports After Hold Room Violations

By Tom Lotshaw

A Maryland federal judge ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to provide cell count and medical care data for its short-term holding facilities in Baltimore, largely granting a detainee class's push to enforce an injunction issued over "deplorable" and likely unconstitutional conditions.

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Ill. Judge To Hear Fight Over Prosecutor Contempt Probe

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois federal judge is set to hear arguments Thursday on whether fallout from a failed prosecution of six anti-ICE protesters should extend beyond dismissed charges and internal reforms to an evidentiary sanctions hearing and a deeper probe into possible criminal contempt by Chicago federal prosecutors.

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Ex-Budget Official Sentenced To 7 Years After Fleeing US

By Aaron Keller

Former Connecticut budget official Konstantinos Diamantis, who fled to Greece before learning his fate on federal corruption charges, was sentenced while absent on Wednesday to seven years in prison, if extradition efforts are successful, and immediately faced new litigation over his state government pension.

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NY DA: Construction Exec Offered 'Quid Pro Quo' To Atty

By Frank G. Runyeon

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office seized the phone of The Rinaldi Group's managing director as part of a criminal investigation into allegations that he proposed a "quid pro quo" to a defense attorney representing another longtime TRG executive in a bribery case, a prosecutor has told a state court judge.

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Ariz. Land Swap Survives Despite 11-Judge 9th Circ. Dissent

By Crystal Owens

The Ninth Circuit won't rethink a decision to allow a 2,500-acre land exchange within Arizona's Tonto National Forest that tribal nations and conservation groups say will destroy a sacred Apache worship site, with 11 judges arguing in a dissent that a 2025 U.S. Supreme Court decision in the dispute was wrong.

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DC Judge Sends Shinnecock Land Dispute To NY Court

By Crystal Owens

A D.C. district court judge is moving a challenge over a decision to place 84 acres into a "restricted fee" status for the Shinnecock Indian Nation to a New York district court, saying the interest in "having local controversies decided at home tips heavily in favor of transfer."

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FCC Eases Federal Enviro Reviews Of Broadband Projects

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission voted Wednesday to substantially pare back environmental impact reviews of broadband deployment projects.

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FCC Opens 2 Spectrum Bands For Satellite Services

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday opened two portions of spectrum totaling more than 1,000 megahertz to expand satellite broadband as part of a long-range plan to free up the airwaves for space-based activities.

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FCC OKs Cable Biz Waiver To Fix Banned Routers

By Nadia Dreid

The Federal Communications Commission has come through with another waiver that will allow certain companies to make changes to foreign-made routers that the agency has banned from being imported, in the hopes of avoiding the supply chain shortages that the ban created.

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Hemp Interests Say Texas THC Rule Defies Federal Law

By Sam Reisman

A trio of hemp interests challenging a Texas policy redesignating intoxicating hemp products as Schedule I substances have urged a federal judge to declare that the policy is both preempted by federal law and inconsistent with Texas state law.

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What's Next For Prediction Markets If States Win At High Court

While the Supreme Court hasn't taken up a prediction market case yet, a high court win for the states in their quest to regulate the exchanges would likely mean a wave of state legislature bills and regulatory guidance arriving on different timelines, rather than a single uniform transition, says Howard Herndon at Bradley Arant.

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AG Watch: Va. Vape Product Regulations Enter A New Phase

Virginia's new vape enforcement framework carries important implications related to product eligibility and certification requirements for businesses operating in the marketplace, representing the culmination of several years of legislative action, regulatory development, litigation and interagency planning, says Chuck Slemp at Cozen O'Connor.

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Navigating A Key Inflection Point In Biosimilar Sector M&A

As biosimilar mergers and acquisitions gain notice amid U.S. Food and Drug Administration reforms, a maturing patent framework and a looming patent cliff, companies diversifying into the higher-growth biologics space should align their regulatory, intellectual property and transactional strategies, say attorneys at Skadden.

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FDIC Standards Body Could Ease Bank Vendor Due Diligence

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s recently proposed standards body for bank vendors could streamline due diligence and onboarding, but banks and their third-party service providers alike should still monitor open questions around oversight, certification costs and governance, say attorneys at Clark Hill.

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Opinion

Colo. Climate Suit Defies Limits Of State Power

In Suncor Energy v. Boulder County, the U.S. Supreme Court must not allow a single Colorado county to penalize pollution occurring across the country and around the globe, because the U.S. Constitution forbids states from exercising power beyond their borders, says Michael McGinley at Dechert.

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AI Meeting Recaps Pose New Discovery And Privilege Risks

The New York City Bar Association’s recent ethics opinion, cautioning attorneys not to record nonclient conversations with artificial intelligence tools, reflects an emerging view that AI meeting recaps are now a distinct business record category, meaning counsel should set meeting-level controls and apply framework-level updates, says William Wright at Faegre Drinker.

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The Law360 Pulse Prestige Leaders: A Look At The Top Firms

Today's most prestigious firms attract top talent and marquee clients while posting record profits. Here's a look at the top 10 firms in this year's Law360 Pulse Prestige Leaders, a ranking of the firms that stand out for their prominence, power and distinction.

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Federal Bar Discussion Looks At Courts' Role In Regulating AI

By Bonnie Eslinger

A Federal Bar Association discussion Wednesday in California about AI and how it will be regulated in the United States prompted the Northern District's new chief judge to ask whether Congress' "inability to pass laws" will leave it to the courts "to figure out how we're going to do this."

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Blank Rome Seeks Time To Exit LIV Golf's Fla. Office

By Ben Zigterman

Blank Rome LLP on Wednesday filed a limited objection to LIV Golf's motion to reject its sublease at an office building in West Palm Beach, Florida, saying it didn't receive any advance notice and would like until the end of October to transition to a new office.

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Roundup

Defamation Litigation Roundup: Candace Owens, Firm DQ

By Theresa Schliep

In this month's review of defamation fights, Law360 highlights a new suit over right-wing media personality Candace Owens and her conspiracy theories about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, as well as Quinn Emanuel's disqualification from a suit against a former client.

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Tort Report: Uber Owes $40M In Abandoned Rider Death Case

By Y. Peter Kang

A $40 million arbitration award in a case over an Uber incident and looming litigation against the federal government over a highly publicized U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid on a Hyundai-LG plant in Georgia lead Law360's Tort Report, which compiles recent personal injury and medical malpractice news that may have flown under the radar.

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Roundup

Hub Hires: Mintz, Foley Hoag, Barclay Damon

By Chris Villani

Boston saw several significant moves across its legal landscape as the summer wound down, with Foley Hoag adding an experienced debt finance attorney from Goodwin Procter, a boutique white collar firm snagging a longtime federal prosecutor, and Mintz getting new leadership for the first time in nearly two decades.

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