4th Circ. Backs $42M Abu Ghraib Verdict, Likens CACI To Pirates

By Jared Foretek

A $42 million judgment against defense contractor CACI Premier Technology Inc. for conspiring with the U.S. military to torture Abu Ghraib prison detainees was upheld by a split Fourth Circuit panel Thursday, with the majority holding that the military prison was effectively within U.S. territorial jurisdiction during the war in Iraq.

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Steep Senate Majority Passes Landmark Housing Bill

By Grace Dixon

The U.S. Senate passed landmark legislation Thursday aimed at boosting housing supply and cutting housing costs across the country, with steep bipartisan support despite concerns over a provision that stakeholders claim could undermine the "build-to-rent" sector.

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USPTO Clarifies Design Patent Eligibility For Computer Icons

By Theresa Schliep

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued guidance Thursday saying computer-generated digital designs depicted in holograms, virtual reality and the like are eligible for design patents, noting that displaying images on a screen is no longer strictly necessary for patent protection.

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9th Circ. Partially Lifts Block On Calif. Kids' Privacy Law

By Allison Grande

The Ninth Circuit on Thursday scrapped part of an injunction halting a groundbreaking California law requiring social media platforms to bolster privacy protections for children, finding that the tech trade group behind the lawsuit wasn't likely to succeed on its First Amendment challenge to the statute's coverage definition and age estimation mandate.

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Holyoak's US Attorney Nomination Advances

By Courtney Bublé

The nomination of Melissa Holyoak, former commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, to be U.S. attorney for the District of Utah was sent to the full Senate on Thursday.

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Democrats Seek Review Of Bondi's Role In Brother's Cases

By Alison Knezevich

Two Democratic lawmakers have asked the U.S. Department of Justice's inspector general to review whether Attorney General Pam Bondi "adequately recused herself" from cases involving clients represented by her brother Brad Bondi, who is a partner at Paul Hastings LLP.

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Full 9th Circ. Deeply Divided On Rehearing TPS Vacatur

By Britain Eakin

The full Ninth Circuit delivered 51 pages of concurrences and dissents while declining to revisit a unanimous panel decision that found Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem lacked the authority to vacate a temporary protected status extension for Venezuela.

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Calif. Bar Says Internal Docs Bolster Claims Against Exam Co.

By Emily Sawicki

The State Bar of California has bulked up its breach of contract and fraud suit against the administrator of its "disastrous" February 2025 bar exam, filing an amended complaint in light of information it says it learned from internal communications unearthed amid discovery.

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Texas Panel Unsure Beto O'Rourke's Fundraising Row Is Over

By José Luis Martínez

A Texas appellate court hinted Thursday that a bid by former Democratic U.S. Rep. Robert Francis "Beto" O'Rourke to erase the remains of Attorney General Ken Paxton's challenge to his political fundraising may be muddled by a contempt request that's still pending despite the state having gotten the substantive relief it sought.

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Fed's Bowman Previews Plan To Rewrite Bank Capital Rules

By Jon Hill

Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman said Thursday that federal regulators will move next week to propose a sweeping overhaul of U.S. bank capital rules, previewing changes that are expected to result in a "modest" net easing for larger banks.

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CFTC Takes 1st Steps Toward Prediction Market Regulations

By Jessica Corso

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission opened the door Thursday to promised prediction market regulation, calling for public feedback on what such rules might look like while laying out the staff's view on the current rules that the platforms should follow in order to offer betting on sports and other events.

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NJ AG Fines Firm $375K For Lax Fraud Prevention Procedures

By Sydney Price

Broker-dealer Network 1 Financial Securities Inc. will pay nearly $400,000 to settle claims from the New Jersey attorney general that its procedures related to anti-money laundering, customer identity verification and market abuse prevention were ineffectively established and performed.

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Brief

Democrats Vow To Oversee DOJ's Reported Binance Inquiry

By Sarah Jarvis

Three Democratic U.S. senators said Thursday that they will oversee a reported investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice into potential Iran sanctions violations carried out on the cryptocurrency exchange Binance.

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Feds Sue To Stop California's 'Illegal' EV Regulations

By Linda Chiem

The Trump administration sued California on Thursday, alleging the Golden State over a decade ago adopted "illegal" requirements for automakers to sell more low- or zero-emission cars and trucks, saying the mandates trample on the federal government's authority to regulate vehicle fuel economy.

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Chevron Fined $1M For Double-Counting Renewable Fuels

By Gautama Mehta

Chevron agreed to pay a $1.07 million penalty for double-counting renewable fuel credits, settling a lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice accusing it of violating the Clean Air Act.

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Trump Admin Escapes Suit Over Deleted EPA Webpages

By Joyce Hanson

Five federal agencies have won their bid to throw out a D.C. court lawsuit brought by the Sierra Club and other environmental and science groups over the Trump administration's decision to remove U.S. government webpages that shared educational information about the environment.

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EPA Adds Michigan Dioxane Plume To Superfund List

By Tom Lotshaw

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday added a decades-old plume of contaminated groundwater under Ann Arbor, Michigan, and a neighboring township to its Superfund National Priorities List, as Great Lakes State officials requested.

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DC Circ. Spends Hours Debating 'Same' Generic Label Reqs

By Nadia Dreid

The D.C. Circuit spent more than three hours Thursday going round with Vanda Pharmaceuticals and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about whether the label for a generic sleep-wake disorder medication is "the same" as the branded one because it doesn't include Braille.

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NFL Alumni Argue Biotech's Suit Lacks Contractual Basis

By Elaine Briseño

The National Football League's largest alumni group is angling to quash a biotech company's breach of contract lawsuit, explaining that details in the suit on the termination of their partnership for a vaccine education program are thin.

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US Chamber Report Warns Of Risks To IP Protection

By Adam Lidgett

While the U.S. has ranked at the top of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's list measuring how countries worldwide are enforcing intellectual property laws, the group said problems with free trade agreements and efforts to reduce pharmaceutical prices could cause problems on the horizon domestically.

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Beef Up Telecom Networks To Power AI, Tech Experts Say

By Christopher Cole

Sprawling artificial intelligence data centers will require larger shares of U.S. energy consumption in the coming years, but telecom networks also need more capacity and resilience if the U.S. wants to fuel an AI boom, a think tank said Thursday.

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State Dept. Official Tapped To Run Parent Of Voice Of America

By Jared Foretek

President Donald Trump tapped a U.S. Department of State official to head the U.S. Agency for Global Media Thursday, one day after his administration told a Washington, D.C., federal judge that no one has been running the agency for months and that no succession plan is in place.

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Piracy Tops List Of Worries In Next-Generation TV Changeover

By Christopher Cole

Broadcasters have a lot on their plates as they move to the next TV standard, but chief among their worries will be protecting content from piracy, a security group formed by the major networks told the Federal Communications Commission.

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Congestion Pricing Fight In 2nd Circ. Turns On Jurisdiction

By Pete Brush

The Second Circuit asked Thursday whether New York City congestion pricing is a tax or a toll, with one judge suggesting that a challenge to the program from two Empire State counties could land in state court if it's deemed a tax.

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NY-NJ Commission's Hudson Tunnel Funds Suit Mostly Moot

By Linda Chiem

The U.S. Court of Federal Claims said Thursday that most of the Gateway Development Commission's claims against the Trump administration are now moot since the federal government recently released millions in previously withheld funds for New York and New Jersey's Hudson Tunnel Project.

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Colo. Panel Clarifies Workers Comp Law On Maintenance Care

By Rachel Konieczny

In interpreting the Colorado Workers' Compensation Act, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled for the first time Thursday that employers and their insurers cannot limit maintenance medical benefits to any specific treatment in a final admission of liability.

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Lack Of 'Wages Due' Vexes Pa. Justices In Damages Bid

By Matthew Santoni

Members of Pennsylvania's Supreme Court on Thursday seemed to doubt the ability of a debt collection firm's former CEO to sue his employer solely for punitive damages over bonuses the company eventually paid, albeit belatedly, pointing to state law that says claims can be made for "wages due" in the present tense.

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Mass. Co. Fights Debarment Over Prevailing Wages Dispute

By Irene Spezzamonte

A Massachusetts water tank inspection company should not have to face a one-year debarment for prevailing wage violations, the company told a state court, arguing that it already paid the citations and being prevented from entering into contracts would be "fatal" to its business.

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Town, Officials Seek Toss Of Ex-Officer's Employment Suit

By Mike Curley

A Connecticut town, its police chief and former director of human resources are asking a state court to throw out a suit from a former police officer who alleges he was denied disability benefits and an administrative position because of his race, a prior workers' compensation claim and his medical cannabis use.

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Wash. Lawmakers Pass Bill On Worker Eligibility Inspections

By Ganesh Setty

The Washington State Legislature has passed a bill requiring employers to provide notice to their employees if the federal government requests records relating to their work eligibility. 

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EU Antitrust Officials Targeting 'Entire AI Stack'

By Bryan Koenig

The European Union's top antitrust official said Thursday that bloc enforcers are casting a wide net as they look at the ways artificial intelligence companies may try to anticompetitively boost themselves over rivals, including underlying training models and needed power and cloud computing infrastructure.

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Ga. Justices Say City's Immunity Nixes $33M Crash Verdict

By Chart Riggall

The Georgia Supreme Court on Thursday vacated a nearly $33 million verdict that a city was ordered to pay to a college student's family after the car the student was driving crashed into a roadside planter, ruling the city's roadway hazard liability largely ends at the road's shoulder.

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Lawmakers Seek Clarity On Trump's Stock Buyback Order

By Madeline Lyskawa

Four Democratic lawmakers have called on President Donald Trump and U.S. Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to provide clarity on how they plan to enforce a recent executive order barring defense contractors from buying back their stock or paying shareholder dividends if they are underperforming on their contracts. 

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Ill. Says Trump's 'Forced Retreat' Can't End Nat'l Guard Suit

By Celeste Bott

The state of Illinois and the city of Chicago are pushing back on the Trump administration's bid to dismiss their lawsuit challenging National Guard deployment to the state because all the troops have since been demobilized or withdrawn, with no plans to return, telling an Illinois federal judge that the president's social media posts and public statements tell a different story.

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Gov'ts Push Back On US Probe Of Alleged Trade Distortions

By Kevin Pinner

Governments pushed back Thursday on allegations by the U.S. trade representative that they promote structural excess capacity in manufacturing, the premise of an investigation that could lead to new, long-lasting tariffs once the Trump administration's temporary global tariff regime expires in late July.

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Tariff Refund System Taking Shape, US Customs Tells CIT

By Kevin Pinner

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is making progress developing a system for importers to claim refunds for the global tariff regime struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, an official told the U.S. Court of International Trade on Thursday.

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Reeves Says Energy Windfall Tax May Not Apply By Late 2027

By Josh White

The U.K.'s energy profits levy is expected to no longer apply to oil and gas operations in the North Sea in the last quarter of 2027, especially if the current Middle East crisis de-escalates and energy prices stabilize, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves told an H&M Treasury committee.

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NM Bars Local Gov'ts From Levying Tax On Child Care Homes

By Zak Kostro

New Mexico barred local governments from imposing certain taxes on registered child care homes under a bill signed by the governor.

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Maryland Sues ICE For Records On Detention Conditions

By Tom Lotshaw

Maryland accused the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement of unlawfully refusing to provide records for a civil rights investigation into an immigrant holding facility in Baltimore where people commonly complain of being "treated like animals."

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Mass. Sheriffs Sued For Records On Ties To ICE

By Julie Manganis

An immigrant advocacy group says several Massachusetts sheriffs' departments are improperly relying on a federal regulation to withhold records documenting their relationships with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agents.

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Brief

1st Circ. Temporarily Pauses Third-Country Removal Ruling

By Britain Eakin

A panel of the First Circuit has paused a district court order holding that a class of noncitizens facing removal to countries to which they have no ties must receive meaningful notice and an opportunity to raise fears about being deported to those countries.

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Mich. Justices Weigh City Manager's Sway In Pot Retail Case

By Melanie Dorsey

The Michigan Supreme Court heard arguments Thursday over whether a city manager violated the state's Open Meetings Act when he evaluated and ranked applicants for limited recreational marijuana licenses behind closed doors.

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Idaho Says Director Immune In THC Child Abuse Registry Suit

By Mike Curley

The director of Idaho Health and Welfare is asking a federal court to throw out claims from two women alleging the state violated their constitutional rights by putting them on the state's child abuse registry for their use of cannabis while pregnant, saying the director is immune and the state's rules satisfy due process.

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What The CFTC's Event Contracts Amicus Brief Is Missing

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's recent amicus brief in the Ninth Circuit's North American Derivatives Exchange v. Nevada case declines to define the boundary between swaps and wagers, leaving market participants, exchanges and intermediaries operating within a regulatory framework whose boundaries remain undrawn, says Tamara de Silva at De Silva Law Offices.

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Antitrust Crime Enforcement May Escalate Under New Chief

While the recent departure of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division chief created uncertainty about enforcement priorities, the debut speech from the new acting division head revealed that companies can only expect the division’s focus on vigorous criminal prosecution and offender deterrence to grow, say attorneys at Sidley.

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5 Takeaways From OCC's 'Appealing' Exam Challenge Revamp

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's recent proposed overhaul of its bank appeals framework introduces several attractive, high-level changes that OCC-supervised banks and their counsel should note, and may lead to an increase in successful exam challenges, says James Williams at Venable.

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Opinion

It's Time To Clarify California's Elder Abuse Act

As California's elderly population soars, the Golden State's high court and Legislature must provide needed clarification about the scope of the Elder Abuse Act, to resolve the inconsistencies and ambiguities that have impeded the law's ability to remedy elder abuse, neglect and abandonment, say attorneys at Horvitz & Levy.

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Series

Podcasting Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Podcasting has changed how I ask questions and connect with people, sharpening my ability to listen without interrupting or prejudging, and bringing me closer to what law is meant to be: a human profession grounded in understanding, judgment and trust, says Donna DiMaggio Berger at Becker.

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4th Circ. Scolds Atty Suspected Of Using AI In Race Bias Suit

By Patrick Hoff

The Fourth Circuit has reprimanded an attorney suspected of using generative artificial intelligence to draft briefs in a race discrimination lawsuit against Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., warning that courts need to grapple with the technology as it "may soon become the norm."

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Sinema Says Tryst With Ex-Guard Not In NC Court's Reach

By Abigail Harrison

Former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, now a Hogan Lovells attorney, told a North Carolina federal court Thursday that a lawsuit alleging her cross-country affair with a former member of her security detail ended a 14-year marriage must be dismissed because the trysts occurred outside state borders.

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Ex-Judge Testifies About Alleged Forgeries In Amazon Case

By Kelcey Caulder

The former chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia testified Thursday about the alleged forging of court documents, signatures and court stamps in a criminal case against a woman accused of defrauding Amazon out of $9.4 million through fraudulent invoices. 

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Judge Newman Takes Suspension Battle To Supreme Court

By Ryan Davis

Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman brought her fight against a suspension imposed on her by her colleagues to the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday, arguing that a lower court wrongly held that her challenges to the order are not subject to judicial review.

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