Analysis

Why Trump's 2nd Global Tariff May Fare Better On Appeal

By Dylan Moroses

President Donald Trump's administration on Friday appealed the U.S. Court of International Trade's ruling deeming his temporary global tariff unlawful to the Federal Circuit, where judges may view the executive action with more deference than the measures it immediately replaced.

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Top Atty In DOJ Appeal Over Law Firm Exec Orders To Depart

By Jake Maher

The lead federal prosecutor on the Trump administration's appeal to reinstate executive orders targeting four law firms is stepping down from his government role at the end of May, he publicly announced this week.

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Alleged Would-Be Trump Assassin Aims To DQ Pirro, Blanche

By Christine DeRosa

The California man accused of an attempted assassination of President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner last month is seeking to disqualify U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche from handling his case as they may be witnesses or victims in the matter.

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White House Defends Pardon Process Following Dem Inquiry

By Courtney Bublé

The White House says it has a "rigorous" review process for pardons following an investigation launched by Democrats into possible corruption.

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Full 11th Circ. Will Hear Appeal Over 'Urban Cowboy' Horses

By Rae Ann Varona

The Eleventh Circuit on Friday vacated an opinion allowing a Georgia man known as the "Urban Cowboy" to amend his lawsuit challenging the seizure of his horses by Atlanta-area authorities, granting the Fulton County Board of Commissioners' bid for an en banc hearing on whether the man can seek damages.

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Trump Admin Says Mail-In Voting Suits Are Premature

By Carolyn Muyskens

The Trump administration asked a Massachusetts federal judge to dismiss challenges to the president's executive order limiting mail-in voting, saying it's premature to challenge the directive before any concrete steps are taken to implement it.

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OCC Rules Spur 7th Circ. Remand In Ill. Swipe-Fee Fight

By Jon Hill

The Seventh Circuit hit reset Friday in a closely watched legal challenge to a pending Illinois law that bans swipe fees on taxes and tips, directing a lower court to take another look at the case in light of new federal rules declaring the restrictions preempted for many banks.

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Capital One Discloses 'Fair Access' Regulatory Inquiries

By Katryna Perera

Capital One has become the latest major bank to disclose that it is responding to demands and requests from government agencies related to President Donald Trump's "fair banking" executive order targeting alleged political and religious discrimination by financial institutions.

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SEC's Atkins Mulls Broker, Exchange Rule Tweaks For Crypto

By Aislinn Keely

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins on Friday floated a series of potential rulemaking efforts to address how regimes for brokers, exchanges, clearing agencies and other types of regulated functions apply to cryptocurrency software projects that don't fall within traditional categories.

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OCC Says AI Presents A Double-Edged Sword To Banks

By Sarah Jarvis

Artificial intelligence is "significantly transforming" the cybersecurity threat landscape for banks while also presenting opportunities to help defend against those heightened risks, according to a new report from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

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Clarity Sought On Energy Tax Credits And Foreign Debt

By Kat Lucero

The IRS should issue more guidance on what kind of debt arrangements can limit a development project's access to clean energy tax credits under new prohibited foreign entity requirements as uncertainty over financial liability and ownership becomes a major market concern, practitioners said Friday.

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Montana PFAS Defendants Seek 'Forum Shopping' Sanctions

By Brian Steele

The city of Stamford, Connecticut, and a local fire district spent two years litigating a PFAS suit against 3M Co. and others before suddenly transferring their claims more than 2,000 miles away in a clear effort at forum shopping, the corporate defendants said in seeking sanctions.

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Canceled Solar Grants Suit In Wrong Court, Wash. Judge Hints

By Rachel Riley

A Washington federal judge on Friday hinted that she lacks jurisdiction over a multistate challenge to the federal government's cancellation of a solar energy project grant program, citing recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent indicating that a bid to reinstate the funding would belong in the Court of Federal Claims.

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Oil Groups Say Offshore Drilling Exemption Moots Lawsuit

By Keith Goldberg

Chevron and offshore industry groups have told a federal judge that the recent exemption of Gulf of Mexico oil and gas activities from Endangered Species Act requirements moots a lawsuit challenging federal evaluations of offshore drilling's effects on endangered species.

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Mich. Panel Says Renewable Energy Siting Order Too Limiting

By Elaine Briseño

The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that the state's energy regulatory body unlawfully limited which local governments can participate in the siting process for large renewable energy projects.

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FTC's Gender-Care Probe Likely Retaliatory, Judge Says

By Nadia Dreid

The Endocrine Society has convinced a D.C. federal judge that the Federal Trade Commission's motivation for targeting it with a subpoena was likely retaliation for the guidelines the nonprofit produced regarding gender-affirming care.

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Kratom Seller Asks 10th Circ. To Review Utah Ban

By Jonathan Capriel

A kratom drink maker is asking the Tenth Circuit to block a Utah law banning its product after a federal judge refused a preliminary injunction request, which it claimed left it facing more than $10.7 million in lost sales.

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Analysis

TTAB's 'Selective' Approach Spurs Drop In Precedents

By Ivan Moreno

The precedential decision the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board issued late last month upholding the cancellation of a credit union's trademark registration was noteworthy not only for the binding authority it created, but also for its rarity: it was only the sixth such ruling from the board this fiscal year.

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Squires Says Yes To 7 Patent Petitions, No To A Dozen More

By Theresa Schliep

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires granted seven petitions for patent review under the America Invents Act and denied 12 other petitions, including a host of challenges by Cisco Systems and Samsung Electronics.

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Squires Says Fitness Tracker Patent Date Key To PGR Ruling

By Adam Lidgett

Wearable technology company Whoop Inc. has shown that an Omni Medsci Inc. patent can be challenged under the America Invents Act because its effective filing was after a cutoff date in the law, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires has found.

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Colo. Legislators Pass Bill Limiting Surveillance Pricing

By Rachel Konieczny

The Colorado General Assembly has passed a bill that limits companies and others from using consumers' and workers' personal data for setting individualized consumer prices and worker wages.

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Analysis

Social Media Litigation Gains Reveal Potential Regulatory Path

By Allison Grande

Recent suits by a social media user and two state attorneys general in their bids to hold Meta and other tech giants accountable for the allegedly addictive nature of their platforms have brought to the forefront a potentially lucrative strategy for more broadly regulating online harms, as the First Amendment and other roadblocks continue to stymie legislative efforts.

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ABC Accuses FCC Of Trying To Chill Speech On 'The View'

By Nadia Dreid

ABC has accused the Federal Communications Commission of trying to trample its First Amendment rights by targeting long-running talk show "The View" with an investigation into whether it has been violating the agency's "equal time" rule for political candidates.

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Social Media Harm To Teens Can Be Pinpointed, Judge Told

By Cara Salvatore

Social media's degree of blame for New Mexico teens' mental health challenges can be statistically isolated and quantified, a health computational scientist testified Friday in the state's $3.7 billion bench trial against Meta.

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NYC Lawmaker Promises COPA Revival After Adams' Veto

By Grace Dixon

New York City Council Member Sandy Nurse confirmed at a Thursday panel that she plans to reintroduce an updated version of the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act that grants some preapproved buyers a first shot at purchasing some residential buildings, after Mayor Eric Adams vetoed a previous version on his last day in office.

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Mass. Board Says Not Enough Evidence To Drop Home Value

By Sanjay Talwani

The owners of a Massachusetts home did not provide enough evidence in their analyses of comparable properties to lower the home's valuation for property tax purposes, the Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board said.

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Judge Probes Cert. For Diverse Worker Class In No-Poach Suit

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois federal judge considering whether to certify a class of former health care employees claiming their wages were suppressed by alleged no-poach agreements between DaVita, UnitedHealth Group's Surgical Care Affiliates and Tenet Healthcare Corp. unit United Surgical Partners International questioned Friday if the group of senior-level workers was too diverse for class treatment.

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DOL Benefits Chief Warns Of 'Bad Faith' Focus On ESG, DEI

By Kellie Mejdrich

The top official for the U.S. Department of Labor's employee benefits subagency said at a trade association conference Friday that agency investigations will focus on benefit plan managers' loyalty conflicts, including disloyal pursuits of socially conscious investing or diversity goals.

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FTC Cites Noncompete Lawsuit In Warning To Mortgage Co.

By Nate Beck

The Federal Trade Commission said Friday that it has warned Pennsylvania-based lender Mortgage Connect to make sure its noncompete agreements comply with the law after information in a lawsuit led the agency to believe the company may have overstepped its boundaries in employment contracts.

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Trump Illegally Fired Mine Safety Commissioner, Suit Says

By Grace Elletson

A Biden-era appointee to the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission sued President Donald Trump in D.C. federal court, claiming the president illegally fired him from the adjudication body before his six-year term was up without justification.

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Town Looks To Toss Firing Suit Over Pantsless Mayor Video

By Hayley Fowler

A North Carolina town and several officials have doubled down on their efforts to exit a former IT worker's suit claiming he was fired for releasing surveillance footage of the mayor walking around town hall late at night without pants, pointing to a host of alleged defects in the complaint.

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Google Denied Early Bid To Pause Search Data Sharing Duties

By Matthew Perlman

A D.C. federal court rejected Google's request to pause parts of an order in the government's search monopolization case requiring it to give rivals syndicated search results and data, but will allow Google to try again once a competitor is lined up for access.

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Ohio Health System Looks To Toss DOJ Antitrust Case

By Matthew Perlman

OhioHealth told a federal court Friday the antitrust case from the U.S. Department of Justice and state enforcers over the hospital system's contracts with insurers would limit competition, not restore it.

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Tort Report: Tesla's Legal Exposure Seen As High As $14.5B

By Y. Peter Kang

A new report stating that Tesla faces billions in legal liabilities and a $140 million football brain injury verdict against the NCAA 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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Nike Customers Join Tariff Refund Class Action Trend

By Jack McLoone

A group of Nike customers on Friday joined the growing number of proposed class actions looking to secure legal rights to refunds of costs tied to President Donald Trump's now-invalidated global tariff regime, saying they were the ones who actually bore the costs.

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Texas Justices Say Nicotine Pouches Taxable As Tobacco

By Mike Curley

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday found that oral nicotine pouches are taxable as tobacco products under state law, as they are made from "tobacco substitutes" through a combination of nicotine extracted from tobacco leaves and plant compounds.

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Oregon Court OKs Farm Tax Break For Horse Stabling

By Sanjay Talwani

An Oregon property is eligible for a special farm use assessment because its stabling and pasturing of horses for profit were qualifying activities, the state tax court found Friday, reversing a local assessor's determination.

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DHS Has 2 Weeks To Reimburse Shelter Program Grantees

By Lauraann Wood

An Illinois federal judge gave the U.S. Department of Homeland Security two weeks to process all the reimbursement claims it received before terminating a grant program intended to help shelter and assist new migrants, criticizing the government's "defiance" of earlier orders to do so.

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DC Circ. Won't Unblock ICE Visits Notice Rule During Appeal

By Lauren Berg

The Trump administration cannot reinstate a policy requiring lawmakers to provide a week's notice before making oversight visits to immigration detention centers while it appeals an order putting the policy on hold, the D.C. Circuit ruled Friday, with one judge calling the decision a "close call."

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Feds To Challenge Nix Of Fast-Track Immigration Appeals Rule

By Jared Foretek

The Trump administration will ask the D.C. Circuit to revive new rules that would reshape how the Board of Immigration Appeals hears challenges to immigration court removal orders.

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Prosecutor Faces Probe Into Withheld Immigration Case Info

By Bonnie Eslinger

The lead assistant federal prosecutor for Rhode Island's civil division is under investigation for allegedly withholding information in an immigration case, according to an order from the Ocean State's top federal judge.

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Mike Lindell's Atty Sanctioned Again For False Case Citation

By Andrea Keckley

A Colorado federal judge has sanctioned the attorney defending Mike Lindell in a defamation lawsuit brought by a Dominion Voting Systems executive for a second time after finding an incorrect citation in a filing, despite the attorney's representation that the mistake was a product of human error, not artificial intelligence.

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Minnesota Foster Parents Ask Justices To Revisit ICWA Fight

By Crystal Owens

Two foster parents are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act after the Minnesota Supreme Court determined they don't have standing to take on the bedrock law on claims of constitutional equal protection rights, telling the justices that the case "cries out for certiorari."

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Lummi Nation Seeks To Block Telecom Digging At Burial Sites

By Crystal Owens

The Lummi Nation is asking a Washington district court for an order that would block a telephone company from continuing to construct a broadband project at a site where Indigenous remains have been unearthed, arguing that they have not been allowed to assess the damage or properly rebury their ancestors.

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NJ Panel Backs Cannabis License Denial Over Odor Concerns

By Jonathan Capriel

A New Jersey city's officials can deny a micro cannabis dispensary's license application based on concerns they have about the business's odor mitigation plan and consumption lounge, a state appeals court ruled, finding they acted within their discretion.

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OCC Proposal Frames Key Genius Act Implementation Issues

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's recently proposed rule under the Genius Act previews federal expectations on permissible activities for stablecoin issuers, offering an early guide to potential compliance burdens and state-federal equivalency debates as the stablecoin regulatory regime continues to take shape, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.

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The Ethics And Practicalities Of Representing AI Agents

With autonomous artificial intelligence agents now able to take action without explicit instructions from — or the awareness of — their human owners, the bar must confront whether existing frameworks like informed consent and client privilege will be sufficient on the day an AI agent calls seeking counsel, say attorneys at Morrison Cohen.

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How To Limit Accounting Fraud Risk As SEC Focus Persists

Despite the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's pullback on crypto, cybersecurity and recordkeeping cases, accounting fraud remains a core enforcement priority, making it important for public companies and auditors to strengthen controls, investigations and whistleblower processes, say attorneys at Pillsbury.

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Expect Trade Enforcers' Cartel Crackdown To Continue

Since agencies’ coordinated enforcement efforts targeting cartel-related activity have not slowed, U.S. companies in Latin America should assess new business lines for designated-cartel ties, scrutinize highest-risk third parties, and enhance training and internal investigation practices, say attorneys at Miller & Chevalier.

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Live Nation Shows States, Experts Key To Antitrust Verdicts

A New York federal jury's recent finding that Live Nation unlawfully monopolized primary ticketing services and amphitheaters demonstrates that states will not defer to federal agencies when they believe anticompetitive conduct warrants stronger action and highlights the vital role of economic expert testimony in antitrust cases, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.

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Rightsizing Regulation To Usher In Next-Generation Nuclear

Next-generation nuclear seems to be having its moment as a recent flurry of Nuclear Regulatory Commission rulemaking aims to fast-track the licensing and deployment of such technologies, says Hilary Jacobs at Beveridge & Diamond.

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Ex-Wachtell Lipton Atty Tied To Stolen BigLaw Info Trades

By Chris Villani

A former Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz attorney who later worked for investment bank LionTree LLC is an unindicted co-conspirator in a sweeping alleged insider trading scheme that involved stolen information from several prominent law firms, according to a review of publicly available information.

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Legal Industry Bounces Back, Gaining 2,400 Jobs In April

By Tracey Read

The legal sector is once again on a positive trajectory, gaining 2,400 jobs last month, according to seasonally adjusted data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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DLA Piper Accused Of 'Frivolous' Suit To Please Chipotle GC

By Gina Kim

DLA Piper aggressively litigated a "frivolous" computer fraud lawsuit against a nonprofit volunteer in order to appease the then-general counsel of Chipotle, a client, who referred the case to the firm, according to a malicious-prosecution complaint filed Thursday in California state court. 

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Prosecutors Oppose Move To Put Off Goldstein Sentencing

By Jared Foretek

Federal prosecutors are claiming that SCOTUSblog founder Thomas Goldstein may have violated his pretrial release conditions when he racked up over $1.7 million in gambling income last year, telling a federal judge not to delay sentencing for the famed U.S. Supreme Court lawyer.

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Roundup

UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Laura Stewart Liberty

The past week in London has seen Morrisons sued by a former logistics partner, EDF and Cripps LLP face a claim brought by a family estate near Hinkley Point C and a former BBC broadcaster file a defamation claim against a Welsh news site over articles linking her to Russian state media and conspiracy theories. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

The head of the U.S. Department of Labor's employee benefits section said agency investigations will focus on benefit plan managers' loyalty conflicts, including pursuit of socially conscious goals. Meanwhile, Dell became the latest company to consider Texas as its new legal home. These are among the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

The National Immigrant Justice Center and the American Civil Liberties Union lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a split Seventh Circuit panel rejected the Trump administration's argument that immigrants unlawfully in the United States have no due process rights.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

By Adam LoBelia

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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