DC Judge Blocks ICE Plan To Funnel Teens To Adult Detention

By Tom Lotshaw

A D.C. federal judge blocked a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy aimed at transferring people who entered the country as unaccompanied minors into adult immigrant detention centers once they turn 18 and age out of Office of Refugee Resettlement custody.

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Judge Won't Boot Bondi-Appointed Prosecutor In LA

By Emily Sawicki

A federal judge has refused to reconsider his ruling disqualifying Bill Essayli from holding the role of U.S. attorney but allowing him to serve as the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, finding that Essayli's appointment by U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi is valid.

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High Court Will Review Racial Bias In Miss. Jury Strikes

By Brandon Lowrey

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear its second case involving the same Mississippi prosecutor's peremptory strikes of Black prospective jurors in a Black defendant's death penalty case — and the same state judge's approval of those strikes.

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Judge Orders Return Of Comey Atty Richman's Seized Files

By Jared Foretek

A D.C. federal judge has ordered the government to return copies of materials seized from former James Comey attorney Daniel Richman, allowing the government to deposit only a single sealed copy of the materials with the Eastern District of Virginia for potential future warranted access.

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DOJ Sues Fulton County To Obtain 2020 Election Records

By Kelcey Caulder

The U.S. Department of Justice filed suit against the clerk of courts in Fulton County, Georgia, in an effort to obtain five-year-old ballots linked to the 2020 presidential election, accusing the clerk of violating federal law by not relinquishing the records.

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11th Circ. Wants Alabama High Court's Help On Voting Law

By Chart Riggall

The Eleventh Circuit balked Monday at ruling on a challenge to Alabama statutes enacted last year which restrict voters from receiving help in applying for an absentee ballot, asking the state's Supreme Court to first try to untangle what it called "not a very clear law."

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Racial 'X-Acto Knife' Used For Prop 50 Map, Calif. Panel Told

By Craig Clough

A three-day hearing before three federal judges kicked off Monday in Los Angeles over challenges brought by California Republicans and the U.S. Department of Justice to the state's Proposition 50 voter-approved congressional districts, with a RealClearPolitics election analyst testifying that one district was created using a racial "X-Acto knife" rather than a political one.

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Md. Residents, Advocates Fight DOJ's Bid For Voters' Data

By Allison Grande

Three Maryland voters and a pair of civil rights watchdog groups are the latest to push to participate in the U.S. Department of Justice's lawsuit seeking to force the state to hand over voters' sensitive personal information, arguing the request threatens residents' privacy and could enable voter disenfranchisement. 

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Walmart Adds To Visa, Mastercard Swipe-Fee Deal Objections

By Katryna Perera

Walmart has become the latest retailer to object to a proposed new settlement between Visa, Mastercard and a class of potentially millions of merchants to resolve two decades of antitrust litigation, claiming the class plaintiffs and counsel have "sold out their fellow class members."

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Senate Banking Committee Pushes Crypto Markup To 2026

By Aislinn Keely

The Senate Banking Committee anticipates marking up a crypto market structure proposal in the new year as bipartisan negotiations on the bill continue, a spokesperson for committee chairman Tim Scott, R.-S.C, said Monday.

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PCAOB Challenger Tells DC Circ. He Should Stay Anonymous

By Katryna Perera

An anonymous accountant challenging the constitutionality of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has told the D.C. Circuit he should be allowed to proceed in district court as a John Doe plaintiff, aiming to reverse a ruling that he cannot continue to litigate the suit pseudonymously.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jeff Montgomery

Litigation in Delaware's Court of Chancery sprawled from a dispute over control of banana plantations along Africa's Congo River to a fight over the late musician Prince's estate last week. Along the way, a court ruling rejected a motion for a quick decision favoring Blue Bell Creameries director and officer calls for liability releases in a tainted ice cream saga that dates to 2015.

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Beyond Nuclear Pushes Justices To Undo Storage License

By Ganesh Setty

The nonprofit seeking to stop the U.S. Department of Energy from contracting out nuclear waste storage hit back at the contractor's bid to keep the case out of the U.S. Supreme Court, saying the contractor's own brief supports the nonprofit's position.

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Groups Challenge FERC's Texas Natural Gas Project Approval

By Elaine Briseño

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was hit with a lawsuit on Monday over its approval of a natural gas project in Texas, with the Sierra Club, the South Texas Environmental Justice Network and the city of Port Isabel, Texas, alleging the agency used a flawed analysis to assess the polluting effect of the project.

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Fishery Says NY, NJ Wind Project 'Obliterated' Fishing Area

By George Woolston

A Garden State fishery has sued the owner of the Empire Offshore Wind project in New Jersey federal court, alleging that it has "completely and permanently obliterated" the ability to harvest shellfish in the project area and caused it more $25 million in damages.

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NC Panel Says State's Hospital Law Is Constitutional

By Abigail Harrison

North Carolina's "certificate of need" law hasn't created a monopoly nor has it restricted an eye surgeon's right to earn a living, a state court panel ruled Friday, ending for now the surgeon's yearslong suit arguing the law is facially unconstitutional.

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Connecticut 'Likely' To Settle Generic Drug Price Cap Dispute

By Brian Steele

A pharmaceutical industry trade group and the state of Connecticut have signaled their intent to settle a feud over the interpretation of the state's generic drug price cap law, and a federal judge gave them until Monday to say more about their plan.

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Groups Say Texas Food Labeling Law Must Be Blocked

By Mike Curley

A group of food industry associations are urging a Texas federal judge to block a section of the state's new Make Texas Healthy Again Act, saying the section is preempted by federal law because it requires them to put false and misleading information on the labels.

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USPTO Replaces Denver Office With Center In Montana

By Adam Lidgett

Montana has been picked by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to be the first state to oversee community outreach in the area formerly serviced by the now-shuttered Rocky Mountain Regional Outreach Office in Denver.

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Brief

Texas, Toronto Stock Exchanges End Trademark Dispute

By Spencer Brewer

The Texas Stock Exchange has buried the hatchet with the Toronto Stock Exchange and ended its suit seeking a court finding that the two exchanges' logos are dissimilar. 

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Brief

PTAB Creates New Prehearing Conference For AIA Reviews

By Elliot Weld

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has rolled out a change to its trial practice guide that will create a new prehearing conference 15 days prior to oral hearings under the America Invents Act in cases implemented by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director.

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Palin Can't Get 3rd Trial In NYT Defamation Case

By Cara Salvatore

A New York federal judge on Monday denied Sarah Palin's attempt for another redo of her libel trial against The New York Times, saying her lawyers "seriously misconstrued" a Second Circuit decision as reducing what she had to prove at trial.

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Court Says Anti-SLAPP Doesn't Shield Facebook Insult Of Atty

By Chris Villani

The Massachusetts Appeals Court on Monday ruled that the state's anti-SLAPP law does not cover a Facebook insult hurled at an attorney on a local political page, though the court still held that the lawyer cannot sue over the online slight.

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Nix FCC's Public Interest Standard, Free Market Group Says

By Christopher Cole

Lawmakers need to consider scrapping the longstanding public interest standard rather than seeking to hold broadcasters to a measure from the Communications Act, a free-market think tank argued Monday.

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Texas AG Says Sony, Other TV-Makers 'Watching You Back'

By Rae Ann Varona

The Texas attorney general Monday sued five television manufacturers, including Sony, Samsung and LG, claiming in new lawsuits filed in Texas state court that the companies "are watching you back" and unlawfully harvesting and selling viewers' data.

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Atty Seeks To Block Law Banning Fee-Sharing With ABS Firms

By Emily Sawicki

The attorney challenging a California law that blocks fee-sharing with out-of-state law firms owned by nonlawyers has petitioned for enforcement of the law to be suspended before it is set to go into effect on Jan. 1.

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3rd-Country Removal Relief Is Proper, Immigrants Tell 1st Circ.

By Tom Lotshaw

Immigrants challenging the Trump administration's authority to abruptly deport people to third countries urged the First Circuit on Friday to restore an order that required some notice to allow for claims asserting fears of torture or persecution.

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Fed. Court Asked To Block IRS' Microcaptive Reporting Rule

By Kevin Pinner

A Texas federal court should vacate an IRS rule aimed at flagging potential tax avoidance by requiring companies to disclose information about their microcaptive insurance transactions because it undermines Congress' authority, according to a Texas plastics company and its microcaptive adviser.

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IRS Finalizes Tribal Welfare, Energy Direct Pay Rules

By Kat Lucero

The IRS finalized a pair of long-awaited tribal regulations Monday governing a taxable income exclusion for welfare benefits and classifying certain tribe-owned entities as tax-exempt to allow them to directly monetize tax credits for clean energy projects.

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Employee-Related Charges Against Goldstein Are Tossed

By Jared Foretek

A Maryland federal judge has dismissed several charges against SCOTUSblog founder Tom Goldstein related to employees at his law firm, agreeing that prosecutors had failed to establish a clear rule for determining whether employees are legitimate for tax purposes.

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Ex-US Attys Say Pardons, Loyalty Demands Hurt Rule Of Law

By Adrian Cruz

A bipartisan group of former U.S. attorneys spoke publicly Monday on their concerns regarding the direction the U.S. justice system has taken since the start of the second Trump administration and the potential risks that may pose to the rule of law.

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DC Judge Won't Block Calif. Tribe's Recognition Status

By Lauren Berg

Three California residents and a nonprofit cannot have an emergency order blocking a decision by the U.S. Interior Department to give federal recognition to California's Ione Band of Miwok Indians, a D.C. federal judge ruled, saying the plaintiffs didn't comply with federal rules governing such requests.

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FCC Moves Forward On Multilingual Wireless Alerts

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission will soon make effective a rule rolling out multilingual alert templates for cellphones during public emergencies following pressure from Democrats on Capitol Hill over alleged delays in the effort.

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Ohio Gov. To Designate Synthetic Kratom Extract Illegal Drug

By Jonathan Capriel

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is looking to immediately ban synthetic kratom compounds while simultaneously seeking to either ban or heavily regulate the active ingredient in "natural kratom," citing serious public health concerns.

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Sen. Tim Scott's Ex-Chief Of Staff Joins Holland & Hart

By Jack Rodgers

Holland & Hart LLP has tapped the former chief of staff for Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., to serve as a senior director of federal affairs in the firm's Washington, D.C., office, according to a Monday announcement.

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2025 Noncompete Developments That Led To Inflection Point

Employers must reshape their approaches to noncompete agreements following key 2025 developments, including Delaware's rejection of blue-penciling and the proliferation of state wage thresholds, say attorneys at Gunderson Dettmer.

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The Tricky Issues Underscoring Prediction Market Regulation

Prediction markets are not merely testing the boundaries of commodities law — they are challenging the conventional divisions between gambling regulation and financial market oversight, and in doing so, may reshape both, says Braeden Anderson at Gesmer Updegrove.

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Riding The Changing Winds For AI Innovations At The USPTO

As recent U.S. Patent and Trademark Office moves reshape how artificial intelligence inventions will be examined and put them on firmer eligibility footing, practitioners need to consider how this shift is both an opportunity and a challenge, say Ryan Phelan at Marshall Gerstein and attorney Mark Campagna.

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Calif. AG's No-Poach Case Reflects Tougher Antitrust Stance

This month, California’s attorney general resolved the latest enforcement action barring the use of no-poach agreements, underscoring an aggressive antitrust enforcement trend with significant increases in criminal and civil penalties, say attorneys at Pillsbury.

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3 Defense Strategies For Sporadically Prosecuted Conduct

Not to be confused with selective prosecutions, sporadic prosecutions — charging someone for conduct many others do without consequences — can be challenging to defend, but focusing on materiality, prosecutorial motivations and public opinion can be a winning strategy, says Jonathan Porter at Husch Blackwell.

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A Look At The Wave Of 2025 Email Marketing Suits In Wash.

Since the Washington Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Old Navy in April, more than 30 lawsuits have alleged that a broad range of retailers across industries sent emails that violate the Washington Commercial Electronic Mail Act, but retailers are unlikely to find clear answers yet, says Gonzalo Mon at Kelley Drye.

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10th Circ. Dissent May Light Path For Master Account Access

While the Tenth Circuit's majority in Custodia Bank v. Federal Reserve Board recently affirmed Federal Reserve banks' control over master account access, the dissent raised constitutional questions that could support banks seeking master accounts in future litigation, say attorneys at Paul Hastings.

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Series

The Law Firm Merger Diaries: Integrating Practice Groups

Enacting unified leadership and consistent client service standards ensures law firm practice groups connect and collaborate around shared goals, turning a law firm merger into a platform for growth rather than a period of disruption, says Brian Catlett at Fennemore Craig.

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Former DLA Piper Associate Alleges Ex-Partner Raped Her

By Lynn LaRowe

A former Boston-based DLA Piper associate on Monday launched a state lawsuit alleging she was raped at the firm's Delaware office by a former partner purportedly known for heavy drinking and inappropriate workplace conduct toward female subordinates.

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Bonus Spotlight

Elsberg Baker Exceeds, Cohen Ziffer Matches Atty Bonuses

By Tracey Read

Trial boutique Elsberg Baker & Maruri PLLC announced Monday that its associates will earn up to $226,250 in extra cash this year.

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'Hardworking' 9th Circ. Senior Judge Sandra Ikuta Dies At 71

By Hailey Konnath

Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Sandra Segal Ikuta of the Ninth Circuit, who has been semi-retired since early November, died on Dec. 7 at the age of 71, exactly one month after assuming senior status, according to the Federal Judicial Center.

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ABA Flags AI Fears: Making Attys 'Worse At Their Jobs'

By Steven Lerner

The erosion of skills for junior associates, deepfakes as evidence in court and the lack of technical knowledge in law firms were among the top fears and challenges listed by the American Bar Association in a new report about artificial intelligence in the legal profession.

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Arbitration Ruling Stands In Morgan & Morgan Class Action

By Chart Riggall

A Georgia federal judge said Monday she won't backtrack on her decision to send a malpractice lawsuit from a former client of Morgan & Morgan PA to arbitration, once again rejecting his arguments that his proposed class claims were exempt from an agreement to arbitrate disputes.

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Judge Willing To Take 'Heat' For Blocking ICE Arrest, Jury Told

By Nate Beck

A Wisconsin judge was willing to "take the heat" for using a staff hallway to usher an unauthorized immigrant out of her courtroom, a federal jury heard Monday, as a defense attorney argued she can't be found guilty by association just because someone in her courtroom tried to flee immigration agents.

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