Analysis

A Look At Four States' Tort Reform Legislation Fights

By Y. Peter Kang

There are currently four states debating whether to install business-friendly tort reform legislation or medical malpractice guardrails. The issues include a potentially brutal showdown in California over auto collision litigation and efforts in Florida to expand wrongful death liability for healthcare providers.

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Kristi Noem To Be Replaced As Homeland Security Secretary

By Courtney Bublé

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, who has come under fire from Republicans in recent days, will vacate her position this month, President Donald Trump announced Thursday. 

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Trump Can Shelve Refugee Admissions, 9th Circ. Rules

By Rae Ann Varona

The Ninth Circuit on Thursday ruled that President Donald Trump likely has the authority to suspend admissions of people seeking refugee status in the U.S., but said the government's defunding of services to refugees already admitted is likely unlawful.

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XAI Fails To Block California's Disclosure Law

By Elliot Weld

A California federal judge has declined to entertain X.AI LLC's request to block enforcement of a state law that would require artificial intelligence companies to disclose data used in training their models, saying xAI hadn't shown that trade secrets would be implicated by the law.

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9th Circ. Judge 'Frustrated' At DOJ Position On Anti-Trans EOs

By Rachel Riley

A Ninth Circuit judge said Thursday he's "very frustrated" with the Trump administration's argument that a district court judge acted prematurely by partly blocking executive orders to end funding for gender-affirming care, saying it's "pretty clear" the government was poised to do exactly that.

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Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana Judicial Nominees Advance

By Courtney Bublé

Four judicial nominees advanced out of committee Thursday along party lines, which included two for Texas.

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Criminal Contempt Of DOJ Attys Unlikely For Violating Orders

By Jack Karp

Federal judges have been floating the possibility of holding government attorneys in criminal contempt of court for violating immigration-related court orders, a potentially shocking move that scholars say is unlikely and probably less effective than civil contempt orders.

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Fla. Judge Blocks Terrorist Label For Muslim Rights Nonprofit

By David Minsky

A Florida federal judge has blocked the state's governor from designating a national Muslim civil rights nonprofit as a "terrorist organization," ruling that doing so to make a political statement violates the First Amendment. 

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Lindsey Halligan Faces Fla. Bar Investigation, Watchdog Says

By Lauren Berg

The Florida Bar is investigating Lindsey Halligan, the former interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia who pursued controversial indictments against President Donald Trump's political opponents, according to a letter the Campaign for Accountability made public Thursday.

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Former Ga. Chief Justice To Mediate Fulton Ballot Seizure

By Kelcey Caulder

A Georgia federal judge has tasked former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Harold Melton, now a Troutman Pepper Locke LLP partner, to mediate the ongoing dispute over possession of Fulton County's 2020 election ballots after they were seized by the FBI in January.

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Wells Fargo Exits Last Outstanding Fed Enforcement Order

By Jon Hill

The Federal Reserve on Thursday closed out the rest of a 2018 enforcement order issued against Wells Fargo & Co. in the wake of its fake accounts scandal, saying the bank has met all requirements for release after nearly a decade of work.

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Tokenized Securities Get Same Capital Treatment, Feds Say

By Jon Hill

Federal banking regulators said Thursday that the capital treatment of so-called tokenized securities is the same as their traditional counterparts, emphasizing that bank capital rules are "technology neutral" and don't change when a security is recorded on a distributed ledger.

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Intel, Lutnick Face Investor Suit Over Government's 10% Stake

By Jessica Corso

An Intel Corp. shareholder is suing the company's board of directors and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick over a deal in which the government received a 10% stake in the company in exchange for releasing billions of dollars in previously agreed-upon funding.

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Gold Mine Poses No Certain Threat To Belugas, Gov't Argues

By Jonathan Capriel

The federal government wants to end litigation by environmental groups seeking to stop a mining company from expanding gold extraction efforts within an Alaska national park, telling a federal court that any alleged harm to the endangered beluga whales living in a nearby bay is speculative.

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Top Patent Officials To Review Sanofi's Double Patenting Win

By Dani Kass

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires on Thursday announced he'll be reviewing whether the Patent Trial and Appeal Board properly approved Sanofi's patent application after an obviousness-type double patenting rejection.

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Cable Group Wants DC Judge To Freeze US Copyright Fees

By Nadia Dreid

The cable industry's main trade group wants a D.C. federal court to order an injunction blocking the U.S. Copyright Office from enforcing an agency rule on how to calculate cable royalties because the rule "cannot be squared with the text of the Copyright Act."

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Neb. AG Hits Roblox With Suit Over Kid Safety

By Emily Field

Nebraska on Wednesday became the latest state to hit popular gaming platform Roblox with a suit alleging that it fails to protect children against online predators, saying even new age verification policies are not enough to safeguard minors.

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Mich. AG Accuses Kalshi Of Unlicensed Gambling

By Katryna Perera

Michigan is the latest state to take action against prediction-market exchanges, accusing KalshiEX LLC of running an unlicensed online sports betting platform in a lawsuit removed to federal court on Thursday.

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Robinhood Sues Mich. AG Over Event Contracts

By Melanie Dorsey

Robinhood Derivatives LLC has filed suit against the Michigan attorney general and state gaming regulators, asking a federal judge to bar the state from using its gambling laws to target federally regulated sports event contracts.

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College Athletes Balk At Exclusion From White House Panel

By Alex Lawson

The White House's apparent failure to invite any active student-athletes to this week's college sports policy roundtable drew fire on Thursday from a college athletes' advocacy group, which reiterated its demand for a broad collective bargaining agreement covering amateur athletics.

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DC Circ. Urged To Pause DOT Immigrant Truck Driver Rule

By Linda Chiem

Local governments, legal advocates, Teamsters California and others have urged the D.C. Circuit to suspend the U.S. Department of Transportation's new final rule containing sweeping restrictions on nondomiciled commercial driver's licenses for immigrants, saying nearly 200,000 drivers would be culled from the workforce and trigger a supply chain and critical services crisis. 

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Minn. Court Barely Changes $108M Office Building Valuation

By Michael Nunes

A Minnesota office building was slightly overvalued, the state tax court ruled, agreeing in part with the property owners' income approach and finding that the building's free market value was $108 million.

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O'Reilly To Pay $5.6M To Settle Wash. Pregnancy Bias Suit

By Benjamin Morse

O'Reilly Auto Parts will pay $5.6 million to resolve claims that it failed to provide reasonable workplace accommodations to pregnant and postpartum workers and retaliated against them, the Washington Attorney General's Office announced. 

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Signal 'Never' Regular Biz Practice, Amazon Tells FTC Judge

By Bryan Koenig

Amazon.com Inc. assailed the Federal Trade Commission for accusing the company of using auto-deleting Signal chats and improper privilege claims to hide evidence of rules that created an artificial pricing floor across online retail stores, telling a Washington federal judge that it never hid anything.

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Treasury, OPM Must Face Privacy Suit Over DOGE Info Access

By Gina Kim

The federal government must face a proposed class action accusing it of the "largest data breach" in the nation's history, after a D.C. federal judge said Wednesday that the plaintiffs alleged factual injuries suffered from the disclosure of their most sensitive information, which are "foundational to Americans' data-driven, internet-based lives."

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Ind. Justices Reverse Providers' Loss In COVID Immunity Row

By Gianna Ferrarin

Indiana's highest court ruled that over 80 healthcare providers are immune from a medical malpractice suit by the estate of a man who died after developing a bedsore while he was hospitalized for COVID-19, vacating a decision by a lower court of appeals.

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NC Appeals Court Backs School's Win In Negligence Suit

By Tom Lotshaw

A split North Carolina state appeals court panel affirmed a lower court's ruling for Gardner-Webb University in a negligence suit brought by a former football player who was involved in a campus apartment altercation with his teammates.

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Alaska AG Warns Retailers Against Selling Unapproved Vapes

By Mike Curley

The Alaska attorney general has sent warning letters to more than 1,500 retailers and distributors, warning them against selling tobacco products, such as e-cigarettes and oral nicotine pouches, that have not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

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Anthropic Deemed Supply Chain Risk By Pentagon, Vows Suit

By Rae Ann Varona

The Pentagon has officially informed Anthropic that it is a supply chain risk to the United States' national security, a designation that the artificial intelligence company plans to challenge in court as not "legally sound," according to a statement by Anthropic's CEO on Thursday.

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DOD Official Says 30,000 Small Drone Order Coming Soon

By Madeline Lyskawa

A U.S. Department of Defense official told lawmakers Thursday that the Pentagon plans to order 30,000 small one-way attack drones for $150 million over the next few days, amid concerns that the U.S. is lagging behind with regard to its drone capabilities. 

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Third Spin The Charm On Chinese Truck Tire Duties, CIT Says

By Jack McLoone

The U.S. Department of Commerce has, on its third try, correctly resolved the granting of separate duty rates in an "unusual case" involving a review of antidumping duties on Chinese tires, the U.S. Court of International Trade said.

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Two Dozen States Sue Trump To Halt New Global Tariffs

By Natalie Olivo

A coalition of 24 states sued President Donald Trump's administration Thursday in the U.S. Court of International Trade to block global tariffs that the White House imposed shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down an earlier round of tariffs.

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Overhauled IRS Microcaptive Rules Pass Muster With Judge

By Anna Scott Farrell

Revamped rules requiring taxpayers to disclose certain microcaptive insurance arrangements to the Internal Revenue Service do not violate the Administrative Procedure Act, a Tennessee federal judge found Thursday, saying multiple U.S. Tax Court decisions show the arrangements can be used to avoid taxes.

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9th Circ. Spurns Challenge to USCIS U-Visa Waiver Decision

By Rachel Riley

The Ninth Circuit said Thursday that courts can't second-guess the federal government's decision to reject an inadmissibility waiver request from an immigrant seeking to apply for a type of visa that's usually reserved for victims of certain crimes who aid law enforcement, rejecting an appeal from a Mexican citizen.

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DOJ Says Fed. Law Bars Rochester, NY, Sanctuary Policies

By Ganesh Setty

The Trump administration is urging a New York federal court to block the city of Rochester's sanctuary immigration policies that the administration says stymie its own enforcement operations and discriminate against the federal government, arguing two federal statutes clearly preempt them.

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ICE Violates Warrantless Arrest Order, Immigrant Groups Say

By Jared Foretek

Immigrant rights groups suing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement over warrantless arrests in D.C. blasted the government in a new filing, claiming that ICE hasn't complied with an injunction ruling that the arrest practices violate federal law and has instead gone forward with dozens more illegal arrests.

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Wash. Lawyer Disbarred For Theft Of Client Funds, False Docs

By Ben Adlin

Washington's highest court Thursday disbarred attorney Stephen K. Monro, rejecting his argument that a Washington State Bar Association hearing officer applied the wrong standard of proof when considering evidence against him.

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Tribe Says Calif. Overreached With Safety Penalties

By Crystal Owens

A California Indigenous nation is asking a federal district court to block the state's labor and safety departments from citing and enforcing civil penalties against one of its largest arms of tribal government, saying it is at risk of facing more than $200,000 in unlawful fines if the practice continues.

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Calif. Tribe Can Try Again To Show Gaming Compact Dispute

By Crystal Owens

A federal court judge has sided with California Gov. Gavin Newsom in a dispute over a tribal Class III gaming compact, saying the Morongo Band of Mission Indians failed to show an actual controversy with the state under Article III of the Constitution.

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Texas Justices Say Standing Is Key To Telecom Fee Caps Case

By José Luis Martínez

The Texas Supreme Court on Thursday focused on whether dozens of cities can sue the state over the constitutionality of two laws that cap the fees telecommunications providers pay cities to place infrastructure in public rights-of-way.

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CBD Stores Say Kansas Officials Wrongly Raided Stores

By Mike Curley

A pair of Kansas CBD product stores are suing state, county and local officials, alleging they conducted surprise raids and seized products and cash despite those products being legal under both state and federal law.

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How CFTC Prediction Market Agenda Shifts The Playing Field

Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Michael Selig recently signaled that a more welcoming regulatory landscape for prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket is coming soon, but we can expect a hotly contested regulatory and legal environment with important implications for the platforms, state regulators and market participants, say attorneys at Sidley.

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Opinion

3 Reasons We Need Digital Asset Market Structure Legislation

As bills to regulate the cryptocurrency industry risk stalling in Congress, policymakers and market participants must remember why a durable statutory framework, not governance by agency action, is key to unlocking the full potential of the U.S. digital asset ecosystem, say attorneys at Davis Polk.

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Unique Issues Facing Brand-Compounder Patent Litigation

Recent litigation and potential enforcement action against Hims & Hers Health raise questions about how compounders and branded pharmaceuticals companies would be positioned in patent litigation as compared to generics companies, which would require strategies different from those that would be used in traditional Hatch-Waxman Act litigation, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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Why Mukherji Won't End USCIS' EB-1A Two-Step

A Nebraska federal court's recent decision in Mukherji v. Miller seemed to vindicate longstanding complaints about the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' controversial two-step adjudication process, declaring the framework unlawful — but Mukherji is unlikely to be the death blow that immigration practitioners have hoped for, says Jun Li at Reid & Wise.

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PFAS Risks In M&A Amid Litigation, Legislative Developments

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances have become a significant M&A concern amid new trends in settlements and state laws, and potential buyers must find ways to evaluate potential related risks, say attorneys at Debevoise.

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Opinion

Deregulation Can Solve Labor Market Woes

There is broad agreement that labor law is in need of reform, owing to few unions, slow procedures and weak remedies, and while deregulation will strike many as radical, it has worked for a variety of industries and could make competition a regular feature of the market, says Alexander MacDonald at Littler.

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How Banks Can Apply FinCEN Beneficial Ownership Relief

A recent Financial Crimes Enforcement Unit order limiting the circumstances under which banks should identify and verify beneficial owners may allow banks to tailor their approach to verification compliance, but only after reviewing customer due diligence policies and evaluating alignment with their risk profiles, say attorneys at Cleary.

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Series

Volunteering With Scouts Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Serving as an assistant scoutmaster for my son’s troop reaffirmed several skills and principles crucial to lawyering — from the importance of disconnecting to the value of morality, says Michael Warren at McManis Faulkner.

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DOJ Forges Ahead With Law Firm EO Appeals At DC Circ.

By Lauren Berg

The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday moved ahead with filing appeals at the D.C. Circuit to defend executive orders issued by President Donald Trump targeting four law firms, just three days after the agency backtracked on its decision to drop the fight.

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Legal Jobs Up 19th Straight Month In 'Goldilocks' Economy

By Tracey Read

The legal sector continued its lengthy upward streak in February, with 2,600 more people employed in lawyer, paralegal and other law-related professional roles last month than in January, according to seasonally adjusted data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Ex-Girardi Keese Atty Pleads Guilty For Role In Client Scandal

By Dorothy Atkins

Former Girardi Keese attorney Keith Griffin pled guilty to criminal contempt in Illinois federal court on Thursday for his role in the firm's failure to pay millions ​in client settlement funds to relatives of victims killed in the crash of Lion Air Flight 610.

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Louisiana Atty Sanctioned Over AI Hallucinations In Filing

By Matt Perez

A Louisiana attorney was fined $1,000 Thursday for his use of artificial intelligence in drafting an error-riddled brief, while three co-counsel were spared penalty.

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Investors Accuse Alston & Bird Of Aiding $328M Crypto Fraud

By David Minsky

Several investors have brought a Florida federal proposed class action alleging legal malpractice against Alston & Bird LLP, accusing the law firm of drafting joint venture agreements that were used to aid a $328 million cryptocurrency scam. 

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Constantine Cannon Defends Handling Of Sutter $75M Fee

By Dorothy Atkins

Constantine Cannon LLP pushed back Thursday against Schneider Wallace Cottrell Kim LLP's allegations it unfairly reduced Schneider Wallace's share of a $75.4 million fee award in Sutter Health's $228.5 million antitrust deal, arguing in California federal court that the firm "sat on the sidelines" for most of the decadelong fight and isn't entitled to a bigger cut.

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NJ Talc Suit Will Proceed Amid Beasley Allen DQ Appeal

By Emily Sawicki

The New Jersey Supreme Court has declined to stay multicounty litigation over Johnson & Johnson's talc-based baby powder brought by hundreds of women who allege their ovarian cancer was linked to the product, while Beasley Allen appeals its removal as plaintiff's counsel over a firm partner's collaboration with the pharmaceutical giant's former outside counsel.

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Florida Bar Rescinds Claim Agency Is Investigating Halligan

By Jack Karp

The Florida Bar said Friday that it is not investigating controversial former interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsey Halligan, walking back a previous assertion it had made in a letter to a nonprofit that it was probing Halligan's actions.

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Courts Aren't Ignoring Justices' TPS Orders, Ex-Judges Say

By Ganesh Setty

Over 175 former federal and state judges have slammed the Trump administration's claim that lower courts "flouted" interim orders from the U.S. Supreme Court in litigation involving the administration's revocation of foreign nationals' temporary protected status, saying they weren't binding.

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Dems Again Push For Independent Immigration Courts

By Courtney Bublé

Democrats have again introduced a bill that would shift the immigration courts from the executive branch to an independent judiciary, following concerns that the Trump administration has "weaponized" the system.

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Roundup

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

By Laura Stewart Liberty

This past week in London has seen British American Tobacco sued by more than 100 investors, the government bring a claim against a COVID-19 supplier of personal protective equipment, Annington Funding sue its new corporate trustees on the Financial List, and Piers Morgan hit with a defamation claim from a pro-Israel barrister he interviewed on his YouTube channel. 

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

Anthropic, the developer of Claude AI, says it will take the Pentagon to court over being designated a national security risk because it wants to impose ethical guardrails on Claude's use. And the Mideast war is making in-house legal teams across the country work long hours to protect employees trapped by the violence and to keep businesses running despite broken supply chains. These are some of 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

Winston & Strawn LLP, Sullivan Papain Block McManus Coffinas & Cannavo PC, Stanford's Supreme Court Litigation Clinic and attorney Olivia Gabriel lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that New Jersey cannot shield its public transit system from personal injury lawsuits by out-of-state plaintiffs under sovereign immunity.

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