DOJ Declines To Charge Optometry Group Under New Policy

By Phillip Bantz

New Jersey-based optometry practice Campus Eye Management on Wednesday became the first healthcare company to secure a declination of criminal charges under the U.S. Department of Justice's new corporate enforcement policy.

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GOP Bill To Curb Judge Shopping May Have Limited Effect

By Courtney Bublé

A Senate Republican has introduced legislation that he says will fix the judge shopping issue, but court observers don't think it will make much of a difference.

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Senate Postpones Key Vote For AG Nominee Blanche

By Courtney Bublé

The committee vote on acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's bid to take the permanent role, slated for Thursday, was postponed after Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., were not fully on board.

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Comey Rips '86 47' Case, Says Warrants 'Misstated Facts'

By Lauren Berg

James Comey is taking another angle in his effort to dismiss an indictment stemming from a picture of seashells he posted on Instagram, telling a North Carolina federal judge that the government is pursuing the "vindictive" case because of President Donald Trump's "deep-seated animosity" toward the former FBI director.

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Meta's View Of 'Problematic Use' Has Holes, Ex-Exec Testifies

By Cara Salvatore

A former Facebook safety executive testified Wednesday in Tennessee's trial against Meta over youth mental health that Meta's definition of "problematic use" of apps is deficient and suffers from a lack of data.

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Enforcers Defend Google Search Win, Seek Payment Ban

By Matthew Perlman

The U.S. Department of Justice and state enforcers urged the D.C. Circuit not to disturb a trial court's ruling that found Google illegally maintained its search monopoly, while also asking the appeals court to consider banning Google from paying to be the default search engine.

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CFTC Must 'Start Afresh' On Prediction Market Regs, States Say

By Aislinn Keely

A group of 44 attorneys general warned the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to "start afresh" on its proposed rule for prediction markets or risk treading on state authority over gambling, while prediction market platforms backed the rule's plan to permit many sports-focused event contracts.

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Colo. School Says Gov. Title IX Push Conflicts With State Law

By Zach Dupont

A Colorado school district has asked a federal judge to intervene against the U.S. Department of Education following a threat to revoke the school district's $52 million a year in federal funding because it won't comply with the government's demands surrounding transgender students, including preventing transgender girls access to bathrooms and sports teams.

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Longtime USPTO Employee Tapped For Acting Deputy Leader

By Adam Lidgett

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has selected longtime employee Anne Mendez to serve as the acting second in command of the agency after Deputy Director Coke Morgan Stewart revealed this week that she's leaving for the private sector.

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Analysis

'Vibe Coding' Pushes Cos. To Rethink Copyright Protection

By Ivan Moreno

As artificial intelligence takes on more software development projects, businesses embracing “vibe coding” are adapting to uncertain copyright protection by documenting engineers’ contributions, keeping humans involved in high-value projects and leaning more heavily on trade secrets.

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DOJ Wants New Judge In Fired Court-Appointed US Atty's Suit

By Jack Karp

A lawsuit from the Seattle U.S. attorney who was swiftly fired from his post by President Donald Trump shortly after being appointed to it by a federal court should be reassigned to a different judge, the administration has told a Washington federal court.

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Calif. Regulator To Appeal $100M OppFi 'Rent-A-Bank' Loss

By Sarah Jarvis

California's financial services regulator has appealed a state judge's ruling that it cannot pursue millions in fines against Opportunity Financial for alleged "rent-a-bank" predatory lending, after the judge rejected the regulator's allegation that OppFi was the "true lender" for loans that the company argued originated from an out-of-state partner.

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Feds Say High Court Ruling Justifies Calif. Pipeline Oversight

By Elaine Briseño

The Trump administration has told the Ninth Circuit that a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision clarifying federal arbitration jurisdictional boundaries backs its assertion that it has exclusive jurisdiction over the Santa Ynez pipeline system in California.

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Delta Can't Knock Out Consumer's Greenwashing Suit

By Kelcey Caulder

A California federal judge narrowed a proposed class action accusing Delta Air Lines of overstating its emissions progress and falsely touting itself as the first carbon-neutral airline, denying a bid for injunctive relief but refusing to toss California law claims. 

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Texas Ties Sway Transfer Ruling In SpaceX Land-Swap Fight

By Elaine Briseño

A D.C. federal judge has allowed SpaceX and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to shift a dispute over their planned land swap to Texas, finding most significant aspects of the case are tied to the Lone Star State.

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Colo. Hospital Patients In Gender Care Suit Seek Class Cert.

By Rachel Konieczny

Transgender adolescents urged a Colorado state judge Wednesday to allow them to proceed as a certified class in their lawsuit seeking to have Children's Hospital Colorado resume providing gender-affirming care for them and other transgender youth patients, arguing the class is "objectively definable."

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DraftKings Offers Sports Bets In Barred States, Suit Alleges

By David Steele

A proposed class action in Massachusetts federal court accuses DraftKings of conducting sports betting in states that outlaw it, through prediction markets that are accessible through the same app as its sportsbook and daily fantasy sports.

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Roundup

Lowe's Coverage Row, NASCAR Team Tiff: NC Midyear Report

By Hayley Fowler

The North Carolina courts are teeing up for a busy second half of 2026, including readying for a multimillion-dollar insurance trial with Lowe's and speeding through discovery in a high-profile trade secrets dispute involving former NFL coach Joe Gibbs' championship NASCAR team.

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Brookfield, NextEra Plan $100B Data Center Build At DOE Site

By Nate Beck

Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP is advising Brookfield on a U.S. Department of Energy effort announced Wednesday to redevelop parts of an agency site in Paducah, Kentucky, into a $100 billion data center campus that would also include new affordable energy infrastructure as part of a venture with NextEra Energy and local utilities.

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Fla. DOH Worker Wasn't Fired For Blowing Whistle, Court Says

By Carolina Bolado

A Florida appeals court on Wednesday affirmed the state's win against a former Florida Department of Health employee who claimed she was told to fabricate COVID-19 data, finding that she was not fired in retaliation for protected whistleblower activity.

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Philly's Ex-DEI Officer Hits City With Discrimination Lawsuit

By P.J. D'Annunzio

Philadelphia's former top DEI officer has filed a lawsuit accusing the city of race and sex discrimination, claiming Mayor Cherelle Parker's administration fired her amid an effort to stifle diversity initiatives and then publicly smeared her name.

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3rd Circ. Revives Atlantic City Hotel Dynamic-Pricing Suit

By Matthew Santoni

A Third Circuit panel Wednesday revived a proposed class action accusing Atlantic City casino-hotels of illegally inflating room prices with software that allegedly shared private occupancy and pricing information among them.

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Senate Dems Look To Put Nail In Trump-IRS Immunity Deal

By Jack McLoone

Democrats in the Senate Finance Committee introduced legislation Wednesday that they said would officially sink the portion of President Donald Trump's settlement of his suit against the IRS that grants him immunity from tax audits while also preventing any such deals in the future.

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State Dept. Want To Expand Grounds To End J-1 Programs

By Britain Eakin

The U.S. Department of State rolled out a proposal Wednesday to allow the agency and J-1 visa sponsors to terminate an individual's program if they do unauthorized work or provide false information during their program or the application process.

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DOJ Wants To Let Immigration Judges Fine For Contempt

By Britain Eakin

The Executive Office for Immigration Review proposed a rule Wednesday that would allow immigration judges to impose civil monetary penalties for contempt on attorneys, their noncitizen clients and witnesses, operationalizing a power that has lain dormant since 1996.

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Afghan Families Must Be Admitted Into US Despite Trump Ban

By Jared Foretek

A Virginia federal judge Wednesday ordered that the families of five Afghans who fought for the United States be allowed to enter the country within weeks and that two other families who have yet to be interviewed by the State Department have their applications processed within the month.

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DOL Says Beekeeper Underpaid, Endangered H-2A Workers

By Benjamin Morse

The U.S. Department of Labor sued a beekeeping business and its owner in Washington federal court Wednesday, alleging they underpaid H-2A workers, housed them in a rat-infested trailer and pressured an employee to conceal a workplace injury that nearly cost him a finger.

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ACLU Seeks DOD Docs On Military Role In Immigration Courts

By Chris Villani

The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts on Wednesday sued the Trump administration for records about the purported use of military personnel to serve as temporary immigration judges, which the organization called a violation of the founders' desire to keep the military out of domestic law enforcement.

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Asylum Seeker Class Presses For Removed Member's Return

By Tom Lotshaw

A class of young asylum seekers has told a Maryland federal judge that the government violated a settlement when it removed one member with a cognitive disability to Guatemala without first considering his asylum application, and it should be ordered to return him.

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Former Trump Lawyer Officially Takes The Helm At SDNY

By Hailey Konnath

James McDonald, a former Sullivan & Cromwell LLP partner who represented President Donald Trump in his appeal of his criminal conviction, was sworn in as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York on Wednesday after McDonald's predecessor Jay Clayton departed to serve as director of national intelligence.

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Madigan Asks Supreme Court To Review His Bribery Verdict

By Celeste Bott

Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to review his conviction on bribery, conspiracy and wire fraud charges, arguing that the "novel" theories behind his prosecution "stretch federal bribery law in ways that threaten to criminalize and chill lawful interactions between state and local officials and their constituents."

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Calif. Tribes, Enviros Challenge Mojave Groundwater Project

By Crystal Owens

California tribes and environmental groups are challenging a decision by the federal government to approve a plan to revive a once defunct oil and gas pipeline to transport groundwater beneath the Mojave Desert, arguing that the "ill-conceived water-extraction scheme" will damage ecosystems that are part of sacred Indigenous cultural resources.

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Crack Down On States Neglecting Pole Regs, FCC Told

By Nadia Dreid

States have to actually make pole attachment rules if they want to take control of such regulations themselves, a telecom trade group told the FCC, which is currently mulling putting new rules in place for states that want to claw back control through so-called reverse preemption.

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'96 Telecom Act Needs Overhaul To Cut Regs, Think Tank Says

By Christopher Cole

A free-market-oriented think tank called Wednesday for a legislative redo of the 1996 Telecommunications Act in order to slash regulations tied to outdated technologies and adjust the industry's regulatory regime to new market conditions.

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Brief

Calif. Dems Pressure FCC To Drop ABC Station Probe

By Nadia Dreid

More than two dozen California House Democrats have come together to tell the Federal Communications Commission to abandon its review of the license of an ABC station in the Golden State, saying there's no chance the agency launched the probe in good faith.

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What Corporate Counsel Can Learn From OpenAI Test Breach

The significance of the recent artificial intelligence testing breach involving OpenAI and Hugging Face lies in what it reveals about the path of AI’s evolution, because legal professionals must translate that trajectory into actionable governance, contractual and advisory frameworks, says Jason Mueller at Vorys.

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Justices' Tax Sale Ruling Tees Up Auction Fairness Battles

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Pung v. Isabella County, Michigan, that taxpayers are not entitled to fair market value of real property seized to satisfy a tax debt shifts attention to the fairness of state and local auction procedures, and whether taxpayers claiming surplus proceeds face unwarranted hurdles, say attorneys at Miller Canfield.

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Patent Eligibility Reforms Keep Chasing The Wrong Fixes

Repeated efforts to create a consistent, predictable patent eligibility standard under Section 101 have centered on replacing judge-made exceptions with new statutory language, but the better fix is to align examination standards with how courts actually apply eligibility doctrine, says former Patent Trial and Appeal Board judge Amee Shah.

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Noncompete Laws Show States Focusing On Bans, Healthcare

The first half of 2026 confirms that state legislatures are driving the most consequential changes in noncompete law, including a few state bans and several healthcare-specific laws, making a one-size-fits-all approach increasingly untenable for multistate employers, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

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What's Inside Proposed, Expanded NY Stablecoin Regulations

New York's recently proposed regulations for payment stablecoin issuers would, if adopted, increase the regulatory burdens of a state license, and midsize issuers considering a conversion to a federal charter should weigh the associated costs of both options, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

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Advocacy Group Says Law Firm Fellowship Program Biased

By Patrick Hoff

A legal advocacy group said Thursday it had lodged U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charges against a nonprofit and law firms including Jones Day, White & Case and Morgan Lewis, claiming Muslim and Middle Eastern students were getting unlawful preference in a fellowship program.

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DA Says Trump's NY Hush Money Conviction Must Stand

By Frank G. Runyeon

New York prosecutors told a state appellate court that President Donald Trump's 34-count felony conviction for falsifying business records is "unaffected" by the U.S. Supreme Court's watershed presidential immunity decision and should be upheld.

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Bronx Legal Aid Organization's Union Rejects New Pay Offer

By Andrea Keckley

The Bronx Defenders' executive director said on Thursday that the union representing the organization's over 300 attorneys and staff has rejected an updated offer on wages, with both sides still at odds over the prospect of separate salary scales for lawyers and social workers.

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2 Traders Admit Guilt In Stolen BigLaw Info Scheme

By Chris Villani

Two men pled guilty Thursday in Massachusetts federal court to their roles in a sweeping scheme to trade on inside information stolen from huge corporate law firms about upcoming deals.

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Roundup

Pa. Paraquat, Gov. Shapiro's Neighbors: A Midyear Report

By P.J. D'Annunzio

Mass tort and antitrust cases advanced this year in Pennsylvania, where attorneys await Philadelphia's first paraquat trial and more developments in the class action against the Law School Admissions Council over test fees.

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Trump May Renominate Blanche If GOP Holdouts Block Vote

By Courtney Bublé

With Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., still on the fence about acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's confirmation to be attorney general, President Donald Trump said Thursday he might renominate Blanche next year when the two senators are no longer serving in the Senate.

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Linklaters' Legal AI Leader Coming To NY For US M&A Work

By Jake Maher

Linklaters LLP is moving the firm's first dedicated AI lawyer from London to its New York office to work with the U.S. mergers and acquisitions team on an AI-native capability, according to an announcement on social media Thursday.

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ABA Eyes Nixing School DEI Standards To Sway Trump Admin

By Emma Cueto

The American Bar Association is poised next week to eliminate the first of multiple diversity-related law school standards, a controversial move that it hopes will allow it to remain an accreditor despite an uncertain outcome in the face of a Trump administration increasingly wary of the association's role in legal education.

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Judiciary's Bid To Control Courthouses Gets Senate Push

By Courtney Bublé

A bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill on Thursday that would create a pilot program for the federal judiciary to obtain direct authority to maintain its buildings, which the judiciary says is desperately needed.

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