'Grave Errors': 5th Circ. Boots Judge After AI 'Botch Job'

By Jeff Overley

A Mississippi federal judge's careless use of artificial intelligence tools led to "sloppy edicts" riddled with "falsehoods and fabrications," the Fifth Circuit held in a Thursday night opinion removing the judge from litigation over an anti-DEI law in the Magnolia State because of his "extraordinarily grave errors."

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Live Nation Details Woodward, Trump Role In DOJ Deal

By Bryan Koenig

Live Nation Entertainment Inc. has offered new details on the involvement of the White House and senior Justice Department officials in its controversial midtrial settlement Democrats have cast as corrupt, confirming that Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr.'s office was also involved.

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Takeaways From Meta's $25B Data Privacy Trial Loss

By Cara Salvatore

As Meta Platforms Inc. digests Wednesday's $25 billion trial bill for repeatedly misrepresenting its privacy practices to New Mexicans, observers say there are lessons to take away — beyond the fact that it's believed to be the largest commercial verdict in nominal dollars in U.S. history.

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Judge Halts DHS Voter Probes Over Flawed Citizenship Data

By Elaine Briseño

A California federal judge blocked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from visiting certain homes in nine states to question people about their voter status ahead of the midterm elections, finding that the government relied on flawed data that targeted U.S. citizens.

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Fintech EarnIn Sues Maryland Over Tip Ban, License Delay

By Katryna Perera

EarnIn, a financial technology company that lets workers access their wages before payday, has sued the Maryland attorney general and the state's financial regulation commissioner, arguing that a new state law banning earned wage access providers from soliciting tips violates the First Amendment.

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8th Circ. Told EPA Misread Aquifer Rule For SD Uranium Mine

By Gautama Mehta

Opponents of a proposed uranium mine in South Dakota told the Eighth Circuit that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency did not deserve judicial deference regarding its reasons for exempting an aquifer from Safe Drinking Water Act protections.

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'Substantially Impaired' Main Topic Of Medicaid Rule Hearing

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts federal judge pressed the Trump administration Thursday on its argument that Congress intentionally left it with the task of defining who is considered too medically frail to comply with Medicaid work requirements set to take effect in January.

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Ex-FCC Leaders Slam Carr Poll Threats

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

A bipartisan group of former high-ranking Federal Communications Commission officials has released a statement condemning FCC Chair Brendan Carr's recent comments to broadcasters over their reporting on political polls.

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Transpo Tracker: CH Robinson Verdict, Tesla Class Action

By Linda Chiem

In our latest Law360 Transportation Tracker, a Dallas County judge confirmed a blockbuster $604 million verdict against freight broker C.H. Robinson, while the Ninth Circuit dismantled a certified class action accusing Tesla of misleading consumers about its cars' self-driving capabilities.

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CMS Hit With Another Broker Suit Over ACA Registration Bar

By Gianna Ferrarin

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has been hit with another suit by health insurance brokers alleging the agency is unlawfully blocking them from registering to help individuals find Affordable Care Act marketplace coverage for plan year 2027.

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Treasury Proposes Barring Big Investors From Buying Homes

By Isaac Monterose

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has proposed a rule that would bar large institutional investors from buying single-family homes, absent specific exceptions, saying Thursday that the proposal aims to "make homeownership more affordable for hardworking Americans."

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Judge Advances $60M Deal Over NYC Foreclosure Program

By Marco Poggio

A Manhattan federal judge has granted preliminary approval to a $60 million settlement resolving claims that New York City stripped property owners of their homes and accumulated equity through a foreclosure program that plaintiffs say disproportionately affected Black and Latino communities, attorneys said Thursday.

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EEOC Sets Meeting On Criminal History Guidance Recall

By Anne Cullen

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced Thursday it will host a public meeting next week on its plans to scrap guidance governing the use of workers' arrest and conviction records in employment decisions.

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States Ask DC Circ. To Ban Google From Paying To Be Default

By Nadia Dreid

If the D.C. Circuit doesn't ban Google from paying to be the default search engine on people's cellphones after it was found to have illegally maintained a monopoly, state enforcers say the tech titan will remain "free to buy tomorrow's defaults with the fruits of yesterday's anticompetitive conduct."

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FTC's Meador Questions 'Reliance' On Hovenkamp Treatise

By Bryan Koenig

Federal Trade Commission member Mark Meador vouched Thursday for an "aggregation" theory of antitrust violations that can combine conduct that may not be anticompetitive individually, in a Houston speech that also took direct aim at a foundational academic treatise of modern competition law.

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Conn., Cook County, Ill., Defend AR-15 Bans At Supreme Court

By Mike Curley

Officials in Cook County, Illinois, and Connecticut are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold laws banning semiautomatic AR-15-style rifles, arguing that their laws are consistent with historical analogs restricting "unusually dangerous" weapons.

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Del. AG Alleges Glock Fuels Illegal Machine Gun Violence

By Jarek Rutz

State Attorney General Kathleen Jennings sued Glock Inc. and its Austrian affiliate in the Delaware Chancery Court on Thursday, alleging the gunmaker knowingly sells pistols that can be converted into illegal machine guns with inexpensive devices, fueling gun violence across the state.

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Canada Plans Billions To Shield Steel, Autos From US Tariffs

By Jack McLoone

The Canadian government announced a cumulative CA$5.22 billion ($3.72 billion) in funding for programs to diversify Canadian steel production and open new overseas markets as part of its ongoing response to U.S. tariffs, while also announcing programs for automotives.

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Dems Seek GAO Review Of $166B Tariff Refund Operation

By Dylan Moroses

Democratic lawmakers serving in the U.S. House and Senate asked for the Government Accountability Office to evaluate Customs and Border Protection's administration of a tariff refund system designed to repay importers the $166 billion in paid duties deemed unlawful earlier this year by the U.S. Supreme Court, according to a Thursday news release.

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UPS Waiting On Feds To Refund Tariff Costs, Court Told

By Jack McLoone

An Atlanta federal court should, at minimum, pause a proposed class action looking to force UPS to reimburse customers for costs they incurred as the result of struck-down reciprocal tariffs, the shipping giant said, as the company itself is still waiting on refunds.

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Brief

EU, Canada Aim To Finalize Digital Trade Deal

By Dylan Moroses

Canada and the European Union are nearing conclusion of a digital trade agreement following recent efforts by both sides to strengthen economic ties, the bloc's top trade official said Thursday.

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GOP Reps. Seek Probe Of Fla. Judge's Sanctions Order

By Courtney Bublé

Top Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee asked the Judicial Conference Thursday to investigate a Florida federal judge for potential misconduct with an order she issued in the case involving the leak of President Donald Trump's tax returns.

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NC Gov. Hauls Election Board Appointment Fight To Top Court

By Hayley Fowler

North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein is taking a constitutional challenge over who has the authority to appoint members to the state and county election boards to the state's highest court, asking the justices to decide whether legislators lawfully transferred that power from his office to the state auditor.

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10th Circ. Revives Iranian Man's ICE Detention Challenge

By Britain Eakin

A split Tenth Circuit panel ruled that a district court erred in denying an Iranian national's habeas petition, holding that district courts have authority to review the legality of an immigrant's detention separately from any challenge to a final order of removal.

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TPS Applicants Win $660K In Fees Over Work Permit Delays

By Elaine Briseño

A Washington federal judge has awarded Afghanistan and Somali citizens $660,500 in attorney fees after granting the immigrants summary judgment in a class action that challenged the government's refusal to let them work while they awaited their temporary immigration protections.

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Feds Ask 9th Circ. To Scrap Migrant Kids' Legal Aid Injunction

By Dorothy Atkins

The federal government urged a Ninth Circuit panel on Thursday to let the Trump administration end legal services programs for unaccompanied immigrant minors, arguing the case is a contract dispute the court lacks authority over and the lower court is "micromanaging" the government, which "should end."

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Feds Say States Can't Use 2025 Order To Block Grant Terms

By Tom Lotshaw

Twenty states asking a Rhode Island federal judge to enforce an injunction that blocked federal grant conditions requiring them to cooperate with immigration enforcement activities are improperly trying to expand its scope to rope in new conditions, the Trump administration said.

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Ex-Adams Aide Denies $150K Corruption Charges In SDNY

By Pete Brush

A onetime top aide to former New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday denied corruption charges in an indictment alleging he engaged in illegal schemes to enrich himself by over $150,000 via bribery, fraud and kickbacks.

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Conn. Justices Seek To Define 'In Custody' For Habeas Cases

By Brian Steele

The Connecticut Supreme Court wrestled Thursday with the definition of the term "in custody" for purposes of habeas jurisdiction, with multiple justices asking the state to clarify when a person's liberty has been restricted enough that a judge can hear his or her claims for relief.

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Idaho Tribes Tell Justices 1900 Law Bars Agribiz Land Swap

By Crystal Owens

The U.S. Supreme Court should reject an Idaho agribusiness's bid to reverse a decision that invalidated a land transfer over concerns of contamination from a planned fertilizer plant expansion, the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes said, arguing the federal government violated a century-old restriction on the ceded lands.

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Calif. Tribe Looks To Block Further Removal Of Wild Horses

By Crystal Owens

A California tribe is looking to block the federal government from removing any more wild horses from a protected habitat until the agencies fulfill their consultation obligations, arguing that complying with the law will not harm the department any more than 40 years of mismanagement has already.

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Fla. High Court Clarifies Proof Rule In ICWA Custody Cases

By David Minsky

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a decision terminating a mother's custody of her Native American daughter, ruling in an opinion that lower courts don't have to use an evidence standard under the federal Indian Child Welfare Act in parental rights cases. 

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Tribe Says Low Crossings Undercut Border Wall Argument

By Jared Foretek

The Tohono O'odham Nation is renewing its push for the D.C. Circuit to do what a district judge refused and block border wall construction through its Arizona reservation pending the tribe's appeal, arguing that a brief pause in construction would pose little risk with border crossings at record lows.

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FCC Approves Starlink's Bid To Take Over Tristar Licenses

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

The Federal Communications Commission has approved SpaceX's Starlink satellite group's bid to take over three licenses held by a subsidiary of Tristar License Group to expand Starlink's direct-to-device service.

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Brief

FCC Bans 2 Foreign Devices Containing Surveillance Chips

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday blocked two devices from the U.S. market that the agency says are embedded with surveillance chips made by a Huawei subsidiary.

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Brief

FCC Exempts Specific Routers, Robots From Covered List

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

The Federal Communications Commission has granted conditional approval for specific routers and advanced robotic devices that will exempt them from the Covered List, which restricts foreign-made devices for national security reasons.

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6th Circ. Weighs Implications Of Ohio Pivot On Hemp

By Sam Reisman

A Sixth Circuit panel on Thursday appeared uncertain whether Ohio's recent policy shift to reclassify federally legal hemp products as marijuana discriminates against out-of-state operators.

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DEA Judge Will Not Reopen Marijuana Rescheduling Hearing

By Jonathan Capriel

The coalition fighting marijuana legalization won a partial victory after a Drug Enforcement Administration's administrative law judge on Thursday allowed into the record a U.S. Government Accountability Office report the group championed but denied new testimony on it, saying the report "speaks for itself."

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Va. State Senator Accused Of Using Office To Aid Pot Shop

By Jared Foretek

Democratic Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas was charged in a federal indictment unsealed Thursday with racketeering, money laundering, conspiracy to distribute marijuana and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, accused of running a criminal enterprise through a Portsmouth hemp shop.

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Brief

RI Residency Rule Repeal Moots 3 Cannabis License Suits

By Sam Reisman

A Rhode Island federal judge Wednesday concluded that recent changes to state law mooted three lawsuits challenging the Ocean State's social equity and adult-use cannabis licensing program and ordered the cases dismissed.

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Managing Employer Risk Under Calif.'s No Robo Bosses Law

California's No Robo Bosses Act marks the state's first statutory limit on using artificial intelligence in employee discipline and termination decisions, creating exposure for employers through its corroboration and notice requirements, burden-shifting framework, and potential reach under the Private Attorneys General Act, say attorneys at Reed Smith.

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Southern Glazer's Deal Tests FTC's Robinson-Patman Push

A California federal court's recent decision in Federal Trade Commission v. Southern Glazer's secures a rare Robinson-Patman Act pricing limitations agreement, but conditions attached to the decision indicate that practitioners may only see a handful of new private RPA cases a year, says Steven Cernak at Bona Law.

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How DC Circ. Ruling Permits Playacting Bribery Defense

The D.C. Circuit’s recent U.S. v. Burke decision appears to create a circuit split on whether prosecutors must prove public officials’ intent in bribery cases, and opens a gap between what appears to be corrupt conduct and what the law can reach, says Liz Aloi at MoFo.

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Opinion

The SEC Crypto Proposal Rests On A Term No One Can Define

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recently proposed Regulation Crypto Assets is its most ambitious attempt to set rules for the crypto industry, but its repeated use of the phrase "essential managerial efforts" means it perpetuates the uncertainty the regime is meant to cure, says Joseph A. Hall at Davis Polk.

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AG Watch: Minnesota Takes Action To Secure Child Safety

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has built one of the most aggressive and structurally coherent child protection enforcement programs in the country, targeting consumer-facing sectors that his office has concluded prey on minors, such as tobacco and nicotine, social media platforms, and artificial intelligence, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

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IRS Rule May Put Private Schools' Exempt Status At Risk

In light of recently proposed Treasury regulations that would narrow the options for diversifying student communities, private schools should reexamine how race enters their admissions, financial aid and student programs or risk losing tax-exempt status, say attorneys at Atkinson Andelson.

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Series

Being In The Peace Corps Made Me A Better Lawyer

When I served in the Peace Corps, the people of the West African village where I was stationed helped me acclimate to my new surroundings and enabled me to develop problem-solving, teamwork and empathy skills that have bolstered my legal practice far beyond the ability to offer technical advice, says Brian Bewley at McGuireWoods.

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Are You Happy With Your In-House Role? Take Our Survey

Is your company giving you everything you need to succeed? What are some misconceptions about working in-house? Help Law360 Pulse answer these questions and more in this year's In-House Satisfaction Survey.

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Weil Merger Talks With Willkie End, Another Partner To Leave

By Daniel Moritz-Rabson

Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP and Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP have ended merger discussions and another top Weil partner is set to depart the firm, sources with knowledge on the matters told Law360 Pulse on Friday.

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Q&A

Holland & Knight Legal Profession Head On MSO Dealmaking

By Al Barbarino

Holland & Knight LLP partner Trisha Rich is at the forefront of the firm's work in a fast-growing corner of the legal industry, advising law firms setting up management services organizations, or MSOs, as well as the investors looking to buy into them.

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Trump Adviser Ducking Service In Exec Orders Suit, ABA Says

By Jack Karp

Trump attorney Boris Epshteyn has evaded service of subpoenas, so the American Bar Association should be allowed to pursue alternative means of serving him in its lawsuit over President Donald Trump's efforts to intimidate BigLaw firms, the organization is telling a Washington, D.C., federal judge.

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Mass. Judge Jailed Atty For 'Attitude,' Ethics Complaint Says

By Julie Manganis

A former Massachusetts state court judge placed a public defender into custody for hours over his "attitude" during a March 2025 hearing, the state's judicial conduct commission has said in a disciplinary complaint.

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SEC Fights LSU Claim That Case Citations Were 'Hallucinated'

By Alex Lawson

The Southeastern Conference is disputing claims that it submitted "hallucinated" case citations in its lawsuit challenging Louisiana State University's efforts to add former professional players to its sports teams, urging an Alabama federal judge to strike the allegations.

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Insurer Says NY Firm Staged Accidents For Suits

By Danielle Ferguson

A reinsurance company has filed another complaint accusing a New York personal injury law firm of recruiting workers to stage injuries in support of meritless claims, a few months after the Second Circuit dismissed similar claims because the insurer didn't have any direct injuries to bring a racketeering suit. 

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Ex-DOJ Officials And Judicial Nominees Vie For Office

By Courtney Bublé

Hundreds of candidates are on the ballot in the midterm elections, happening in less than two weeks, and among them are former U.S. Department of Justice officials and unsuccessful judicial nominees.

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9th Circ. Judge Hints Trump US Atty Firing OK Despite 'Chaos'

By Rachel Riley

A Ninth Circuit judge remarked on Friday that President Donald Trump's ouster of court-appointed Seattle U.S. Attorney Roger Rogoff has sown "chaos," but pushed back against Rogoff's contention that the move amounted to executive overreach, noting that the president already controls the office via the attorney general.

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NY Commercial Attys Must Justify Discovery Cost Bids Early

By Andrea Keckley

New York Courts Chief Administrative Judge Joseph A. Zayas said in an administrative order earlier this month that commercial litigators who want opposing counsel to fund some or all of the discovery process must state their basis for the request and provide a "good faith" estimate of the costs.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

McGinn Montoya Love Curry & Sievers PA and DiCello Levitt lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a New Mexico federal judge ordered Meta to pay $25 billion over the lies that the social media giant offered the public regarding its data privacy practices.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

Meta's legal chief says the company will appeal a $25 billion verdict involving data privacy practices including the Cambridge Analytica scandal. And a new study shows that while in-house starting salaries are staying stable, adding special skills like AI expertise can lift them higher.

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

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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