Interview

Federal Judge Warns Threats Imperil Judicial Independence

By Carolina Bolado

U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom of the Southern District of Florida told Law360 that judges and members of the bar need to educate the public on the judiciary's important role in American democracy to combat increasing threats, speaking following the release of two reports this week that warn of safety concerns for judges and that defiance of court orders is undermining the federal judiciary's independence.

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Phil Berger Jr. Won't Seek Reelection To NC High Court

By Corey Rothauser

North Carolina Supreme Court Associate Justice Phil Berger Jr. said Thursday that he will not seek another term in 2028, meaning the Republican justice will leave the state's highest court after completing his current term.

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Analysis

Judge Decries 'Gamesmanship' In Nixing EPA Waiver Moves

By Keith Goldberg

A federal judge has struck an initial blow against the Trump administration and congressional Republicans' aggressive use of the Congressional Review Act to block the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's move to make Clean Air Act waivers for California subject to potential rescission by lawmakers.

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SEC Sues LSU Over Efforts To Put Ex-NFL Players On Roster

By Alex Lawson

The Southeastern Conference sued Louisiana State University in Alabama federal court Thursday, asking a judge to affirm the conference's right to impose penalties against the school if it decides to place players who had previously appeared in NFL preseason games on its roster.

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IRS Moves To Strip Schools' Tax Exemptions Over DEI Policies

By Asha Glover

As many as 18,000 private schools that enact racially based diversity and inclusion policies could lose their federal tax exemptions under a proposed rule released by the Internal Revenue Service on Thursday.

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Pilot Plane Forfeiture Over 6-Pack Is Excessive, Justices Told

By Linda Chiem

An 83-year-old bush pilot has told the U.S. Supreme Court that Alaska flouted precedent and applied a grossly disproportionate standard by saddling him with the "ills of alcohol abuse statewide" in trying to forfeit his $95,000 plane for transporting a six-pack of beer to a dry village.

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Kavanaugh Stays Out Of Mich. Voter ID Referendum Row

By Katie Buehler

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh declined Thursday to wade into a dispute over Michigan election officials' refusal to put on ballots this November a proposed amendment to the state's constitution that would require voters to show proof of U.S. citizenship to participate in state and local elections.

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Judge Suggests Mail Ballot Rule Too Late For Midterms

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts federal judge appeared poised Thursday to extend her block on the U.S. Postal Service implementing new requirements that would allow the agency to refuse to deliver potentially thousands of mailed ballots this November, suggesting the midterm elections are too close to make such a sweeping change.

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SEC Moves To Scrap 'Pay-To-Play' Political Donation Rule

By Lauren Berg

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday issued a proposal to rescind a rule regarding political contributions made by investment advisers, which agency Chair Paul Atkins called "overly prescriptive."

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OCC Gives Initial Nods To Digital Banks Revolut, OpenReserve

By Katryna Perera

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency preliminarily approved charter applications from European digital bank Revolut and blockchain-based bank OpenReserve to establish national banks in the United States.

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CFTC Says CME Perps Fight Is 'Much Ado About Nothing'

By Aislinn Keely

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission told a D.C. federal judge that the Chicago Mercantile Exchange's suit over the agency's approval of Kalshi's bitcoin perpetual futures contract is "much ado about nothing" since the derivatives exchange is free to list its own version of the product.

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GAO Flags Bank Disclosure Review Gaps After 2023 Failures

By Sarah Jarvis

The U.S. Government Accountability Office urged Congress Thursday to consider closing a gap that allows certain publicly traded banks to not make the same type of investor disclosures as banks whose investor filings are reviewed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, pointing to the bank failures of 2023 as a reason why.

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Cities, Groups Ask Judge To Keep $3B EPA Grant Funding Alive

By Elaine Briseño

Cities and groups challenging the Environmental Protection Agency's cancellation of nearly $3 billion in environmental climate justice grants asked a South Carolina federal judge, who ruled the termination unlawful, on Wednesday to preserve the funding while the agency appeals the decision.

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11th Circ. Won't Toss Grouper Catch Limit Over Council Defect

By Tom Lotshaw

An Eleventh Circuit panel Thursday agreed the structure of a regional fishery management council runs afoul of the U.S. Constitution's appointments clause, but refused to throw out a challenged rule that reduced catch limits for gag grouper in the Gulf of Mexico.

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Oil Cos. Seek Quick Appeal To Nix Suit Over Heat Wave Death

By Gina Kim

Exxon, Chevron, Shell and other oil giants say they plan to seek appellate review of a Washington judge's order refusing to dismiss a civil suit over a woman's 2021 death that alleged the defendants knew their products were intensifying extreme weather patterns but downplayed risks to maximize profit.  

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Mich. Court Keeps Ann Arbor Public Power Measure On Ballot

By Melanie Dorsey

A Michigan appellate panel has kept a proposal to create a municipal electric utility in Ann Arbor on the November ballot, ruling that the city clerk was not clearly required to reject supplemental petition signatures submitted after the proposal's initial filing. 

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Brief

EPA Appeals Order To Determine Soot Standard Compliance

By Tom Lotshaw

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it's appealing a California federal judge's decision ordering it to designate what parts of the country are meeting or not meeting new air quality standards for fine particulate matter by early February.

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Trump Admin Fights Uphill To Beat Vaccine Overhaul Suit

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge indicated Thursday that he is likely to reject the federal government's bid to toss litigation from states challenging the Trump administration's decision to cut vaccine recommendations for American children, saying he thinks the states have standing based on the effect the change will have on their healthcare systems.

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HHS OIG Report Targets $380M In Medicare Organ Payments

By Gianna Ferrarin

A report released by the inspector general for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday estimated Medicare needlessly reimbursed roughly $380 million for organs that weren't used in Medicare-covered transplants, finding a "conflict" between federal statute and agency guidance on reimbursement practices.

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Ky. AG Sues NY Abortion Rights Org. Over Gas Station Ads

By Mark Payne

A New York-based abortion advocacy nonprofit is violating Kentucky's consumer protection laws by illegally advertising mail-order abortion pills at gas stations throughout the state and flying ads over the state fair, the state's attorney general claimed in a lawsuit Thursday. 

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Doctor Supervision Regs Unconstitutional In NC, Nurse Says

By Gianna Ferrarin

North Carolina must do away with regulations requiring nurse practitioners to enter practice agreements with supervising physicians, an owner of several clinics providing menopause-related care argued in a state court complaint, alleging the regulations are arbitrary, costly and violate the state's constitution.

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Most Of Corteva's IP Claims Against Inari Move Along

By Elliot Weld

A Delaware federal court Thursday kept most claims alive in a case over seed intellectual property brought by Corteva Agriscience ahead of a trial set to begin later this month.

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8 Patent Reviews Instituted By Squires, Only 1 Denied

By Ryan Davis

In his latest round of decisions, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires instituted eight patent reviews Wednesday and rejected only one challenge.

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MDL Attys Want Special Master To Vet Meta Privilege Claims

By Dorothy Atkins

Personal injury plaintiffs' counsel asked a California federal judge Wednesday to appoint a special master to review Meta's attorney-client privilege designations in social media addiction multidistrict litigation, arguing that Meta can't be trusted to review them in light of the judge's recent rulings that certain Meta trial-exhibit redactions were "entirely inappropriate."

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Fox's Supposed $500M Offer For Parler Was Fake, Jury Told

By Cara Salvatore

Billionaire Rebekah Mercer testified Thursday that Parler's later-ousted CEO made her think falsely that Fox was offering $500 million for the social app, one example of the supposed misconduct she has said was the reason he was forced out.

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Alaska's Izembek Road Work OK'd Despite Axed Land Swap

By Joyce Hanson

A federal judge has slapped down an environmental group's bid to preliminarily stop the state of Alaska and a Native village corporation from beginning construction on 2.8 miles of road adjacent to the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.

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Mass. Justices Say Town Can Take Northeastern U. Property

By Chris Villani

Massachusetts' top appellate court on Thursday granted a tiny Bay State town a win in an ongoing land battle with Northeastern University, finding that the community was within its rights to use eminent domain to take property the school had hoped to use to expand a research center.

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Ex-Pardon Atty Says DOJ Fired Her Over Actor's Gun Rights

By Rae Ann Varona

Former U.S. pardon attorney Liz Oyer sued the U.S. Department of Justice Thursday in Washington, D.C., federal court, alleging the department unlawfully fired her for not recommending Mel Gibson get his gun rights back — a request she said was based on the actor's relationship with President Donald Trump.

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Teamsters Set To Shed Federal Monitors After Judge's OK

By Chris Villani

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is slated to ease decades of government oversight meant to ferret out ties to organized crime after a New York federal judge on Thursday approved a deal between the union and the Trump administration.

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Ga. School District Wants Early Win In Nixed Job Offer Suit

By Kelcey Caulder

A Georgia school district asked a federal judge to grant it an early win in a high school Spanish teacher candidate's lawsuit alleging her job offer was rescinded after school officials discovered online comments alleging the administration of former President Joe Biden unfairly targeted her spouse's firearm business.

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Brief

Pa. Opens Home Care Wage Probes Covering 100K Workers

By Emily Brill

Pennsylvania is planning to step up enforcement of wage laws for home care employees, the state's labor secretary has announced, saying these workers are particularly vulnerable to wage theft.

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Fla. Panel Revives State's Indemnity Suit In Diving Injury Case

By David Minsky

A Florida appellate court revived an agency's lawsuit seeking indemnification from Miami Beach in a decades-old complaint brought by a man who became a quadriplegic from a diving injury, ruling the judgment in favor of the city was premature because the underlying case hasn't concluded.

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Ga. Deputy Beats Taser Death Claims, Another Still Faces Suit

By David Aaro

A Georgia federal judge partly reconsidered his trimming of a lawsuit over two Burke County deputies' repeated tasing of a man who died after threatening violence, finding that a seizure occurred when one deputy tried to push him into a car, but declined to revive illegal seizure claims.

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EU Council OKs Bloc Customs Modernization Program

By Jack McLoone

A suite of changes aimed at modernizing the European Union's customs administration to help it handle the e-commerce boom is on the precipice of implementation after the Council of the EU approved them Thursday, teeing up a final vote in the European Parliament.

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Brief

EU Moves To Ease Armenia Tariffs After Russian Restrictions

By Jack McLoone

The European Parliament's International Trade Committee on Thursday advanced a measure that would remove ad valorem duties on a swath of Armenian products to provide aid to the country in the wake of Russian trade restrictions.

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BIA Scraps Precedent Limiting In Absentia Removal Orders

By Britain Eakin

The full Board of Immigration Appeals said Thursday that immigration officials can rely on the most recent address on file when mailing removal notices, overruling 25-year-old precedent limiting in absentia orders for noncitizens who did not receive a mailed notice.

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GAO Says DHS Is Unlikely To Save $10.5B From Contract Cuts

By Madeline Lyskawa

The U.S. Government Accountability Office said Thursday that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is unlikely to realize $10.5 billion in projected savings after terminating 438 contracts because the agency can obtain many of the same services through existing contracts. 

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Immigration Attys Sue USCIS Over Sudden Form Change

By Jared Foretek

Immigration lawyers said that the Trump administration abruptly imposed a credit score provision in family-based immigration forms, arguing in a new lawsuit Thursday that the policy change runs afoul of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

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Connecticut Has 'No Ability' To Regulate ICE, Judge Told

By Brian Steele

The state of Connecticut cannot impose its own masking, identification or use-of-force standards on federal officers like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, the U.S. Department of Justice told a federal judge Thursday in seeking to kneecap a new state law.

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Leon Black Says 'Intrusive' Epstein Subpoenas Are Invalid

By Lauren Berg

Rather than appear for a deposition about his connection to child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Apollo Global Management co-founder Leon Black sued the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and its chairman in Washington, D.C., federal court Thursday, saying subpoenas seeking private nondisclosure agreements exceed the committee's authority.

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Ex-IRL App CEO Says Prosecutors Ignored Ethics Breaches

By Courtney Bublé

The co-founder of defunct social app IRL is fighting fraud charges by claiming that the U.S. attorney's office prosecuting him is conflicted because an attorney who formerly defended IRL in an SEC investigation and is now with the office pushed for him to be charged — and he is disputing prosecutors' denial of impropriety. 

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Ga. City, Ex-Court Admin To Mediate Retaliation Dispute

By Kelcey Caulder

A federal judge has stayed a former court administrator's suit alleging the city of East Point, Georgia, fired her for complaining about a city council member's attempt to have a relative's court fine withdrawn, saying the parties intend to mediate.

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Pirro Urges House Ethics Panel To Refer Crime Claims To DOJ

By Courtney Bublé

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro has told the House Ethics Committee that as cases involving criminal misconduct come before it, her office should be involved too.

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State Telecom Roundup: AT&T Pushes To Cut Copper Service

By Nadia Dreid

AT&T has asked the Federal Communications Commission for permission to end all copper-line legacy services at more than 200 locations across 20 states, as it plows forward with its plans to retire its copper lines across the nation.

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FCC Denies Retaliatory Pretext In ABC License Renewal Probe

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission urged a D.C. federal court Thursday to toss ABC's suit over the agency's early review of eight station licenses, denying that a discrimination probe of network parent Disney was a pretext for retaliating against ABC.

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FCC Told It Can't Preempt Local Utilities On Pole Attachments

By Nadia Dreid

A municipally owned electric company from Kentucky wants the FCC to clarify that it doesn't plan to step on its toes or the toes of any other government-owned utilities as the agency seeks to pass rules that would allow it to preempt wireline decisions if localities are moving too slowly.

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Wireless Tower Group Urges FCC To Back GPS Alternatives

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

Wireless tower builders have asked the Federal Communications Commission to consider new rules that will promote the development of new positioning, navigation and timing technologies that can complement GPS technology.

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Judge Tosses NY License Rule Over Pot Shop Proximity

By Jonathan Capriel

New York cannabis regulators cannot decide at the eleventh hour whether they will grant waivers permitting certain kinds of dispensary applicants to open within 1,000 feet of a rival, a state court has ruled after finding that officials arbitrarily denied an entrepreneur's request to open a Niagara Falls shop near a competitor.

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Baltimore Says Kratom Sellers Hid Addictive Qualities

By Mike Curley

The city of Baltimore is suing three kratom product distributors, alleging they violate city law by advertising kratom as having therapeutic qualities it doesn't possess, while downplaying or hiding its addictive nature.

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How Orbital Data Centers May Test NEPA's Reach

With environmental and scientific groups recently pushing back against the Federal Communications Commission's proposal to exempt massive data center satellite constellations from review under the National Environmental Policy Act, the question of whether NEPA even applies to projects in space turns on three closely related issues, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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Home Equity Products Face Expanding Regulatory Patchwork

Home equity investment providers, which have recently come under scrutiny from regulators and industry groups, face meaningful burdens as the U.S. Senate and a growing number of states take divergent regulatory approaches, with no uniform standard likely anytime soon, say attorneys at Bradley.

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11th Circ. FCA Qui Tam Revival Queues Up Next Challenges

Though the Eleventh Circuit on Sept. 1 upheld the constitutionality of the False Claims Act's qui tam provision, it will probably face continued litigation since the appellate court declined to rule on other constitutional challenges and the decision will likely be petitioned to the U.S. Supreme Court, say attorneys at Sheppard.

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How Subchapter V Bill May Change Restructuring Analysis

While a recently passed Senate bill would expand the pool of businesses eligible to use the streamlined Subchapter V process, its more significant influence may be on how distressed businesses and their lenders evaluate restructuring alternatives long before a bankruptcy petition is filed, says Robert Charbonneau at Agentis.

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Series

Ballet Makes Me A Better Lawyer

A lifetime of learning and performing ballet taught me that success — whether in dance or practicing law — comes only through hours of thorough preparation, boundless energy and relentless effort, says Sharon Katz-Pearlman at Greenberg Traurig.

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Quinn Emanuel, McDermott Hit By Data Breaches

By Lauren Berg

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP and McDermott Will & Schulte LLP both recently suffered data breaches, adding to the dozens of cybersecurity incidents law firms in the U.S. have suffered in 2026.

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Analysis

Boutique Firms Emerge As Trump Admin's 'Achilles' Heel'

By Phillip Bantz

Less fearful of retribution than some of their BigLaw counterparts, small law firms are taking on an outsize role handling cases seen as adversarial to the Trump administration.

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Husch Blackwell Gets Early Win In Ex-Partner's 401(k) Suit

By Andrea Keckley

A Missouri federal court granted Husch Blackwell LLP an early win over a former employee's proposed class action alleging the firm illegally withheld retirement contributions and mismanaged its employee 401(k) plan, finding the ex-partner couldn't prove violations of federal benefits law.

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Former Girardi Keese CFO Drops Appeal Of 5-Year Fraud Term

By Emily Sawicki

The Seventh Circuit has granted onetime Girardi Keese financial chief Christopher Kamon's request to drop the appeal he lodged fighting an Illinois federal judge's order adding five concurrent years onto the 10 he is already serving for his role helping Tom Girardi, the head of the firm, steal millions from plane crash clients who settled cases in Chicago.

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Fox Rothschild Says Adult Day Care Suit Rehashes Claims

By Rose Krebs

Fox Rothschild LLP is urging a New Jersey state court to toss claims against the firm and one of its attorneys in a complaint related to the firm's prosecution of a fraudulent loan lawsuit that led to a $65,000 sanction against the firm.

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