Washington

  • April 29, 2026

    Lummi Nation Says Telecom Found Remains But Kept Digging

    Lummi Nation says the remains of its ancestors have been disturbed by a federally funded broadband project in what it calls a "cascading series of preventable and unlawful failures" in a lawsuit against the federal government, a telecommunications company and a county in Washington.

  • April 29, 2026

    9th Circ. Reverses Stay In App Store Commissions Case

    The Ninth Circuit has reversed its own order that stayed a ruling on an injunction barring Apple from charging developers high commissions on in-app purchases until a district court judge sets up narrower guardrails, saying Epic Games had persuaded it that Apple was unlikely to get the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its appeal.

  • April 29, 2026

    Coupang, Ex-In-House Lawyer To Drop Iran Whistleblower Suit

    South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang and a former in-house compliance attorney have agreed to dismiss the lawyer's suit claiming he was wrongly fired for bringing attention to the company's alleged illegal business dealings with Iran, according to a joint filing Wednesday in Seattle federal court.

  • April 29, 2026

    Bausch Balks At Suspected Tweak In Price-Fixing Deals

    A stipulation between state attorneys general and private plaintiffs suing generic-drug makers for alleged price-fixing seems to reflect a change in the states' earlier deal to release claims against Bausch entities, the companies said in asking a Connecticut federal judge to maintain the status quo.

  • April 29, 2026

    Towing Co. Says Navy's $1.6M Barge Repair Bill Is Too High

    A towing company told a Washington federal court that the U.S. Navy's more than $1.6 million charge against the company for barge damage it caused was excessive and unreasonable, saying the Navy failed to evaluate lower-cost alternatives.

  • April 28, 2026

    GEO Still Not Letting Inspectors Into ICE Facility, Wash. Says

    Washington state on Tuesday urged a federal judge to make The GEO Group let health officials inspect an immigration detention facility the private prison giant owns, saying GEO is "openly defying" a state law the Ninth Circuit allowed enforcement of.

  • April 28, 2026

    Boeing Says 737 Max Plaintiffs Can't Seek Punitive Damages

    The Boeing Co. has told a Washington state court that dozens of plaintiffs suing over a 2024 door plug blowout on a 737 Max flight are ineligible to seek punitive damages in the case because such damages aren't allowed under Washington law.

  • April 28, 2026

    Kalshi Hit With Refer-A-Friend Text Suit In Wash.

    Kalshi has become the latest company to be hit with a lawsuit in Washington federal court over refer-a-friend texts that recipients say violate the state's Commercial Electronic Mail Act by encouraging texts to be sent to people who never consented to receive them.

  • April 28, 2026

    9th Circ. Says Constitution 'Not A NIMBY Charter' In Portland

    A split Ninth Circuit panel granted the Trump administration's request to stay orders two Oregon federal judges issued to rein in federal agents' use of tear gas and other crowd-control munitions around a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland.

  • April 28, 2026

    AARP, Others Back Intel Workers In High Court 401(k) Fight

    AARP and other retirement and investor advocates are supporting former Intel employees who allege their employee 401(k) savings were dragged down by underperforming investments, telling the U.S. Supreme Court the Ninth Circuit erred in requiring the plaintiffs to identify a "meaningful benchmark" for comparison to their lagging funds.

  • April 28, 2026

    9th Circ. Asked To Pause Idaho Tribal Land Swap Ruling

    J.R. Simplot Co. is asking the Ninth Circuit to stay pending U.S. Supreme Court review of its decision to invalidate an Idaho land transfer by the U.S. Department of the Interior that would have allowed it to expand its phosphogypsum plant near tribal lands, saying the issue has already caused "robust debate" in the appellate court.

  • April 28, 2026

    9th Circ. Finds Section 230 Blocks Meta Genocide Claims

    The Ninth Circuit on Tuesday affirmed the dismissal of claims by two women who allege that Facebook's algorithms contributed to their villages being attacked as part of the genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, saying that under circuit precedent, those claims are blocked by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

  • April 27, 2026

    Meta Seeks A Rally As Instagram Addiction Suit Losses Mount

    After a run of litigation losses, Meta Platforms Inc. will have to rethink its strategy in and out of court in an effort to beat back suits from coast to coast claiming that it is illegally hooking kids on Instagram, experts said, with everything from aggressive litigation to a global settlement on the table.

  • April 27, 2026

    DOJ Says Wash. 340B Drug Law Is Preempted In Novartis Suit

    The U.S. Department of Justice waded into a dispute between pharmaceutical giants and the state of Washington on Monday, arguing that federal law preempts a new state law that expands discounts that drugmakers must provide under the federal 340B Drug Pricing Program.

  • April 27, 2026

    9th Circ. Affirms Calif. Officials' Immunity In Pollution Suit

    The Ninth Circuit on Monday affirmed a lower court's ruling that a citizen cannot sue two California officials over alleged groundwater contamination due to their sovereign immunity, brushing off a dissenting judge's warning the opinion could allow state facilities to "pollute willy-nilly."

  • April 27, 2026

    Albertsons' Misleading BOGO Ads Made $20M, Wash. AG Says

    Washington's attorney general on Monday accused Albertsons and Safeway of raking in nearly $20 million through a deceptive ad scheme in which the grocery giants inflated the prices of products ahead of "buy one, get one free" promotions in order to trick customers into thinking they were getting good deals.

  • April 27, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Spurns Crocs' Rehearing Bid In ITC Appeal

    The Federal Circuit on Monday declined to rehear a mixed appeal from Crocs Inc. seeking an import ban against companies it claims were importing footwear that infringes its trademarks.

  • April 27, 2026

    Canada Provinces Back Hockey League's Antitrust Dismissal

    The governments of four Canadian provinces have urged the Ninth Circuit to reject an appeal from junior hockey players accusing the National Hockey League and its developmental organizations of suppressing compensation.

  • April 27, 2026

    AGs Say Live Nation Fix Can't Wait On DOJ Deal Approval

    Live Nation Entertainment Inc. sparred with state attorneys general expected to seek a forced Ticketmaster sale after winning a New York federal jury antitrust verdict, with the company seeking to delay the breakup fight until after the judge reviews a separate U.S. Department of Justice settlement, and the enforcers preferring parallel proceedings.

  • April 24, 2026

    Alaska Airlines Escapes Suit Over Hawaiian Merger, For Now

    A Hawaiian federal judge on Friday dismissed a private antitrust lawsuit that challenged Alaska Airlines' 2024 acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines, rejecting the passengers' asserted geographic markets and their contention that the merger would lead to anticompetitive effects in the markets.

  • April 24, 2026

    Justices To Focus On Alien Tort Statute In Cisco Spying Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case on Tuesday with implications for U.S. companies doing business with foreign governments, and decide whether the Ninth Circuit was right to reinstate an Alien Tort Statute suit alleging that Cisco Systems Inc. helped the Chinese government's allegedly unlawful crackdown on the Falun Gong religious movement.

  • April 24, 2026

    Real Estate Recap: Insurance Allure, People Pinch, Blackstone

    Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including an alluring source of capital for real estate investment trusts, how competition for skilled workers may hamper data center development, and Blackstone Inc.'s take on the first quarter of the year.

  • April 24, 2026

    Wash. Judge Reprimanded For Getting Too Close To Clerk

    The Washington State Commission on Judicial Conduct reprimanded a King County District Court judge Friday for having an inappropriate relationship with a clerk, who reported that he hugged her during a private meeting in his dimly lit chambers, asked her questions about personal matters, and offered her a massage.

  • April 24, 2026

    Akin Can't 'Recast' Appeal As Good-Faith Effort, 9th Circ. Told

    A European winemaker slammed attempts by a U.S. importer and its Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP attorneys to "recast a frivolous appeal as a good-faith effort," saying they should have to pay monetary sanctions for pursuing what the Ninth Circuit called a "self-indulgent" appeal of a valid arbitration award.

  • April 24, 2026

    States Seek Early Win In Challenge To Trump Mail-In Ballot EO

    A coalition of Democrat-led states is asking a Massachusetts federal judge to permanently block core provisions of President Donald Trump's executive order limiting mail-in voting, arguing the directive unlawfully encroaches on states' authority over elections and violates the Constitution's separation of powers.

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    Apple Discovery Fight Could Revive DOJ's Antitrust Appetite

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    Winning discovery disputes in the ongoing federal antitrust litigation over Apple’s app store practices is a huge opportunity for the Justice Department to return to its once-vigorous pursuit of product tying by tech monopolies, catch up with foreign competition regulators and establish clear standards for digital markets, says Ediberto Roman at Florida International University.

  • Opinion

    State Bars Need To Get Specific About AI Confidentiality

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    Lawyers need to put actual client information into artificial intelligence tools to get their full value, but they cannot confidently do so until state bars offer clear, formal authority on which plan tiers of the three most popular generative AI tools are safe to use when sharing specific client details, says attorney Nick Berk.

  • What Justices' Review Of Guam Case Will Mean For Permitting

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    In U.S. Department of the Air Force v. Prutehi Guahan, the U.S. Supreme Court will address whether a federal agency's permit application is a final decision that courts can review — a question whose answer could reshape the timing and strategy of environmental litigation across the federal permitting landscape, say attorneys at Foley Hoag.

  • Opinion

    Judicial Restraint Anchors Constitutional Order

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    Contrasting opinions in two recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings — Trump v. CASA and Bost v. Illinois State Board of Elections — demonstrate how the judiciary’s constitutionally entrusted role can easily be preserved or disrupted, and invite renewed attention to the enduring importance of judicial restraint, says Ninth Circuit Judge J. Clifford Wallace.

  • Series

    Alpine Skiing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Skiing has shaped habits I rely on daily as an attorney — focus, resilience and the ability to remain steady when circumstances shift rapidly — and influences the way I approach legal strategy, client counseling and teamwork, says Isaku Begert at Marshall Gerstein.

  • Telehealth Suit May Redraw Rules For Physician Classification

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    A new class action in California federal court, Cioppettini v. Mochi Medical, alleging a telehealth company misclassified providers as independent contractors, suggests that traditional markers of physician independence may not apply to telehealth, say attorneys at Reed Smith.

  • Opinion

    Wash. Amazon Ruling Should Reshape Suicide Liability

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    The Washington Supreme Court's reinstatement of negligence claims in Scott v. Amazon.com, brought by the families of people who died by suicide after purchasing chemicals online, signals a reckoning for digital commerce and the rejection of the defense that online marketplaces are merely passive technology platforms, says Donald Fountain at Clark Fountain.

  • Pivotal 6th Circ. Ruling Threatens Decades Of NLRB Decisions

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    The Sixth Circuit's recent decision in Brown-Forman v. National Labor Relations Board fundamentally challenged the NLRB's long-standing practice of establishing policies through adjudication rather than formal rulemaking, giving employers and unions a new avenue to procedurally attack the vast majority of its rules, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

  • What A Court Doc Audit Reveals About Erroneous Filings

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    My audit of 1,522 court documents from last month found that over 95% contained at least one verifiable error, with fewer than 1% showing clear indicators of artificial intelligence use — highlighting above all else that lawyers may want to focus most on strengthening their review processes, says Elliott Ash at ETH Zurich.

  • Pension Case Offers Entertainment Work Exception Insights

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    A recent Ninth Circuit decision clarified that any amount of entertainment work can satisfy the entertainment industry exception under the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act, reinforcing that statutory language, rather than evolving business models, dictates withdrawal liability outcomes, say attorneys at Seyfarth.

  • Justices' Ruling Stresses Quick Action Against Absconders

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    Following the U.S. Supreme Court's recent holding in Rico v. U.S. that a supervised release term is not automatically extended when a defendant absconds, probation officers and prosecutors risk being unable to address later violations if they don't act promptly to secure warrants, say attorneys at Winston & Strawn.

  • How Cos. Can Navigate The Patchwork Of AI Safety Bills

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    In the first few months of 2026, state and federal lawmakers introduced hundreds of bills to address the perceived safety risks of artificial intelligence, so companies should assess whether existing or planned services could be scoped into AI safety legislation across jurisdictions, say attorneys at Hogan Lovells.

  • Series

    Ultramarathons Make Me A Better Lawyer

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    Completing a 100-mile ultramarathon was tougher, more humbling and more rewarding than I ever imagined, and the experience highlighted how long-distance running has sharpened my ability to adapt to the evolving nature of antitrust law and strengthened my resolve to handle demanding, unforeseen challenges, says Dan Oakes at Axinn.

  • 6th Circ. Can Extend Insurance Valuation Clarity Beyond Auto

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    In rehearing Clippinger v. State Farm, the Sixth Circuit can align itself with the recent drumbeat of other circuits rejecting class certification of auto total loss claims and set standards that apply to similar claims brought under homeowners and other types of insurance policies, say attorneys at Jackson Walker.

  • 9th Circ. Ruling Clarifies Doc Protection Limits In Gov't Probes

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    The Ninth Circuit's recent decision in Kalbers v. U.S. Department of Justice confirms that Rule 6(e) provides robust protections when documents are in the government's possession only through a grand jury subpoena, emphasizing for companies the importance of careful labeling from the outset of an investigation, say attorneys at Cooley.

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