California

  • August 28, 2026

    Amazon Beats Calif. AG's 'Ill-Conceived' Injunction Bid

    A California judge refused to block what the state attorney general's office has cast as Amazon's coercive price-fixing imposed on Walmart, Target and others via major brands like Levi Strauss, critiquing enforcers for the "last-minute request" targeting conduct they have not shown is ongoing.

  • August 28, 2026

    Calif. Challenges Trump Admin's Offshore Wind Lease Buyout

    California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a federal lawsuit on Friday against the Trump administration and Golden State Wind LLC, claiming the government unlawfully used a $120 million buyout of the company's offshore wind energy lease to end the renewable energy project and facilitate fossil fuel development.

  • August 28, 2026

    9th Circ. Rules Against Kalshi In Sports Wager Circuit Split

    The Ninth Circuit on Friday backed a Nevada federal court decision that cleared the way for the state's gambling regulators to pursue Kalshi's sports offerings, creating a circuit split in the sprawling litigation over prediction market regulation.

  • August 28, 2026

    Feds Gain Ground In Energy Permit Turf War With States

    A federal judge's endorsement earlier this month of the Trump administration's restart of a pipeline over California's objections will likely embolden the federal government to override state opposition to energy project development, but the ruling won't be the last word on the legality of such moves.

  • August 28, 2026

    ITC Probes If Apple Stole Tech For Swapping Contact Info

    The U.S. International Trade Commission is investigating a claim that Apple's smart devices infringe a patent covering exchanges of contact information, but a judge will first determine whether the company bringing the claim has sufficient U.S. presence, the agency said Friday.

  • August 28, 2026

    Calif. County Judges Recuse From Bias Suit Against DA's Office

    The entire bench of a county court recused itself from a lawsuit alleging the San Francisco District Attorney's Office didn't take appropriate action when a Black employee reported a colleague's use of a racial slur, pushing the trial in the decade-old case to early October.

  • August 28, 2026

    Ex-Victoria's Secret Worker's Wage Case Sent To Arbitration

    A California federal judge has ruled that Victoria's Secret can arbitrate a former employee's proposed wage-and-hour class action, finding the parties' arbitration agreement, signed by the plaintiff, has a class action waiver that demonstrates the intent to resolve disputes via individual arbitration.

  • August 28, 2026

    Calif. Pot Retailer Owes $540K In Taxes, Lost Permit, City Says

    A cannabis business is unlicensed, owes more than half a million dollars in taxes and is a public nuisance, a California city said, seeking to recover taxes and costs.

  • August 28, 2026

    Medical Marijuana Industry Grapples With DEA's New Role

    After years of allowing the state-sanctioned medical marijuana industry to operate without interference, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is stepping in to regulate a drug it once treated exclusively as contraband, but attorneys and regulators say the cannabis industry's interactions with the agency are off to a rocky start.

  • August 28, 2026

    Real Estate Recap: Back To School

    Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including the latest higher-education projects driving legal work, as well as an interview with Debevoise & Plimpton LLP's new real estate practice group leader. 

  • August 28, 2026

    Ex-Tribal Telecom CEO Gets 2 Years For Embezzlement

    A former telecommunications company executive who stole more than $500,000 from an Indian tribal organization to fuel what her attorneys described as "gambling and substance abuse" has been sentenced to two years in federal prison, after asking a federal judge for a sentence of time served.

  • August 28, 2026

    Data Center Projects Outstrip Power Supply, CBRE Says

    Data center projects are increasingly breaking ground despite a dwindling amount of available power, which has extended completion timelines, according to a Thursday report from commercial broker CBRE.

  • August 27, 2026

    Anthropic Judge Rejects Trump's Nat'l Security 'Blank Check'

    The U.S. Department of Defense's designation of Anthropic PBC as a supply chain risk to national security was not based on a credible threat, but rather was retaliation for the company's public criticism of the Trump administration's position in contract negotiations, a California federal judge ruled Thursday.

  • August 27, 2026

    Mass. Judge Halts USPS Mail Ballot Rule Before Midterms

    A Massachusetts federal judge late Thursday temporarily blocked the U.S. Postal Service from implementing a new rule allowing it to deny delivery of mail-in ballots from voters whose names are not on citizenship lists the Trump administration is compiling ahead of November's midterms.

  • August 27, 2026

    XAI Trained Grok On Child Sex Abuse Images, Survivor Says

    Not only does Elon Musk's xAI knowingly allow Grok to create nonconsensual sexual images, including child sexual abuse material, it actually recycles those outputs to train the artificial intelligence chatbot and generate more abusive images, according to a new proposed class action filed in California federal court.

  • August 27, 2026

    Google Users' Atty Fee To Be In 'Realm' Of $147M, Judge Says

    A California federal judge indicated Thursday that he won't give the full $147 million in fees sought by lawyers who won a $425 million class action verdict against Google for unlawfully collecting user information, but he said their "really excellent lawyering" deserves an amount "within that realm."

  • August 27, 2026

    States' Suit Says HHS Terms Threaten Family Planning Dollars

    Twenty-three states launched a lawsuit in Maryland federal court Thursday challenging the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' new conditions on federal funding for family planning services that they say would require recipients end support for "gender ideology," abandon diversity programming and drive patients toward parenthood and marriage.

  • August 27, 2026

    Enviro Groups Seek More Time To Fight Roadless Rule Repeal

    Environmental groups have asked the U.S. Forest Service to extend a public comment period for its proposal to scrap a 25-year-old "Roadless Rule" that bars logging and road construction on tens of millions of acres of national forest around the country.

  • August 27, 2026

    Ugg-Maker Beats Rival Footwear Co.'s Antitrust Suit, For Now

    A California federal judge on Thursday tossed Quince's antitrust suit alleging Deckers uses sham trade dress litigation to block rivals, ruling Quince didn't sufficiently plead a sham litigation exception to the Noerr-Pennington doctrine, which immunizes businesses from antitrust liability for petitioning activity, but allowed Quince a chance to amend.

  • August 27, 2026

    Importer Duped NJ Distributor To Steal Grocery Biz, Suit Says

    An importer of Korean food products purposefully mischaracterized why it was ending a relationship with its longtime distributor to gain direct access to a popular grocery chain, a New Jersey business told a federal court, asking a judge to rescind the resulting deals.

  • August 27, 2026

    Feds Want Ex-Google Engineer To Get Over 5 Yrs For AI Theft

    Prosecutors have urged a California federal judge to sentence ex-Google software engineer Linwei Ding to nearly 6 years in prison for stealing artificial intelligence trade secrets, while Ding argued that the government's suggestion is based on speculative evidence and he deserves only home confinement since he was acquitted of economic espionage.

  • August 27, 2026

    23andMe Judge Slows Estimation Of Calif. Data Breach Claim

    A Missouri bankruptcy judge ruled Thursday he would split a process for dealing with data breach claims brought by the state of California against 23andMe into two stages, saying he would first decide whether the bankruptcy trust for the DNA testing company should be allowed to estimate the state's claims for damages.

  • August 27, 2026

    Lack Of Reliance Dooms Uponor Leaky Pipes Class Action

    A California federal judge has thrown out a proposed class action alleging Uponor Inc.'s plastic pipes were defective and prone to leaking, saying the homeowner plaintiffs failed to establish that they relied on or could have relied on any misrepresentations allegedly made by the company.

  • August 27, 2026

    Jeanie Buss Says Siblings' Lakers Sale Defies Court Order

    Lakers controlling owner Jeanie Buss petitioned a California state court to halt efforts by her five siblings to sell the family's 17.8% share of the NBA franchise, saying the purported sale violates a 2017 court order that they take all reasonable steps to ensure she remains as the team's leader.

  • August 27, 2026

    Meta Staves Off 3D Artist's AI Training Suit, For Now

    A California federal judge has dismissed a Los Angeles-based 3D artist's proposed class action alleging Meta Platforms Inc. removed copyright management information from art that was used to train artificial intelligence, but gave the artist a chance to cure the suit's issues.

Expert Analysis

  • Where The Preemption Fight Over Prediction Markets Stands

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    While the Third Circuit's recent ruling in Kalshi v. Flaherty remains a significant win for the federal government in its quest to regulate prediction markets, the Fourth, Sixth and Ninth Circuits appear more skeptical, indicating that this fight is likely headed for the Supreme Court, says Johnny ElHachem at Holland & Knight.

  • 4 Emerging Approaches To AI Protective Order Language

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    Over the last year, at least five federal district courts have issued or analyzed specific protective order provisions restricting the use of generative artificial intelligence platforms with protected materials, establishing that proactive AI-specific provisions are now standard practice and demonstrating that no single model works for every case, says Joel Bush at Kilpatrick.

  • 1st Surveillance Pricing Law In Md. Reflects Broader Scrutiny

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    A new law will make Maryland the first state to target data-driven or surveillance-based price manipulation, highlighting increased scrutiny from federal and state enforcement agencies and policymakers as they consider whether new laws are required to regulate dynamic pricing, say attorneys at Pillsbury.

  • Understanding The Insider Trading Gap In Prediction Markets

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    While the first-ever insider trading indictment involving a prediction market — the recent prosecution of a service member involved in the capture of Nicolás Maduro — comprised extreme facts and straightforward legal theories, future cases will test the bounds of insider trading law, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • Heppner Ruling Left AI Privilege Risk For Lawyers Unresolved

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    While a New York federal judge’s recent ruling in U.S. v. Heppner resolved a privilege question surrounding client-side artificial intelligence use, it did not address how to mitigate the risks that can arise when confidential information enters the operative context of an AI system used by an attorney, says Jianfei Chen at Quarles & Brady​​​​​​​.

  • The Ethics And Practicalities Of Representing AI Agents

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    With autonomous artificial intelligence agents now able to take action without explicit instructions from — or the awareness of — their human owners, the bar must confront whether existing frameworks like informed consent and client privilege will be sufficient on the day an AI agent calls seeking counsel, say attorneys at Morrison Cohen.

  • Notable Q1 Updates In Insurance Class Actions

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    Notable insurance class action decisions from the first quarter of the year included reminders about the statute of limitations as a key defense for claims relating to allegedly deficient forms, the importance of focus on the specific contract at issue and further guidance on the contours of Rule 23, says Kevin Zimmerman at BakerHostetler.

  • 9th Circ.'s Silence Prolongs Uncertainty On Cemex Framework

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    By affirming a bargaining order in Cemex Construction Materials v. National Labor Relations Board without opining on the NLRB’s 2023 expansion of its authority to issue such orders, the Ninth Circuit avoided direct conflict with the Sixth Circuit’s rejection of the same framework, prolonging uncertainty for employers facing union elections, say attorneys at Dinsmore & Shohl.

  • Surveying The CFTC Campaign To Control Prediction Markets

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    The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is simultaneously asserting exclusive jurisdiction over prediction markets and signaling aggressive enforcement within them, a combination that will reshape the regulatory landscape for event contract platforms — pending the outcome of several court cases throughout the country and a likely circuit split, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.

  • Safeguarding RWI Coverage As Materiality Focus Persists

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    As first-quarter broker claims reports reveal that materiality disputes remain a key driver of representations and warranties insurance claims, the scarce case law in this area indicates that including a materiality scrape provision in an RWI policy may aid policyholders with recovery, say attorneys at Reed Smith.

  • Series

    Speed Jigsaw Puzzling Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My passion for speed puzzling — I can complete a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle in under 50 minutes — has sharpened my legal skills in more ways than one, with both disciplines requiring patience, precision and the ability to keep the bigger picture in mind while working through the details, says Tazia Statucki at Proskauer.

  • How Oregon Ruling Affects Federal Gender Care Crackdown

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    In a favorable development for healthcare providers, an Oregon federal court recently vacated certain U.S. Department of Health and Human Services restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors, but the government's broader campaign against this care, including proposed rulemaking and agency investigations, leaves significant uncertainty, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • Opinion

    Congress Should Ax Privacy Bill For Not Shielding Consumers

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    The SECURE Data Act should be rejected because, despite Congress' claims, it would not meaningfully rein in data practices, but instead would weaken enforcement, eliminate stronger protections and prioritize data extraction over consumer protection and accountability, say attorneys at DiCello Levitt.

  • AI Data Center Boom May Spur Wave Of Toxic Tort Suits

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    Nascent litigation matters against data center operators, set against limited government regulation and a growing body of public health research, suggests we may be on the cusp of an era of mass toxic tort claims, with a liability framework firmly rooted in precedent from other industries, says Benjamin Heller at RFZ Law.

  • A Core Weakness In The Challenge To Birthright Citizenship

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    The government’s recent oral arguments against birthright citizenship in Trump v. Barbara would have the Supreme Court use modern immigration classifications as markers for a constitutional boundary that is not expressed in the Fourteenth Amendment, making the theory easier to administer but weaker as a matter of text and history, says attorney Tara Kennedy.

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