A former executive with the Los Angeles Angels denied on the witness stand Wednesday in a lawsuit over star pitcher Tyler Skaggs' overdose death that he was aware the team's then-communications director was selling drugs to players or had an illegal drug problem, but did say he displayed "erratic" behavior.
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TOP NEWS

Ex-Angels Exec Denies Knowing 'Erratic' Staffer Sold Drugs

By Craig Clough

A former executive with the Los Angeles Angels denied on the witness stand Wednesday in a lawsuit over star pitcher Tyler Skaggs' overdose death that he was aware the team's then-communications director was selling drugs to players or had an illegal drug problem, but did say he displayed "erratic" behavior.

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Some Federal Workers Win Quick Block On Shutdown Layoffs

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge on Wednesday granted a request from two unions representing thousands of federal workers to immediately block the Trump administration from laying them off during the government shutdown, saying she believes the plaintiffs will show that "what's being done here is both illegal and is in excess of authority."

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9th Circ. Lets Alaska Flyers Redo Hawaiian Merger Case

By Matthew Perlman

The Ninth Circuit found that a lower court was right to toss a case from flyers and travel agents challenging the $1.9 billion merger between Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines but said they should have been given a chance to revise their allegations.

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Parents Urge 9th Circ. To Reject Meta's Section 230 Appeal

By Mike Curley

Parents and school districts are urging the Ninth Circuit to reject Meta Platforms Inc.'s bid for immunity under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, saying the company behind Facebook and Instagram can't use the measure for vaguely defined publishing-related activity.

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ICE Policies Harm Noncitizen Crime Survivors, Suit Says

By Rae Ann Varona

Legal advocacy groups and noncitizen victims of domestic violence and other serious crimes have lodged a proposed class action in California federal court, accusing the Trump administration of unlawfully ignoring deportation and exploitation protections that Congress took decades to craft.

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Meta Likely Can't Nix Users' Claims It Profited Off Hackers

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge said Wednesday that he's not inclined to grant Meta's request to toss a putative class action claiming the company lets hackers take control of Facebook accounts while it still profits from users' data, but said he'd trim a "plausible" breach of contract claim with leave to amend.

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ENERGY & ENVIRONMENTAL

Meat Industry Fights To Defend Nix Of Slaughterhouse Rules

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez

A meat and poultry industry group has told the Ninth Circuit it opposes green groups' challenge to the federal government's decision to rescind a Biden-era proposal that would have imposed stricter water discharge regulations on slaughtering, processing and rendering facilities.

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States Seek To Revive FEMA's Disaster-Mitigation Funding

By Ganesh Setty

A group of 22 states and the District of Columbia urged a Massachusetts federal court Wednesday to block the Trump administration's termination of a disaster mitigation program under the Federal Emergency Management Agency, arguing such authority lies with Congress.

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INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Monster Energy Gets Another Shot At Camping Gear IP Claims

By Hailey Konnath

The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday found that a lower court erred in throwing out Monster Energy's trademark infringement suit against the manufacturers of 4Monster camping gear, finding that a reasonable juror could find that the marks are confusingly similar.

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Fed. Circ. Says Anti-SLAPP Motion Wrongly Denied In IP Case

By Ivan Moreno

The Federal Circuit on Wednesday said a California district court wrongly denied several semiconductor manufacturers' anti-SLAPP motion in a case where they are accused of stealing trade secrets, saying in a precedential opinion that filing a patent application is protected activity under the state's law.

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Phone-Maker Oppo Wants Out Of Apple Trade Secret Case

By Elliot Weld

Chinese phone-maker Oppo has asked a California federal judge to release it from a case brought by Apple Inc. alleging that a former employee stole trade secrets when he moved to Oppo, saying the suit had no allegation that Oppo received any trade secrets.

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SPORTS & BETTING

Cal Poly Athletes Told Objections To NIL Deal Don't Hold Water

By David Steele

The members of a college swimming and diving team that was eliminated by its school last March should blame the school itself for its demise, not the negotiators of a $2.78 billion class action athlete compensation settlement, the NCAA and the athlete class representatives told a California federal court in response to their objections.

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EMPLOYMENT & BENEFITS

Brief

Engineering Firm, Ex-Worker Resolve Noncompete Dispute

By Danielle Ferguson

A global environmental and engineering consulting firm has resolved a suit alleging a former employee violated a noncompete agreement by accepting a similar job at a direct competitor, according to a docket entry.

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SECURITIES & BANKING

SEC Says Couple's $26.5M Ponzi Scheme Targeted Minorities

By Sydney Price

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused a California couple Wednesday of running a $26.5 million unregistered securities fraud that targeted Vietnamese and Latino communities in multiple states. 

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COMPETITION

States Want To Keep Eye On $14B HPE-Juniper Deal Review

By Nadia Dreid

The Justice Department is in the middle of trying to settle its challenge to Hewlett Packard Enterprise's $14 billion purchase of Juniper Networks, but a dozen states are now trying to get involved and have asked a California federal judge to allow them to intervene in the litigation.

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GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS

Wash. Urges 9th Circ. To Deny GEO Detention Law Rehearing

By Rachel Riley

Washington state called on the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday to reject Geo Group's request that the full appellate court revisit a panel's decision siding with the state in a case challenging a new law imposing additional health and safety standards at the state's privately run immigration detention center.

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PEOPLE

Greenberg Traurig Lands Wilson Sonsini Life Sciences Pro

By Rose Krebs

Greenberg Traurig LLP has added a California partner from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati with in-house and government legal experience to enhance its capacity to handle matters for clients in life sciences, artificial intelligence, biotechnology and other industries.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

Opinion

Courts Must Continue Protecting Plaintiffs In Mass Arbitration

In recent years, many companies have imposed onerous protocols that function to frustrate plaintiffs' ability to seek justice through mass arbitration, but a series of welcome court decisions in recent months indicate that the pendulum might be swinging back toward plaintiffs, say Raphael Janove and Sasha Jones at Janove Law.

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Series

Law School's Missed Lessons: Client Service

Law school teaches you how to interpret the law, but it doesn't teach you some of the key ways to keeping clients satisfied, lessons that I've learned in the most unexpected of places: a book on how to be a butler, says Gregory Ramos at Armstrong Teasdale.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

Ex-WH Ethics Attys Slam 'Vindictive' Comey, James Charges

By Jack Karp

Three former White House ethics attorneys have filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Justice over what they call the "vindictive and meritless" criminal prosecutions of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

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Jack Smith And Other Ex-DOJ Staffers Slam Trump Purge

By Lauren Berg

Former U.S. Department of Justice employees, including former special counsel Jack Smith, spoke out Wednesday in support of colleagues fired or forced to resign by the Trump administration, issuing a warning about the "existential crisis" born from efforts to use the agency to punish the president's political opponents.

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High Court Leans Toward Limiting Voting Rights Act Suits

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court's conservative supermajority seemed ready Wednesday to further limit the use of the Voting Rights Act in challenging alleged racial discrimination in legislative redistricting, but appeared divided over how to accomplish that.

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Vought Aims To Close CFPB Within '2 Or 3 Months'

By Jon Hill

White House budget chief Russell Vought said Wednesday that he wants to shutter the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and expects to succeed in the next few months, despite the Trump administration's claims in court that the agency is just being downsized.

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DHS Says Seizure Of Atty's Phone Tied To Employment Probe

By Julie Manganis

The government is pushing back on a Massachusetts immigration attorney's allegations that his work phone was seized in retaliation for his criticism of the Trump administration and advocacy for noncitizens, saying it's looking into whether he violated federal employment verification laws.

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Goldstein Can't Dismiss 2016 Tax Charges As Time-Barred

By Jared Foretek

A Maryland federal judge denied SCOTUSblog co-founder Tom Goldstein's motion to dismiss four of the 22 federal tax charges brought against him in January, ruling that his defense that the counts stemming from the 2016 tax year should be time-barred will have to be raised at trial.

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Chief Judge Bars Civil Arrests In Cook County Courts

By Celeste Bott

Cook County's top judge issued an order Wednesday prohibiting the warrantless civil arrest of individuals attending court proceedings in Chicago-area state courthouses, as the federal government has ramped up immigration enforcement and arrests in the area.

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NY Court Tosses Most Of Ex-Lil Wayne Atty's Contract Claims

By Emily Sawicki

A New York state judge has dismissed most counterclaims a former attorney for Lil Wayne pursued in a fee dispute with his ex-client, but the lawyer may still attempt to collect some funds he claims to be owed by the rap star.

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LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Alioto Law Firm

Altshuler Berzon

ArentFox Schiff

Armstrong Teasdale

Bronster Fujichaku

Butters Brazilian

Butzel Long

Cooley LLP

Covington & Burling

Davis Polk

Davis Wright Tremaine

Durham Pittard

Earth & Water Law

Freshfields

Gibbs Mura

Gibson Dunn

Graves Garrett

Greenberg Traurig

Gupta Wessler

Hagens Berman

Janove PLLC

Jonathan D. Davis PC

Jones Day

King & Spalding

Kinsella Holley

Kirkland & Ellis

Knobbe Martens

Latham & Watkins

Lieff Cabraser

Littler Mendelson

Motley Rice

Munger Tolles

O'Melveny & Myers

Paul Weiss

Quinn Emanuel

Ramos & Law

Ramos Law (Wheat Ridge, CO)

Reitler Kailas

Rusty Hardin

Skadden Arps

Spector Roseman

Starn O'Toole

Steptoe LLP

Sterne Kessler

Theodora Oringher

Tycko & Zavareei

Weinreb Law Group

Wilkinson Stekloff

Wilson Sonsini

Winston & Strawn

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Affordable Care LLC

American Airlines Group Inc.

American Civil Liberties Union

American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana

American Federation of Government Employees

American Federation of State County & Municipal Employees

Apple Inc.

Center for Biological Diversity Inc.

Center for Human Rights & Constitutional Law

Delta Air Lines Inc.

Democracy Forward Foundation

Earthjustice

Environmental Integrity Project

Guangdong OPPO Mobile Telecommunications Corp. Ltd.

Hawaiian Holdings Inc.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.

Instagram Inc.

Juniper Networks Inc.

Los Angeles Angels

Meta Platforms Inc.

Monster Beverage Corp.

NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund Inc.

National Collegiate Athletic Association

National Treasury Employees Union

New York Football Giants Inc.

Public Counsel

SoundExchange Inc.

Southwest Airlines Co.

Temu

The Boeing Co.

The Geo Group Inc.

TikTok Inc.

Tower Semiconductor Ltd.

United Airlines Holdings Inc.

Universal Music Group NV

Verizon Communications Inc.

Viking Cruises Inc.

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

California Attorney General's Office

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Executive Office of the President

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Emergency Management Agency

Federal Labor Relations Authority

Homeland Security Investigations

Internal Revenue Service

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

New York Attorney General's Office

New York Supreme Court, New York County

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

U.S. Department of Commerce

U.S. Department of Education

U.S. Department of Energy

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of Transportation

U.S. Department of the Treasury

U.S. District Court for the Central District of California

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

U.S. Navy

U.S. Office of Personnel Management

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Senate

U.S. Supreme Court

US Office of Management and Budget

Washington Attorney General's Office

Washington Legislature