The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday issued a rule directing its Board of Immigration Appeals to swiftly dismiss cases that don't raise "novel" issues to confront a backlogged docket of noncitizens contesting removal orders and other immigration court decisions.
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Immigration
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2026 Law360 iOS App Law360 Android App Follow Law360 on Facebook Follow Law360 on LinkedIn Follow Law360 on Twitter

TOP NEWS

DOJ Tells Immigration Board To Limit Cases Without Novel Issue

By Tom Lotshaw

The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday issued a rule directing its Board of Immigration Appeals to swiftly dismiss cases that don't raise "novel" issues to confront a backlogged docket of noncitizens contesting removal orders and other immigration court decisions.

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Tesla Applicants Fight Uphill To Keep H-1B Visa Bias Suit Alive

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge appeared open Thursday to tossing a proposed class action alleging Tesla discriminates against American workers by favoring allegedly underpaid H-1B visa holders, telling counsel repeatedly during a hearing the allegations seem to be "speculation."

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DC Circ. Doubts ICE Church Raids Can't Be Blocked

By Britain Eakin

The majority of a three-judge D.C. Circuit panel appeared skeptical Thursday that they shouldn't block the Trump administration from enforcing immigration laws at sensitive locations such as churches, questioning the government's argument that the alleged harm is too speculative.

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Klobuchar Alarmed By Exodus Of Prosecutors In Minnesota

By Courtney Bublé

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., on Thursday said she was alarmed by the surge of resignations by federal prosecutors in her state following the shooting deaths of two Minnesotans by immigration agents.

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Law360 Seeks Members For Its 2026 Editorial Boards

Law360 is looking for avid readers of our publications to serve as members of our 2026 editorial advisory boards.

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ENFORCEMENT

DOL Must Pay Retaliation Suit Atty Fees, Farm HR Head Says

By Irene Spezzamonte

The U.S. Department of Labor should pay attorney fees and expenses that a human resources manager at a Tennessee pork farm incurred to defend the agency's retaliation suit, the manager told a federal court Thursday, saying the department failed to investigate the claims against her before suing.

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Ex-Prosecutors Call For Independent Probes Of ICE Killings

By Rose Krebs

A coalition of former federal prosecutors and civil rights attorneys is urging U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to ensure that the U.S. Department of Justice allows for "transparent, unbiased and impartial" investigations into the killings in Minneapolis last month of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration enforcement agents.

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POLICY & REGULATION

Trump's Seattle US Atty Stays On For Now Via Title Swap

By Rachel Riley

Trump administration appointee Charles Neil Floyd will continue to be the Western District of Washington's top federal prosecutor for now, under the new title of "First Assistant U.S. Attorney," after the deadline passed Wednesday for the U.S. Senate to confirm the interim appointment.

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DOJ Adds 6 New Immigration Judges And 27 Temporary Ones

By Rae Ann Varona

The U.S. Department of Justice has hired 33 new immigration judges, 27 of whom are temporary, according to an announcement Thursday, against a backdrop of a still large immigration court backlog and the Trump administration's ongoing immigration crackdown.

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Trump Admin Finalizes Rule Facilitating Federal Worker Firings

By Tim Ryan

The Trump administration Thursday announced a final rule to create a new category of federal workers who would have fewer job protections and be easier to fire, implementing an executive order from early last year that could affect 50,000 employees at federal agencies.

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White House Willing To Discuss Some Dem DHS Reforms

By Courtney Bublé

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt hinted Thursday at some possible cooperation to the Democrats' reform plan for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, but she did not elaborate on what that would be.

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LITIGATION

J-1 Visa Worker Urges Class Cert. In Marriott RICO Suit

By Irene Spezzamonte

Marriott International Inc. shouldn't prevent class certification in a suit claiming it engaged in racketeering to secure cheaper labor through the J-1 visa program, the worker leading the suit told a Colorado federal court, saying he has enough evidence to support a class claim. 

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

Ambiguity Remains On Anti-DEI Grant Conditions

Although a recent decision in City of Chicago and City of Saint Paul v. U.S. Department of Justice temporarily halts enforcement of anti-DEI conditions in federal grant applications, and echoes recent decisions in similar cases, companies remain at risk until the term “illegal DEI” is clarified, say attorneys at Moore & Van Allen.

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A Primer On Law Enforcement Self-Defense Doctrine

In the wake of several shootings by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis, misconceptions persist about what the laws governing police use of force actually permit, and it’s essential for legal practitioners to understand the contours of the underlying constitutional doctrine, says Markus Funk at White & Case.

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Series

Teaching Logic Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Teaching middle and high school students the skills to untangle complicated arguments and identify faulty reasoning has made me reacquaint myself with the defined structure of thought, reminding me why logic should remain foundational in the practice of law, says Tom Barrow at Woods Rogers.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

Meet New Paul Weiss Chairman Scott Barshay

By Anna Sanders

New Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP chair Scott Barshay is a rainmaker who most recently led the corporate department, guiding clients through some of the largest transactions in recent history after joining the firm's New York office a decade ago.

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Judge Who Resigned To Criticize Trump Had Faced Inquiry

By Chris Villani

Former Massachusetts U.S. District Judge Mark L. Wolf was the subject of an inquiry into potential misconduct when he announced his November resignation, a decision he said at the time was motivated by a desire to speak out against the Trump administration, according to a source familiar with the matter.

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Judge Says AI Errors Show Atty Can't 'Learn' From Mistakes

By Ivan Moreno

A New York federal judge concluded that an attorney who repeatedly submitted filings with false AI-generated citations must be punished with case-terminating sanctions against a client he was defending in a trademark lawsuit, saying Thursday that the lawyer "has not, and apparently cannot, learn from his mistakes."

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NY Times Article Excerpts Admitted In Goldstein Trial

By Jared Foretek

Federal prosecutors pressing their case against SCOTUSblog co-founder Thomas Goldstein for tax evasion and misleading statements on mortgage applications were finally able on Thursday to present jurors with key statements the U.S. Supreme Court lawyer made to legal journalist Jeffrey Toobin for a long New York Times Magazine article.

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Texas Atty Must Explain AI 'Misuse' In Employment Case

By Lauren Berg

A prominent civil rights attorney representing a University of Texas at Austin nurse in an employment discrimination case must explain why he shouldn't be sanctioned "for his apparent misuse of artificial intelligence" to research and write a brief, a Texas federal judge ruled.

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Ex-Alex Jones Atty Asks Conn. Justices To Nix Suspension

By Brian Steele

A Connecticut attorney who formerly represented conspiracy broadcaster Alex Jones in a $1.4 billion defamation case has asked the state's highest court to consider whether it was proper for a judge to suspend his law license for violating a protective order governing Sandy Hook families' personal information.

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Deel Loses Bid To DQ Quinn Emanuel In Trade Secrets Fight

By Lauren Berg

Payroll and human resources company Deel Inc. cannot have Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP disqualified from representing its competitor Rippling in a trade secrets fight, a Delaware judge ruled Thursday, saying there is no "clear conflict" that would require booting the BigLaw firm.

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State Bar Of Texas Declines To Open Grievance On Ramey

By Emily Sawicki

The State Bar of Texas has declined to open a grievance against patent litigator William P. Ramey III after a San Francisco federal court sanctioned him and his firm, Ramey LLP, for practicing law in California without a license.

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Wash. Lawyer Faces Sanction Threat Over Alleged AI Errors

By Ben Adlin

A federal judge has ordered an attorney in Washington state to submit a sworn declaration explaining why she shouldn't be sanctioned for what opposing counsel claimed are dozens of artificial intelligence "hallucinations" across multiple case filings.

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Fake Case Pulled From Toshiba Malicious Prosecution Suit

By Bryan Koenig

A former printer toner salesman is trying to salvage his lawsuit against Toshiba after the company flagged nonexistent citations, apologizing to the California federal court in a corrected brief Thursday defending claims that the electronics company manufactured a criminal case against him and others to maintain an illegal monopoly.

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McCarter & English Wants To Torpedo $22M Malpractice Suit

By Aaron Keller

McCarter & English LLP on Thursday asked a Connecticut Superior Court judge to sink a $22.3 million professional negligence lawsuit by two struggling insurers, saying failures to provide documents or knowledgeable people to testify during pretrial depositions warrant a "harsh" end to the nearly decade-old case.

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Judiciary Backs Bill To Let Judges Carry Concealed Guns

By Courtney Bublé

The federal judiciary has come out in support of a Republican-led bill to allow judges and prosecutors to carry concealed firearms across state lines, according to a letter obtained by Law360.

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Promo that reads 2025 Practice Groups of the Year

LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Arete Law Group

Cravath Swaine

DLA Piper

Dalton & Associates PA

Feldman & Associates PLLC

Goldstein & Russell

Gordon Rees

Jackson Shields Yeiser

Koffsky Schwalb

Kotchen & Low

Kroger Gardis

Manning Gross

Maschoff Brennan

McCarter & English

Mills & Born

Moore & Van Allen

Morgan Lewis

Munger Tolles

Murphy Ball Stratton

Paul Weiss

Quinn Emanuel

Ramey LLP

Reed Smith

Silver Golub

Skadden Arps

Todd & Weld

White & Case

Wiggin & Dana

Woods Rogers

Ziemer Stayman

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

3G Capital

American Bar Association

Anadarko Petroleum Corp.

Anheuser-Busch Inbev SA/NV

Apollo Global Management LLC

Apple Inc.

Barron's

Bayer AG

Chevron Corp.

Deel Inc.

Democracy Forward Foundation

Drummond

Gelman, Rosenberg & Freedman

Google LLC

International Business Machines Corp.

Jana Partners LLC

Marriott International Inc.

McDonald's Corp.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

Noble Energy Inc.

Outliers Inc.

Overstock.com Inc.

Pershing Square Capital Management LP

Red Hat Inc.

Renesas Electronics Corp.

Renewable Energy Group Inc.

SABMiller

Starbucks Corp.

State Bar of Texas

Tesla Inc.

The Kraft Heinz Co.

The New York Times Co.

TikTok Inc.

Toshiba Corp.

Twitter Inc.

Ultimate Fighting Championship Ltd.

Unilever PLC

United Airlines Holdings Inc.

Verizon Communications Inc.

Walmart Inc.

World Wrestling Entertainment Inc.

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives

Connecticut Insurance Department

Executive Office for Immigration Review

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Emergency Management Agency

Federal Labor Relations Authority

Federal Trade Commission

Internal Revenue Service

Judicial Conference of the United States

Minnesota Attorney General's Office

Texas Attorney General's Office

Transportation Security Administration

U.S. Air Force

U.S. Army

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

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

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

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Puerto Rico

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington

U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

U.S. Customs and Border Protection

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of Labor

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 Minnesota

U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

U.S. Office of Personnel Management

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

U.S. Senate

U.S. Supreme Court

United States District Court for the District of Colorado

United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana

Wage and Hour Division