2nd Circ. Orders New Look At Trump's Hush Money Case

By Aaron Keller

In a published opinion, the Second Circuit on Thursday ordered a federal district judge to take a fresh look at President Donald Trump's attempt to move his New York hush money conviction to federal court, citing the U.S. Supreme Court's 2024 presidential immunity ruling as grounds for reconsidering the case.

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Goldstein Loses Bid To Trim Tax Charges Before Trial

By Jared Foretek

A Maryland federal judge Thursday handed SCOTUSblog co-founder Tom Goldstein a series of losses on pre-trial motions aimed at trimming the 22 federal tax charges he'll face at trial next year, ruling that many of the motions involved factual disputes fit for trial and keeping the government's case intact.

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5th Circ. Revives Texas' Prohibition Of 'Erotic' Drag Shows

By Hailey Konnath

The Fifth Circuit on Thursday vacated a lower court's injunction blocking a Texas law that banned drag shows in front of children, ruling that most of the LGBTQ pride festivals, production companies and performers don't have standing to challenge enforcement of the law.

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Social Media Apps Must Face Jury After Section 230 Loss

By Dorothy Atkins

A California state judge refused Wednesday to grant social media companies summary judgment on claims their platforms harm young users' mental health, again rejecting arguments that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act shields them from liability, and sent three cases to bellwether trials, with the first to begin Jan. 27.

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Philly 'Whiz Honor' Judge Suspended In Ethics Case

By Bonnie Eslinger

A Philadelphia judge under investigation amid accusations that he sought to influence the sentencing of a friend of rapper Meek Mill was suspended without pay on Thursday, according to a court order. 

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'Matrix' Producer's $18.5M Ch. 11 Sale OK'd Over WB Protest

By Clara Geoghegan

Village Roadshow, which produced titles like "The Matrix" and "Joker," can sell its derivative film rights for $18.5 million, a Delaware bankruptcy judge decided, overruling an objection from the debtor's former business partner Warner Bros.

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Meta Accused Of AI Copyright Theft By Entrepreneur Mag

By Theresa Schliep

The owner of Entrepreneur magazine hit Meta Platforms Inc. with the latest suit accusing an artificial intelligence developer of infringing copyrighted material, telling a California federal court Thursday Meta "seeks to build a multibillion-dollar artificial intelligence empire on a foundation of systematic and widespread copyright theft."

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Guns N' Roses Has Appetite For Blocking Memoir, Suit Says

By Gina Kim

The former manager of rock band Guns N' Roses filed a lawsuit in Arizona federal court Wednesday accusing it of trying to stop the release of his autobiography and intimidating his publisher into withholding its release, resulting in lost sales and cancellation of advanced orders of his book. 

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Sinclair Says Disney-YouTube Blackout An Antitrust Problem

By Matthew Perlman

Sinclair's CEO expressed frustration about the ongoing blackout of Disney programming on YouTube TV, saying the dispute between media giants raises potential antitrust concerns because local broadcasters whose stations are affiliated with Disney's ABC broadcast network have no say over whether their content is getting distributed to viewers.

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Deals Rumor Mill

Pfizer Matches Novo's $10B Metsera Bid, And Other Rumors

By Al Barbarino

Pfizer Inc. reportedly raised its offer for Metsera Inc. to match a $10 billion bid from Novo Nordisk Inc., as a bidding war and legal squabble play out between the drugmakers. Among other deal-related rumors, Apollo Global Management Inc. reportedly dropped its bid to take private pizza chain Papa Johns International Inc., and new developments emerged as Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. weighs potential sale options.

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Cal Poly Athletes Rip NIL Deal For Impact On Women's Sports

By Dorothy Atkins

California Polytechnic State University athletes criticized the NCAA's $2.78 billion name, image and likeness settlement, telling a California federal judge during a hearing Thursday that it has harmed women's sports and caused inequitable cuts, while class counsel defended the deal, saying that it specifically preserves class members' Title IX rights.

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NetChoice Gets Judge To Halt Colo. Social Media Warning Law

By Rae Ann Varona

A Colorado federal judge Thursday temporarily blocked a state law that would require social media platforms to provide social media health warnings to minors, saying the law likely didn't meet the highest standard of review for First Amendment challenges.

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Google-Epic Judge Raises Doubts About App Antitrust Deal

By Bonnie Eslinger

The California federal judge overseeing Epic Games' antitrust suit against Google expressed serious doubts Thursday about their recent deal to end their fight over Android app distribution, ordering an evidentiary hearing and warning he's not sure the proposed deal will correct Google's illegal conduct.

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Judge Mehta 'Still Digging Out' From Google, Oath Keepers

By Bryan Koenig

U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta said Thursday he is still playing catch-up from a period during which his time was spent with virtually nothing but the Google search case and the prosecution of Oath Keepers charged with sedition and other crimes from the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol.

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Six Flags Faces Investor Suit Over Troubled Turnaround Bid

By Emilie Ruscoe

Amusement park giant Six Flags Entertainment Corp. faces a proposed investor class action alleging the company failed to effectively capitalize on its 2024 merger with another theme park operator, precipitating a "catastrophic" earnings miss in August.

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Small Biz File Class Action Against Trump's Tariffs In DC Court

By Dylan Moroses

The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonprofit law firm focused on constitutional litigation, filed a potential class action against President Donald Trump's emergency tariffs in D.C. federal court, representing three small businesses that have paid duties for Chinese and European imports that are seeking relief.

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Ill. Judge Grants Injunction On Federal Agents' Use Of Force

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois federal judge on Thursday granted a preliminary injunction limiting the measures of force immigration agents can use on peaceful protesters, bystanders and the press, saying the forceful tactics they've used so far "shocks the conscience" and deeming the Trump administration's evidence justifying them "simply not credible."

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Game Not Over: Player Redshirt Suits Keep NCAA On Defense

A class action recently filed in Tennessee federal court highlights a trend of student-athlete challenges to the NCAA's four seasons eligibility rule following the historic House settlement in June, which altered revenue-sharing and players' name, image and likeness rights, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.

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2nd Circ. Peloton Ruling Emphasizes Disclosure Context

The Second Circuit’s recent decision to revive shareholders’ suit alleging that Peloton made materially misleading statements makes clear that public companies must continually review risk disclosures to determine if previous hypotheticals have materialized, say attorneys at Baker Botts.

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Series

Mindfulness Meditation Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Mindful meditation enables me to drop the ego, and in helping me to keep sight of what’s important, permits me to learn from the other side and become a reliable counselor, says Roy Wyman at Bass Berry.

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Delaware Fee Inflation Worries Overblown, Study Says

By Jeff Montgomery

A newly published report by two Stanford University researchers asserts that high-dollar attorney fee awards in Delaware courts make up "a very small minority of cases" and are "no basis for concern," throwing cold water on growing worries about so-called fee inflation in the First State.

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'It's A War, Man': Trump's Deputy AG Unloads On Judges, Bars

By Jeff Overley

The U.S. Department of Justice is in "a war" with federal judges who are "not following the law," and it is separately formulating plans to block "activist, obnoxious" bar associations from assessing ethics complaints against government lawyers, a top DOJ official said Friday.

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Jeffer Mangels Hit With Pregnancy Bias Suit By Ex-Associate

By Hailey Konnath

A former Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell LLP associate has accused the firm of discriminating against women, especially pregnant women, claiming that she was harassed throughout her pregnancy and eventually fired after she advocated for herself and pointed out the disparate treatment.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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Ex-Calif. Judge Seeks To Toss Sex Assault, Coverup Charges

By Craig Clough

A former California state judge on Friday moved to toss federal criminal charges alleging that he sexually assaulted a court employee and lied to investigators, saying the employee was not under his direct supervision so he could not have been acting under the "color of law" when the alleged assault occurred.

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Ex-Polsinelli Atty Agrees To Dismiss Sexual Harassment Case

By Hailey Konnath

A former Polsinelli PC equity shareholder agreed to drop her suit alleging two former partners sexually harassed her, and she was fired after reporting it, according to a notice filed Friday in Washington, D.C., federal court.

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Mass. Federal Judge Mark Wolf Retires After 40 Years

By Chris Villani

Senior U.S. District Judge Mark L. Wolf on Friday announced that he is retiring after more than 40 years on the federal bench, having presided over some of the most notable cases in Massachusetts federal court over the past four decades.

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Hearing Officer Clears Mass. Judge Of Aiding ICE Escape

By Julie Manganis

A hearing officer has concluded that Massachusetts state court Justice Shelley Richmond Joseph was not aware of a plan to allow a defendant to evade an ICE agent waiting at a suburban Boston court in 2018, but is recommending a public reprimand for other actions the judge took that day.

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Roundup

UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Max Austin

This past week in London has seen Big Technologies file fresh claims against its ousted chief executive, West Ham United FC sue Arthur J. Gallagher Insurance for breach of duty, and RSM UK face a new claim over a company's administration. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K. 

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Del. Federal Court Won't Keep Trump's Interim US Atty In Role

By Jack Karp

Delaware's federal court will not appoint the district's current interim U.S. attorney and President Donald Trump's choice for that position to remain in the role, according to a notice from the district's chief judge.

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DOJ Backs Trump In NY False-Records Conviction Appeal

By Emily Sawicki

The U.S. Department of Justice is throwing its support behind President Donald Trump's effort to overturn his New York criminal conviction for falsifying business records, filing a proposed amicus brief on Friday citing the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 2024 decision "defining the contours of a president's federal constitutional immunity from criminal prosecution."

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Brief

Pension Corp. Installs EEOC Ex-Chair Dhillon As Director

By Kellie Mejdrich

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. swore in former U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission chair and commissioner Janet Dhillon as the 17th director of the federal agency, which runs two insurance programs backstopping the nation's single and multiemployer defined-benefit pension plans.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

The federal judge overseeing Epic Games' antitrust suit against Google Inc. has doubts about their settlement deal and is asking for more evidence. And a Black McDonald's executive, who claimed he was fired for confronting his CEO over a racial comment, has lost his bias suit. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Latham & Watkins LLP and Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart PC lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the Eighth Circuit vacated a National Labor Relations Board ruling that Home Depot illegally forced out a worker who showed support for Black Lives Matter.

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Shutdown, Funding Crisis Leave Federal Defenders Unpaid

By Courtney Bublé

The record-long government shutdown has hindered an already dire funding situation for the federal defense community, but now the judiciary is working on requests to Congress to alleviate that.

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Analysis

How One Law Firm Got Two Big White-Collar Wins In 48 Hours

By Phillip Bantz

The white-collar team at Dykema Gossett PLLC secured back-to-back dismissals of two criminal cases in as many days last month by challenging the government's experts, flagging discovery issues and hammering on other perceived weaknesses in the prosecutions.

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