Duke Gas Rate Increase Was Improper, Ohio High Court Hears

By Keith Goldberg

Duke Energy's Ohio utility shouldn't be allowed to collect $17 million from ratepayers to cover now-shuttered underground caverns used to store propane, the state's utility consumer advocate told the Ohio Supreme Court on Tuesday.

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Hemp Retailer Sues Ohio Police Department Over Seizure

By Jonathan Capriel

An Ohio police department seized more than half a million dollars' worth of hemp using a bad search warrant claiming that the hemp, which is legal, was marijuana, the hemp retailer told a federal court Monday.

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Senate Confirms 2 DOJ Nominees, 16 US Attys

By Courtney Bublé

The U.S. Senate voted 51-47 Tuesday, along party lines, to confirm a slew of nominees for the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Bausch And Teva Blocked Cheaper IBS Drug, Retailers Say

By Hailey Konnath

A slew of retailers on Tuesday accused Bausch Health Cos. Inc. and Teva Pharmaceuticals of working together to keep the generic version of an irritable bowel syndrome drug off the market until 2028, forcing the retailers and other purchasers of the drug to pay monopoly prices.

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DC, 18 States Back Campaign Spending Caps At High Court

By Carolyn Muyskens

The District of Columbia and 18 states urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday not to lift caps on the amount political parties may spend in coordination with candidates for federal office, saying state-level campaign finance regulations could be destabilized.

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6th Circ. OKs Contested Deal In Foreclosure Class Action

By Danielle Ferguson

The Sixth Circuit on Monday affirmed the approval of a contested settlement to resolve claims that 43 Michigan counties illegally kept the proceeds from the sales of tax-foreclosed properties, although one judge's concurrence said he did so "with the greatest reluctance."

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Panel Said Congress Was 'Feckless,' 6th Circ. Told In FCC Row

By Nadia Dreid

The Sixth Circuit should agree to a full court reconsideration of a panel's decision to back the Federal Communications Commission's expanded data breach notifications for telecom carriers, says a conservative legal organization that believes the panel assumed Congress was legislating "fecklessly."

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Brief

Cabinetry Co. Refiles $3.6B Merger To Give FTC More Time

By Nadia Dreid

Kitchen cabinet and vanity manufacturer American Woodmark Corp. has withdrawn and refiled its intent to merge with MasterBrand in a $3.6 billion deal in order to give the Federal Trade Commission more time to scrutinize the deal for competition concerns.

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Williams & Connolly Says It Was Targeted By Foreign Hackers

By Lauren Berg

Williams & Connolly LLP recently discovered that hackers had wormed their way into a few attorney email accounts but that there is no evidence the threat is ongoing, the firm told Law360 Tuesday, amid other attacks on the legal and technology sectors by hackers with suspected ties to the Chinese government.

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Musk Atty Alex Spiro Faces DQ Bid Ahead Of Twitter Deal Trial

By Dorothy Atkins

A certified class of former Twitter investors accusing Elon Musk of tanking the social media platform's stock during acquisition negotiations has urged a California federal judge to disqualify Musk's proposed lead trial counsel Alex Spiro before a January trial, arguing he's a "critical first-hand witness" and may testify, according to documents unsealed Monday.

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Judge Concerned As Feds Keep Immigration Atty's Phone Data

By Julie Manganis

A federal prosecutor told a Massachusetts judge on Tuesday that the government has returned a phone it seized from an immigration lawyer but does not intend to delete data it pulled from the device, prompting the court to raise concerns that the information could be used to identify and arrest immigrants.

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Goldstein's $968K Border Cash Claim To Be Admitted At Trial

By Jared Foretek

A Maryland federal jury will hear claims from prosecutors that SCOTUSblog publisher Tom Goldstein told Dulles International Airport border guards that the $968,000 in cash he brought into the country in 2018 had been gambling winnings, after a judge shot down his efforts to suppress his alleged statements Tuesday.

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SEC's Atkins Wants To 'Future-Proof' Deregulatory Agenda

By Jessica Corso

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins said Tuesday that he hopes that moving quickly to adopt new rules deregulating the public and private markets will "future-proof" his agenda against potential tampering by succeeding presidential administrations.

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Fed. Circ. Talks Judge Denzel Washington, AI Susan Sarandon

By Dani Kass

More than half of the Federal Circuit's judges were in Boston on Tuesday conducting out-of-town oral arguments, and afterward they discussed the most concerning and most promising elements of artificial intelligence, how to write a good brief, why en banc hearings are rare and which celebrities they'd love to see on a panel.

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Bondi Declines To Discuss James Comey Indictment

By Courtney Bublé

Appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi deflected when questioned on the recent indictment of former FBI Director James Comey and other controversies involving the U.S. Department of Justice. 

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Fitch Even's $1.2M Fee Fight Appears Headed To Arbitration

By Lauraann Wood

Fitch Even Tabin & Flannery LLP's $1.2 million fee dispute with a former client and a litigation funder's CEO may be paused and sent to arbitration before the firm can convince an Illinois federal judge to halt any alleged use or transfer of the money at issue.

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Ex-Reed Smith Atty Says NJ Pay Bias Law Goes Back 6 Years

By Jake Maher

A former Reed Smith LLP attorney suing the firm for gender discrimination told a New Jersey appeals court Tuesday that a 2018 equal pay law was intended by the Legislature to be a "game changer" and be applied retroactively, expanding the scope of her claims.

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NJ Justices Won't Disturb Locke Lord Win In Oil Co.'s Suit

By Jake Maher

The New Jersey Supreme Court has declined to review a lower appellate court decision handing a victory to Locke Lord LLP over malpractice claims from an oil processing company on the grounds that the firm does not have a significant connection to New Jersey and cannot be sued in the state's courts.

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Senate Confirms Boyden Gray Atty As Trump's Labor Solicitor

By Max Kutner

The Senate confirmed on Tuesday a Boyden Gray PLLC managing partner as President Donald Trump's nominee for labor solicitor, the third-highest-ranking position at the U.S. Department of Labor.

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Attys Urge Mass. Courts To Protect Immigrants' Court Access

By Rae Ann Varona

Civil rights lawyers urged the Massachusetts trial court system to better protect migrants' due process rights amid increasing arrests by federal immigration officers inside and outside courthouses, saying Tuesday the court is "well within its right" to do so.

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Approach The Bench: Judge Kaplan On Suit Against The Gov't

By Cara Bayles and Steven Trader

U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Elaine Kaplan's docket doesn't always garner attention in the same way trial court cases do, but that may change as the executive branch makes sweeping budget and policy changes that could lend more political significance to monetary claims against the government.

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