Analysis

Netflix Merger Raises Theatrical Release Antitrust Fears

By Bryan Koenig

Netflix's $82.7 billion play for Warner Bros. Discovery's studio and streaming business drew rebukes Friday from critics and lawmakers on both sides of the political spectrum, but antitrust observers offered a cautious assessment on the prospects of any government challenge.

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Constellation To Sell Power Plants For $26.6B Calpine Deal

By Matthew Perlman

The U.S. Department of Justice said on Friday that enforcers have reached a deal allowing Constellation Energy Corp.'s $26.6 billion purchase of Calpine Corp. to move ahead, with the sale of power plants located in Delaware, Pennsylvania and Texas.

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Divided DC Circ. Backs Trump's NLRB, MSPB Firings

By Braden Campbell

A split D.C. Circuit panel on Friday upheld President Donald Trump's firings of two labor agency officials in spite of their statutory job protections, saying they wield enough executive power that Congress can't restrict the president's authority to fire them.

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High Court To Review Trump's Birthright Order

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Friday to review the constitutionality of President Donald Trump's executive order aimed at limiting birthright citizenship, after lower courts unanimously found the order to contradict the U.S. Constitution and federal law.

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Fla. Judge OKs Release Of Epstein Grand Jury Transcripts

By Rae Ann Varona

A Florida federal judge on Friday ordered the release of grand jury transcripts from an investigation of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, citing a newly enacted law that the government said overrides a prohibition on disclosing the documents to the public.

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Mass. IOLTA Panel Says It's Owed Slice Of Residual Funds

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts panel that oversees Interest on Lawyers' Trust Accounts asked the state's highest court Friday to at least partially unwind a $4 million class action settlement, saying a lower court didn't give it a chance to argue for a portion of what it says are "significant" residual funds.

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Judge Denies Firms' Bid To Clarify CFPB's MoneyLion Deal

By Katryna Perera

A New York federal judge has denied a request by consumer advocate law firms to add clarifying language to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recently approved $1.75 million settlement with MoneyLion Technologies Inc., noting that the advocates did not seek to intervene in the suit and that the CFPB and MoneyLion both oppose the request.

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Fed Can Fund CFPB Under Trump Admin's Terms, Court Told

By Jon Hill

A group of former Federal Reserve officials told a Washington, D.C., federal judge on Friday that the Trump administration is wrong to claim the central bank both needs and lacks profits right now to keep the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau up and running.

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Nickel For Your Thoughts? Dems Want Plan For Ending Penny

By Courtney Bublé

Top Democrats on banking and financial services committees are claiming the Trump administration has not formulated a sufficient plan for the transition away from the penny and are asking for a public plan by Dec. 12.

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6th Circ. Partially Overturns EPA's Detroit Ozone Ruling

By Carolyn Muyskens

The Sixth Circuit reversed a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determination that the Detroit area meets federal air quality standards, ruling Friday that the state of Michigan failed to implement federally required air pollution controls.

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Energy Dept. Defends $7.5B Grant Cuts In Political Bias Case

By Keith Goldberg

The U.S. Department of Energy has urged a federal judge in Washington not to block its termination of energy project grants worth more than $7.5 billion, arguing there is no merit to claims alleging the federal government unconstitutionally targeted funds for Democratic-leaning states.

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Nuclear Waste Storage Worries Too Hypothetical, Justices Told

By Ganesh Setty

A company licensed to temporarily store nuclear waste urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reject a challenge to a condition in its license application to contract with the U.S. Department of Energy once Congress allows it.

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CDC Panel Ends Recommendation Of Hepatitis B Shot At Birth

By Yeji Jesse Lee

A panel of federal vaccine advisers on Friday voted to lift a long-standing recommendation that all newborns be given vaccinations for hepatitis B.

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9th Circ. Won't Unfreeze Trump Cuts To Student Mental Health

By Ben Adlin

The Ninth Circuit rejected the Trump administration's effort to undo a lower court's pause on federal funding reductions to K-12 mental health services, siding with a coalition of 16 states seeking to preserve programs established in the wake of high-profile school shootings.

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3rd Circ. Backs NJ In-State Rule For Medical Aid In Dying

By Carla Baranauckas

A Delaware woman with terminal cancer cannot end her life with medical assistance in New Jersey, the Third Circuit ruled Friday in a precedential opinion, finding that the Garden State residency requirement for medical aid in dying is restricted solely to New Jerseyans.

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Georgia Turns To 11th Circ. In Trans Prisoner Care Fight

By Kelcey Caulder

The Eleventh Circuit will get a chance to weigh in on a district judge's recent decision requiring the Georgia Department of Corrections to provide hormone therapy to transgender inmates, according to a Friday filing in federal court.

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OCC, FDIC Scrap Obama-Era Leveraged Lending Guidance

By Jon Hill

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Friday formally withdrew from Obama-era guidance that sought to tighten bank leveraged lending standards, a policy that banks argued hamstrung them against nonbank rivals.

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Top Groups Lobbying The FCC

By Christopher Cole

As the Federal Communications Commission returned to full operations in November after a government shutdown, groups lobbying the FCC remained busy on issues ranging from a Global Positioning System backup to spectrum sharing and the upcoming FCC auction of upper C-Band airwaves.

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Supreme Court Halts Immigration Judges' Free Speech Suit

By Britain Eakin

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday stayed a Fourth Circuit decision reviving a free speech suit from an immigration judges union challenging a policy barring them from speaking publicly about immigration without approval.

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Legislation Targets Reversal Of Oak Flat Land Transfer In Ariz.

By Crystal Owens

An Arizona congressional representative is carrying on her father's initiative to repeal a 2014 National Defense Authorization Act rider that transfers more than 2,422 acres to a copper mining company while litigation to block the move continues to play out in the Ninth Circuit.

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Analysis

ERISA Recap: 4 Rulings Worth Paying Attention To From Nov.

By Kellie Mejdrich

The Ninth Circuit striking down a class action win for transgender employee health plan participants who said their gender-affirming care denials were discriminatory is just one noteworthy Employee Retirement Income Security Act ruling from November. Here's a recap of that ruling and three others.

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NLRB Could Get Quorum Back After Nominee Added To Bloc

By Braden Campbell

The National Labor Relations Board may soon have a quorum again after Senate Republicans added a nominee who recently won the labor committee's approval to a bloc of nearly 100 nominees for positions across federal agencies that the Senate will consider together. 

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Teamsters Challenge NLRB's Bid To Block California Law

By Emily Brill

The Teamsters have asked a California federal judge to preserve a state law that expanded the state labor board's power, telling the judge that the law can exist side by side with the National Labor Relations Act and that he should reject the National Labor Relations Board's bid to block it.

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Court Staff Attys Settle Claims Of Undermining Colleague

By Julie Manganis

Six months after Massachusetts' highest court revived some of a former Appeals Court staff attorney's claims in a suit alleging two supervisors intentionally undermined him, the parties have reported reaching a settlement in the case.

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Google Search Judge Issues Finalized Antitrust Mandates

By Hailey Konnath

A D.C. federal judge Friday issued the finalized package of remedies in the U.S. Department of Justice's case targeting Google's search monopoly, mostly agreeing with the government's proposals for exactly what Google must do to prop up rivals and restore competition in the search engine market.

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FTC's Abandoned Pepsi Pricing Case Will Be Mostly Unsealed

By Matthew Perlman

A New York federal court agreed to largely unseal the Federal Trade Commission's price discrimination complaint against PepsiCo Inc. despite protests from the beverage company and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce after enforcers dropped the case earlier this year.

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Judge Won't Exit Agri Stats DOJ Case Over Clerk Connection

By Christine DeRosa

A Minnesota federal judge refused to recuse himself from a case accusing Agri Stats of helping meat processors exchange sensitive information based on a clerk's past work on related cases, after refusing a similar request in a case over pork prices.

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Manufactured Housing Cos. Ditch Price-Fixing Claims

By Isaac Monterose

An Illinois federal judge has tossed a proposed price-fixing class action against multiple manufactured housing companies and a data company, ruling the proposed class failed to show the businesses conspired to jack up rent prices.

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5th Circ. Halts Order To Revive Texas College Women's Teams

By Alex Lawson

The Fifth Circuit has struck down a court order requiring Stephen F. Austin State University to reinstate three women's sports teams while a Title IX suit against the school proceeds, finding that the directive was too vague.

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Court Asks Texas DPS If Delay At Uvalde Injured Survivors

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas appellate court pressed counsel for the Texas Department of Public Safety to explain how sovereign immunity bars tort claims brought by the victims who survived the Uvalde massacre, asking Friday why the agency should get to avoid negligence claims.

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Panel Says NJ County Illegally Awarded $13.5M Jail Contract

By George Woolston

A New Jersey county violated the state's public contracts law when it awarded a $13.5 million contract to provide medical care and other services at a county jail, a state appeals court has ruled, backing a determination from the Office of the State Comptroller.

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Fed. Circ. Says Planners Can't Be Diaries For Tariff Purposes

By Dylan Moroses

The U.S. Court of International Trade incorrectly determined that weekly and monthly planners should be classified as diaries for tariff purposes, the Federal Circuit said in a precedential opinion that reversed the lower trade court's ruling and remanded the case.

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Best Use Of Macy's Property Is As Store, Minn. Court Says

By Sanjay Talwani

The highest and best use for a Macy's property in Minnesota is its continued function as an anchor department store in a shopping mall, the state tax court said, declining to amend the valuations it previously found.

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'What's The Fight About?': Fed Funding Fight Puzzles 9th Circ.

By Craig Clough

Two Ninth Circuit judges appeared confused Friday as to what exactly the Trump administration and some sanctuary cities are arguing over in the government's appeal of a district court's injunction blocking the administration from withholding federal funding to sanctuary jurisdictions.

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IRS-ICE Data Swap Halt Irrelevant In Other Suit, DC Circ. Told

By Asha Glover

A D.C. federal court's order pausing the Internal Revenue Service's ability to share confidential taxpayer addresses with immigration enforcement officials should not impact a separate D.C. Circuit proceeding over whether the information-sharing agreement complies with taxpayer privacy protections, the U.S. government told the D.C. Circuit.

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Wash. AG, Lawmakers Pitch Bill To Protect Immigrant Workers

By Ben Adlin

Two Washington lawmakers and the state's attorney general Friday announced plans to introduce legislation that would attempt to protect immigrant workers from federal crackdowns, saying the state's "prosperity would not be possible without the contributions of immigrants."

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Menendez Barred From Holding Public Office After Conviction

By Carla Baranauckas

Former U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez has been permanently barred from holding any public office or position of trust in New Jersey, following his conviction on federal bribery and corruption charges, Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin announced Friday.

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Calif. Tribal Water Rights Bill Seeks $500M Fund Approval

By Crystal Owens

California tribal members and two of the state's water management agencies are urging Congress to pass a bill that would establish a $500 million trust fund and transfer 2,742 acres of Bureau of Land Management property as part of a settlement agreement following more than a decade of litigation.

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Hikvision Asks DC Circ. To Dump FCC 'Covered List' Revision

By Christopher Cole

Device maker Hikvision has asked the D.C. Circuit to overturn a national security action by the Federal Communications Commission that made it harder for manufacturers tied to foreign adversaries to sell device equipment in the U.S. market.

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Federal Hemp Ban Enforcement Uncertain, Report Finds

By Sam Reisman

It is unclear how or whether federal agencies will enforce the federal ban on intoxicating hemp due to take effect in 11 months or apply the same hands-off approach that has governed marijuana, according to a recent report from the Congressional Research Service.

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LA Pot Regulators Escape License Revocation Lawsuit

By Jonathan Capriel

A cannabis entrepreneur can't proceed with a lawsuit accusing the city of Los Angeles of wrongfully taking away her business license, preventing her from operating three long-standing medical marijuana dispensaries, a California state judge has ruled, finding that she never owned most of the licenses.

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DC Circ. Decision Reaffirms SEC Authority Post-Loper Bright

The recent denial of a challenge to invalidate 2024 amendments to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's tick size and fee-cap rules reinforces the D.C. Circuit's deference to SEC expertise in market structure regulation, even after Loper Bright, though implementation of the rules remains uncertain, say attorneys at Sidley.

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Categorical Exclusions Bring New NEPA Litigation Risks

With recent court rulings and executive actions shifting regulatory frameworks around the National Environmental Protection Act — especially regarding the establishment, adoption and use of categorical exclusions to expedite projects — developers must carefully evaluate the risks presented by this altered and uncertain legal landscape, says Stacey Bosshardt at Greenberg Traurig.

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10 Commandments For Agentic AI Tools In The Legal Industry

Though agentic artificial intelligence has demonstrated significant promise for optimizing legal work, it presents numerous risks, so specific ethical obligations should be built into the knowledge base of every agentic AI tool used in the legal industry, says Steven Cordero at Akerman LLP.

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US Lawyer Numbers Surge With Hefty 2024 Graduating Class

By Tracey Read

The number of U.S. lawyers showed marked growth for the first time since 2020, due to a 2024 graduating class that was nearly 12% larger than any other class since 2012, a study from the American Bar Association released Monday showed.

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Habba Resigns As Acting US Atty After DQ Ruling At 3rd Circ.

By Jake Maher

Alina Habba stepped down Monday as acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey following a Third Circuit ruling that she was unlawfully appointed to the position, with the U.S. Department of Justice unveiling that a trio of officials will take on her responsibilities.

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Conservative Justices Probe 'Husk' Of FTC Firing Protections

By Bryan Koenig

The U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority pushed back Monday against the 90-year-old precedent permitting the removal only for cause of Federal Trade Commission members, and perhaps those serving other independent agencies, calling those safeguards a "dried husk" and wondering where to draw the line for protected agencies.

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Ex-Josh Cellars President Fights Gibson Dunn Withdrawal Bid

By Elliot Weld

The former president of the company behind the Josh Cellars wine brand disputed Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP's version of events around his allegedly unpaid legal bills, saying he has questions about the reasonableness of the firm's charges, which must be arbitrated per his contract with the firm.

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Carlton Fields Steps Aside In 'Irreconcilable' Miss America Case

By Emily Johnson

A Florida federal judge allowed Carlton Fields and its attorneys on Monday to withdraw from representing the plaintiffs in a dispute over the ownership of the Miss America pageant, after the firm said "irreconcilable differences" drew it to ask to step down.

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Jury Expert Sues Atty For 'Pirating' Her Jan. 6 Venue Report

By Matt Perez

A New Hampshire defense attorney representing a defendant charged for crimes related to the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has been sued in D.C. federal court for allegedly stealing a copyrighted study analyzing attitudes in the jury pool of the District of Columbia.

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Litigation Funder Says Attys Hid Deal To Evade $1.5M Payout

By Christine DeRosa

A Florida-based litigation funder has sued two California attorneys and a law firm, alleging they secretly settled a client's civil dispute and steered the money so they wouldn't have to repay over $1.5 million.

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Analysis

What To Do When Jurors Don't 'Trust The Science'

By Chris Villani

The pandemic and initiatives from the second administration of President Donald Trump challenging decades of established scientific norms have made science more politicized, and attorneys say picking a jury and presenting scientific evidence is increasingly challenging.

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Brief

Senators Kelly, Slotkin Set Up Legal Defense Funds

By Courtney Bublé

After appearing in a video encouraging members of the military and intelligence community to not follow illegal orders, Sens. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., have established legal defense funds.

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Defense Bill Includes Protections For Retired Justices

By Courtney Bublé

The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2026 released Sunday night extends U.S. Supreme Court police protection for retired and former justices and their immediate family members.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court delivered a busy first week of December, featuring commercial disputes, post-closing merger and acquisition battles and renewed scrutiny of fiduciary conduct ranging from oil and gas investments to healthcare acquisitions. 

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