FCC Nears 4-Year Review Of Media Ownership Regs

By Christopher Cole

Fresh off an Eighth Circuit decision that undercut a key rule limiting companies from controlling multiple broadcast stations in the same market, the FCC will vote this month on launching its required four-year review of media ownership rules.

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FCC To Examine Impact Of State, Local Wireline Rules

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission plans to take a closer look at federal preemption of state and local rules that could impede the deployment of wireline telecom and broadband service.

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11th Circ. Grants Cop Immunity Over Repeat 911 Caller Arrest

By Parker Quinlan

An Eleventh Circuit panel has ruled that a pair of cops are shielded by qualified immunity for arresting a woman who repeatedly called 911 to report gunfire in her neighborhood despite knowing that the guns were being fired on a legal shooting range.

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4 Firms Build EchoStar's $17B Spectrum Sale To SpaceX

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Telecommunications company EchoStar on Monday announced plans to sell some of its spectrum licenses to Elon Musk-owned SpaceX in a $17 billion cash-and-stock deal built by four firms, following its sale a few weeks ago of certain wireless spectrum licenses to AT&T in a $23 billion deal.

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Brief

FCC To Revoke Authorizations For Foreign-Owned 'Bad Labs'

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission on Monday began revoking U.S. authorizations for seven communications equipment-testing labs it says are controlled by foreign adversaries.

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Brief

FCC Ready To Kick Off Review Of Cox-Charter Deal

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission has set into motion its public interest review of the $34.5 billion deal to combine Charter Communications Inc. and Cox Communications into a powerhouse offering broadband, video and mobile services.

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Google Tells Judge Not To Break Up Ad Tech Biz

By Bryan Koenig

Google has urged a Virginia federal judge not to impose the "severe, counterproductive, and unprecedented remedy" of breaking up its advertising placement technology business, and has pushed its own proposed fixes over those sought by the U.S. Department of Justice in the upcoming monopoly remedies trial.

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Court Says Claim For Coverage Declaration Is Untimely

By Ganesh Setty

A wiring manufacturer demanding coverage from a Nationwide unit for nearly $32 million in outstanding defense costs over claims it violated federal bribery and accounting laws filed its claim for declaratory judgment too late, a Delaware federal court ruled, pointing to the state's three-year statute of limitations for contract-related actions.

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Oura Domestic Labor Investment Won Import Ban, ITC Says

By Adam Lidgett

The U.S. International Trade Commission has found that Ouraring Inc.'s commitments in the U.S. to producing its smart ring warranted the agency's decision to block Ultrahuman and RingConn from importing products it held infringed a wearable computing device patent.

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Brief

Phone Dealer, Freight Co. Settle Suit Over Stolen Shipment

By Carla Baranauckas

PCS Wireless LLC and RXO Capacity Solutions LLC have reached a settlement in the cellphone dealer's lawsuit over a stolen shipment and a contentious discovery dispute, according to a joint notice filed in a North Carolina federal court.

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Longtime USPTO Rocky Mountain Director Leaves Agency

By Dani Kass

The leader of the regional U.S. Patent and Trademark Office covering Colorado, Nebraska and several other states has announced that she is no longer working at the agency.

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How The 5th, DC Circuits Agreed On FCC Forfeiture Orders

The Fifth and D.C. Circuits split this year on the Federal Communications Commission's process for adjudicating enforcement actions, but both implicitly recognized the problem with penalizing a party based on a forfeiture order that has not yet been challenged in any way in court, says Jared Marx at HWG.

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Analysis

Class Actions May Be The New Injunction Bid, And Next Target

By Cara Bayles

In the two months since the Supreme Court hobbled universal injunctions, lawyers and trial judges have pivoted to adjust to a new litigation landscape, with class actions playing a larger role in lawsuits seeking to stop presidential policies. That, in turn, could put the tactic in the administration's crosshairs.

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GOP Sens. OK Fla. Judge Who Dems Claim Courted Trump

By Courtney Bublé

Senate Republicans voted on Monday evening to confirm to the Southern District of Florida bench Judge Edward L. Artau, a state appellate judge who ruled in favor of President Donald Trump in a defamation lawsuit when Democrats say he was simultaneously being vetted for the federal judgeship.

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Calif. Judge Convicted Of Murdering Wife Seeks Trial Do-Over

By Gina Kim

A California judge convicted of murdering his wife earlier this year moved for a new trial, arguing the court's denial of his request to postpone the retrial was a "miscarriage of justice" because it limited his expert witness testimony and violated his right to present his defense that the shooting was accidental.

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Barrett Talks Dobbs, Court's Role In New Book

By Katie Buehler

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett defends her vote to overturn Roe v. Wade and declare there's no constitutional right to abortion in her new memoir, which also provides unique insight into her view of the judiciary's role in American democracy and her approach to interpreting law.

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Dems Again Ask NY Ethics Body To Investigate Bove

By Jack Karp

Two Democratic senators filed an updated ethics complaint with the New York State Courts' attorney ethics body against recently confirmed Third Circuit Judge Emil Bove, citing what they called his "quid pro quo deal" to drop criminal charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams and other alleged ethical violations.

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Litigation Funder Says Ex-GC Stole Secrets To Launch Rival

By Rae Ann Varona

A Houston-based litigation funding company has hauled its former general counsel into Texas state court, accusing him of diverting its business opportunities and using confidential business information when secretly forming a new rival litigation funder.

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Atty In Judge Newman Suspension Feud Moves To DOJ

By Adam Lidgett

An attorney who has been representing Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman in the legal battle over her suspension has jumped from the New Civil Liberties Alliance to work at the U.S. Department of Justice.

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FisherBroyles Can't Nix Stem Cell Patent Malpractice Claim

By Craig Clough

A California judge on Monday denied FisherBroyles LLP's motion to toss a claim in a $10 million malpractice suit brought against it by a stem cell treatment center, ruling the firm missed a deadline to file the motion. 

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Grassley Blocked On Quick US Attorney Confirmations

By Courtney Bublé

Senate Judiciary Committee chair Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, tried Monday to quickly confirm 10 nominees for U.S. attorneys, but was blocked by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

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Analysis

Immigration Board's Undoing Of Bond Practice Stuns Attys

By Britain Eakin

A Board of Immigration Appeals decision to deny bond and require mandatory detention for anyone entering the U.S. unlawfully has stunned immigration attorneys, who say the upending of decades of precedent will leave few options beyond leaving the country.

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Analysis

Tracking The Copyright Fights Between Creators And AI Cos.

By Theresa Schliep

In the three years since ChatGPT burst onto the scene, artificial intelligence developers like OpenAI, Meta and Anthropic have faced dozens of lawsuits accusing them of infringing the intellectual property of authors, artists, news organizations and the like.

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Appeal Limited To NJ US Atty DQ Ruling, 3rd Circ. Told

By Madison Arnold

The federal government and defense counsel have agreed that the scope of a Third Circuit appeal is limited to the disqualification of New Jersey Acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba from overseeing two cases.

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Mass. Justices Asked To Find Atty Had Duty To Seek Plea Deal

By Julie Manganis

A man who has spent more than four decades in prison for a 1983 murder asked Massachusetts' high court Monday to find that his defense attorney's failure to pursue a plea bargain with prosecutors entitles him to a new trial, in a case that could alter the standard for finding a lawyer's work was ineffective.

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Roundup

Securities Class Actions Had A Late Summer Appellate Bloom

By Jessica Corso

While the later summer months are often a quiet time for the nation's courts, the federal appellate courts were hard at work this past July and August issuing important rulings on class certification standards for shareholder lawsuits and handing down split-panel decisions over the future of disclosure litigation.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Sydney Price and Jeff Montgomery

Last week at the Delaware Court of Chancery, a bankruptcy administrator for a generic drugmaker formerly known as Teligent was told he can proceed with duty of oversight claims against most former officers and directors of the company, who the administrator said was complicit in the company's collapse. In an opinion, the Court of Chancery cites its 1996 decision In re Caremark International Inc. Derivative Litigation, which refined director duties of care and oversight.

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