California

  • December 10, 2024

    Split 9th Circ. Won't Revive Tesla Worker's Whistleblower Suit

    A split Ninth Circuit refused to revive a terminated Tesla worker's Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower claim alleging he was retaliated against for reporting unlawful activity, ruling on Tuesday the worker is precluded from re-litigating in district court whether he engaged in protected activity, since an arbitrator already decided that he did not.

  • December 10, 2024

    Tribe Says Feds Cast Aside Calls For Consult On Ore. Casino

    A number of Indigenous communities, along with state and federal lawmakers are calling on the federal government to take a harder look at Oregon's first proposed off-reservation casino project before its final approval, saying requests for tribal consultation on the endeavor have been ignored for more than a decade.

  • December 10, 2024

    9th Circ. Judge Criticizes SF's 'Arbitrary' COVID Vax Mandate

    A Ninth Circuit panel doubted Tuesday whether a district judge followed the appellate panel's prior order requiring him to reconsider ex-San Francisco public employees' injunction bid in their civil rights case challenging the city's COVID-19 vaccination mandate, with one judge criticizing the city's since-expired worker vax mandate as "arbitrary."

  • December 10, 2024

    Movie Producer Asks 11th Circ. To Revive Defamation Claim

    A Hollywood movie producer urged the Eleventh Circuit on Tuesday to revive his defamation suit against The Hollywood Reporter over a story about a feud with another producer, but the appellate judges voiced skepticism about his argument that Florida law, and not California law, applies to the claim.

  • December 10, 2024

    9th Circ. OKs Dues Language In Allegiant Union Contract

    Allegiant Air and a Transport Workers Union local can keep their victory over a challenge to the dues provision of their collective bargaining agreement, the Ninth Circuit ruled Tuesday, upholding a California federal judge's ruling that the provision's language is legal under the Railway Labor Act.

  • December 10, 2024

    Mountain West Calls Trans Athlete Suit Moot After Tournament

    The Mountain West Conference wants the Tenth Circuit to end a bid to obtain a restraining order that would have prevented a San Jose State University transgender volleyball player from participating in a now-finished tournament, arguing the point is moot and the case should be tossed.

  • December 10, 2024

    $24.6B Kroger-Albertsons Merger Blocked By 2 Judges

    Kroger's planned $24.6 billion purchase of Albertsons suffered double whammy blows Tuesday, first from an Oregon federal judge who temporarily blocked the deal in a Federal Trade Commission challenge, and then from a Washington state judge who sided with the state's attorney general and issued a permanent, national block.

  • December 10, 2024

    Calif. Tribe Can't Vacate Card Check Award, Judge Says

    An arbitration award requiring UNITE HERE and a California tribe that owns a casino to follow a representation process with a card check procedure stands, a federal district court judge ruled, finding the arbitrator's decision was rational.

  • December 10, 2024

    NY Appealing Judge's Dismissal Of Plastic Pollution Suit

    New York Attorney General Letitia James is appealing a harshly worded ruling that dismissed her suit against PepsiCo Inc. and its Frito-Lay subsidiary over plastic pollution on the Buffalo River.

  • December 10, 2024

    Biden Threatens To Veto Bipartisan Effort To Add Judgeships

    The White House on Tuesday threatened to veto legislation that would increase the number of federal judgeships nationwide after the measure lost support among Democrats postelection.

  • December 09, 2024

    Calif. Floats Requiring Social Media Warning Labels

    California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Monday introduced a bill that would require a "black box warning" to be displayed on social media platforms to remind users of the risks of prolonged social media use, citing research linking children's and teens' use to health harms like depression.

  • December 09, 2024

    Akin Gump 'Totally Messed Up' With Texts, Vaxart Judge Says

    A California federal judge asked by Vaxart investors to impose sanctions over a hedge fund's deleted text messages in a case claiming Vaxart inflated its stock price with deceptive headlines about a COVID-19 vaccine said Monday that the fund's lawyers at Akin Gump "totally, totally messed up."

  • December 09, 2024

    Bill Aiding Not-So-Small Patent Applicants Advances

    A federal measure that would allow patent applicants to avoid financial penalties for incorrectly seeking reduced fees for small applicants has made its way to President Joe Biden's desk.

  • December 09, 2024

    Blockchain Co. IP Fight With Investment Firm Teed Up For Trial

    A California federal judge has said a jury should decide whether the investment firm Franklin Templeton misappropriated trade secrets of Blockchain Innovation LLC and breached its fiduciary duty and contract with the firm when it shut down a digital asset startup that Blockchain later acquired.

  • December 09, 2024

    9th Circ. Tosses Regal Cinemas' COVID Coverage Suit

    Regal Cinemas cannot get coverage for its losses stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ninth Circuit ruled Monday, finding that a decision from New York's top court, along with a contamination exclusion, doomed any chance of coverage under the theater chain's policies with units of Allianz, Liberty Mutual and Zurich.

  • December 09, 2024

    Live Nation Denied Rehearing In 9th Circ. Arbitration Fight

    The full Ninth Circuit has refused to reconsider an appellate panel's recent decision invalidating Live Nation and Ticketmaster's choice of a digital arbitration startup for consumer antitrust claims over allegedly exorbitant ticket prices.

  • December 09, 2024

    Apple Faces Another Suit Over Child Porn Detection Failures

    Apple has been hit with another proposed class action by child abuse victims in California federal court alleging that the tech giant misled users about its efforts to combat the dissemination of child pornography and defectively designed its products, thereby allowing explicit imagery to run rampant on its iCloud and Apple devices.

  • December 09, 2024

    O'Melveny Faces DQ Effort In Hyundai TM Dispute

    An attorney defending computing company Hyundai Technology in its trademark dispute with Hyundai Motor Co. told a California federal judge Monday that O'Melveny & Myers LLP should be disqualified from representing the automotive giant because it retained and used a privileged document that was inadvertently shared in discovery.

  • December 09, 2024

    Key House Dem Thinks Biden Will Veto Bill To Add Judges

    The House is poised to vote on a bipartisan bill to add the much-sought additional judgeships, but President Joe Biden's support is in question.

  • December 09, 2024

    Tribal Court Wins Jurisdiction For 4th Time In COVID-19 Suit

    The Ninth Circuit affirmed that Cabazon Reservation Court judges had jurisdiction over the Cabazon Band of Cahuilla Indians' suit seeking millions in COVID-19 pandemic loss coverage after its casino closed temporarily, despite an insurer's fourth attempt to evade the tribal court. 

  • December 09, 2024

    EV Carmaker Lucid Wants To Shed More Of Inflated Biz Suit

    Electric carmaker Lucid Group has asked a California federal judge to toss most of the latest version of a proposed investor class action alleging its production forecasts were misleading, arguing that parts of the suit that remained intact after a recent dismissal order involved statements taken out of context.

  • December 09, 2024

    'Broke, Half-Blind, Incontinent' Girardi Tries To Avoid Prison

    As prosecutors seek a 14-year prison sentence for Tom Girardi, a disbarred lawyer convicted of embezzling millions of dollars from his clients, his defense team has urged a Los Angeles federal judge to spare Girardi from prison because the once-successful lawyer "no longer exists."

  • December 09, 2024

    UCLA Student Sues Doctors Over Transgender Misdiagnosis

    A UCLA student has sued a group of doctors in Los Angeles state court, alleging she was misdiagnosed with gender dysphoria when she was 12 and rushed into taking puberty blockers and testosterone and having a mastectomy before she realized she wasn't transgender.

  • December 09, 2024

    Avenatti Can't Push Resentencing To June In Client Theft Case

    A California federal judge plans to resentence Michael Avenatti within the next few months rather than June as Avenatti requested, following the Ninth Circuit's decision vacating Avenatti's original 14-year prison term for client theft, remarking Monday he didn't think a hearing was necessary to reevaluate loss calculations and attorney fees. 

  • December 09, 2024

    BNSF Asks 9th Circ. To Upend Tribe's $400M Trespass Win

    BNSF Railway Co. has argued the Ninth Circuit should reverse a lower court's finding that the company owes a Washington tribe nearly $400 million for years of illegally running oil cars across tribal territory, saying the "massive penalty" is excessive because it strips away lawfully earned profits.

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    Congress Can And Must Enact A Supreme Court Ethics Code

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    As public confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court dips to historic lows following reports raising conflict of interest concerns, Congress must exercise its constitutional power to enact a mandatory and enforceable code of ethics for the high court, says Muhammad Faridi, president of the New York City Bar Association.

  • Series

    The Pop Culture Docket: Justice Lebovits On Gilbert And Sullivan

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    Characters in the 19th century comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan break the rules of good lawyering by shamelessly throwing responsible critical thought to the wind, providing hilarious lessons for lawyers and judges on how to avoid a surfeit of traps and tribulations, say acting New York Supreme Court Justice Gerald Lebovits and law student Tara Scown.

  • California's AI Safety Bill Veto: The Path Forward

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    California Gov. Gavin Newsom's veto of a bill that sought to impose stringent regulations on advanced artificial intelligence model development has sparked a renewed debate on how best to balance innovation with safety in the rapidly evolving AI landscape, say Bobby Malhotra and Carson Swope at Winston & Strawn.

  • A Look At Calif.'s New AI Law For Health Insurers

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    A newly enacted California law prohibits artificial intelligence tools from making medical necessity determinations for healthcare service plans or disability insurers, addressing core questions that have arisen around AI's role in coverage decisions, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

  • How 9th Circ. Ruling Expands Bankruptcy Trustees' Powers

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    The Ninth Circuit recently held in The Lovering Tubbs Trust v. Hoffman that a trustee can avoid intentionally fraudulent transfers, even if no creditor suffered harm as a result, materially strengthening bankruptcy trustees' powers, say Robert Klyman and Rod Kazempour at DLA Piper.

  • Earned Wage Access Laws Form A Prickly Policy Patchwork

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    Conflicting earned wage access laws across the country, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recently issued rule, mean providers must adopt a proactive compliance approach and adjust business models where needed, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.

  • 'Minimum Contacts' Issues At Stake In High Court FSIA Case

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    In CC/Devas v. Antrix, the U.S. Supreme Court must decide whether a "minimum contacts" requirement should be implied in the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, with the potential to dramatically change the legislative landscape through the establishment of a new and significant barrier to U.S. suits against foreign states, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

  • 2nd Circ. American Girl Ruling Alters Test Purchase Norms

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    The Second Circuit's recent ruling in American Girl v. Zembrka overturns years of precedent that required completed test purchase shipments to establish jurisdiction in infringement cases, but litigators shouldn't abandon the strategy entirely, say Robert Wasnofski and Sara Gates at Dentons.

  • State Of The States' AI Legal Ethics Landscape

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    Over the past year, several state bar associations, as well as the American Bar Association, have released guidance on the ethical use of artificial intelligence in legal practice, all of which share overarching themes and some nuanced differences, say Eric Pacifici and Kevin Henderson at SMB Law Group.

  • Cos. Face Increasing Risk From Environmental Citizen Suits

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    Environmental citizen suits stepping in to fill the regulatory vacuum concerning consumer goods waste may soon become more common, and the evolving procedural landscape and changes to environmental law may contribute to companies' increased exposure, say J. Michael Showalter and Bradley Rochlen at ArentFox Schiff.

  • 8 Childhood Lessons That Can Help You Be A Better Attorney

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    A new school year is underway, marking a fitting time for attorneys to reflect on some fundamental life lessons from early childhood that offer a framework for problems that no legal textbook can solve, say Chris Gismondi and Chris Campbell at DLA Piper.

  • 2nd Circ. Provides NY Pathway For Fighting Foreign Infringers

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    A recent decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit provides a road map for expeditiously obtaining personal jurisdiction in New York against foreign trademark infringers based on a single purchase of counterfeit goods, meaning the Second Circuit could now be the preferred venue for combating foreign infringement, says Jeffrey Ratinoff at Spencer Fane.

  • How A Trump Win Might Affect The H-1B Program

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    A review of the Trump administration's attempted overhaul of the H-1B nonimmigrant visa program suggests policies Donald Trump might try to implement if he is reelected, and specific steps employers should consider to prepare for that possibility, says Eileen Lohmann at BAL.

  • Compliance Considerations For Calif. Child Labor Audit Law

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    California employers will need to conduct a fact-intensive analysis to determine whether a new state law that imposes transparency rules for child labor audits applies to their operations, and should look out for regulatory guidance that answers open questions about deadlines and penalties, says Sylvia St. Clair at Faegre Drinker.

  • Recent Securities Cases Highlight Risks In AI Disclosures

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    Increasing public disclosure about the use and risks of artificial intelligence, and related litigation asserting that such disclosures are false or misleading, suggest that issuers need to exercise great care with respect to how they describe the benefits of AI, say Richard Zelichov and Danny Tobey at DLA Piper.

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