Paramount President Owes $150M For Crisis PR Aid, Suit Says

By Gina Kim

Paramount President Jeff Shell is being sued for $150 million in California state court over allegations he backed out of a deal to develop an English language adaptation of a Spanish television show and failed to pay for crisis communications services that the plaintiff said helped save Paramount $1.5 billion in a streaming rights dispute.

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Judge Fumes As Live Nation Antitrust Trial Remains In Limbo

By Stewart Bishop

The status of Live Nation Entertainment's antitrust trial and proposed settlement over federal and state government claims of anticompetitive conduct remained up in the air Tuesday amid pushback by several states, while the Manhattan federal judge overseeing the case upbraided the parties for keeping him out of the loop about negotiations.

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Social Media Jury Told Of Plaintiff's 'Embarrassing Sexual Act'

By Craig Clough

A psychiatrist who assessed a bellwether plaintiff alleging a harmful addiction to Instagram and YouTube told a California jury Tuesday that the plaintiff's turbulent home life, genetic factors and even an alleged "embarrassing sexual act" that got her suspended from school supports a conclusion the plaintiff does not have a social media addiction.

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Rappers Tell Justices Lyrics Don't Justify Death Sentence

By Parker Quinlan

A group of major hip-hop artists and producers have filed briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court requesting that the justices review a Texas death penalty case that relied on rap lyrics to support the government's claim that a defendant was an ongoing threat to society.

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OpenAI Must Produce Chat Logs, Exec Diary In Copyright MDL

By Theresa Schliep

A federal magistrate judge in New York ordered OpenAI to furnish an executive's personal journal along with tens of millions of ChatGPT logs in response to requests by news organizations and authors in their copyright litigation against the artificial intelligence company.

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Rapper Was Wary Years Before Firing Ex-Manager, Jury Hears

By Lauraann Wood

Chance the Rapper testified Tuesday that he has honored the oral payment arrangement he reached with his former manager but should have terminated their relationship closer to learning that manager tried to cut himself into a business opportunity from which he knew he wouldn't be paid.

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C-SPAN Shakes Suit Over Video Data Sharing With Facebook

By Allison Grande

A D.C. federal judge tossed a proposed class action accusing C-SPAN of illegally collecting and sharing information about website visitors' video-viewing habits, finding that the plaintiffs had neither proven they were "consumers" protected by federal video privacy law nor that their "personally identifiable information" had been divulged. 

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CAA Settles Ex-Atty-Turned-Client's Suit On Verge Of Trial

By Rae Ann Varona

Creative Artists Agency has settled a prosecutor-turned-script writer's breach of contract and fiduciary lawsuit just before trial was slated to begin in a Los Angeles courtroom, capping off a nearly 7-year dispute.

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Va. Blogger Convicted Of Cyberstalking Conn. Judges

By Aaron Keller

A Virginia man was convicted Tuesday of cyberstalking three Connecticut judges after spending years following his 2007 divorce publishing a blog critical of the Constitution State's family court system, though he claimed his rhetoric was protected by the First Amendment.

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OpenAI Copied Media Metadata To Train ChatGPT, Suit Alleges

By Lauren Berg

Media metadata company Gracenote alleges in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Manhattan federal court that OpenAI has stolen a slew of its proprietary television and movie metadata to train ChatGPT and other large language models, "eroding" Gracenote's ability to license its data to competing artificial intelligence companies.

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J&J Unit Wins Sanction In Talc Libel Case

By Emily Field

A Virginia federal judge on Tuesday issued sanctions against a doctor being sued by a Johnson & Johnson unit over an article linking mesothelioma with talc products, saying that a jury will be told that he deleted emails about the article when he was legally obligated to keep them.

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M&A Value Surged In Record Start To 2026, Deal Volumes Drop

By Al Barbarino

Global mergers and acquisitions values had a record start to the year, reaching roughly $813.3 billion through Thursday, even as transaction numbers dipped to historic lows, according to PitchBook data.

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Travis Scott, SZA Can't Ditch 'Telekinesis' Copyright Fight

By Dorothy Atkins

A New York federal judge has trimmed a singer-songwriter's copyright lawsuit accusing rapper Travis Scott and his collaborators SZA and Future of ripping off her demo song to make the 2023 hit song "Telekinesis," but found Monday that the defendants "have come nowhere near" showing her copyright registrations are invalid.

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11th Circ. Torn On Ga.'s Social Media Restrictions For Children

By Chart Riggall

An Eleventh Circuit panel appeared conflicted Tuesday over a Georgia law that placed new restrictions on children's use of social media, suggesting that some provisions were "clearly constitutional" while others likely won't clear First Amendment scrutiny.

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Fla. Asks 11th Circ. To Send Snap Suit Back To State Court

By Carolina Bolado

Florida urged an Eleventh Circuit panel Tuesday to send the state's enforcement action against social media company Snap Inc. for violations of restrictions for children back to state court, arguing Snap is trying to leverage advertisements it runs for federal agencies into status as a federal officer.

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Apple AirTag Plaintiffs Can't Get Class Cert. In Tracking Suit

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge refused to certify a class of stalking victims suing Apple for designing AirTags that were susceptible to abuse by stalkers, after comparing the case during a hearing last week to mass tort litigation against Uber Technologies Inc. over driver sexual assaults.

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Instagram's Advertisers Influence Safety Focus, Head Testifies

By Cara Salvatore

Instagram's head took the stand in New Mexico on Tuesday in Meta's defense case against the state attorney general's claims that its social media platforms harm mental health, telling a jury that one of the biggest economic reasons for the company's safety focus is pressure exerted by its advertisers.

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Fla. Defends Social Media Teen Ban As Content-Neutral

By Carolina Bolado

Florida defended its restrictions on social media for children before the Eleventh Circuit on Tuesday, arguing that the law is content-neutral and does not violate the First Amendment, and urged the appeals court to undo an injunction blocking its enforcement.

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Alex Spiro Says Twitter Atty 'Misremembering' Offer To Settle

By Bonnie Eslinger

Elon Musk attorney Alex Spiro testified before a California federal jury Tuesday that a lead Twitter lawyer who said Spiro tried to renegotiate Musk's $44 billion deal to buy the social media platform was "misremembering," saying Twitter's counsel offered the discount and asked for legal waivers over the company's bot claims.

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Salesforce Wins Stay Of Backpage Trafficking Cases In Illinois

By Gina Kim

An Illinois federal judge Tuesday temporarily put on hold litigation accusing Salesforce of benefiting from sex trafficking through advertisements uploaded on Backpage.com after finding that related criminal proceedings against Backpage's founder and former executives must first be resolved.

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Smartmatic Moves To Toss 'Vindictive' FCPA Prosecution

By Lauren Berg

Smartmatic urged a Florida federal judge Tuesday to toss charges against it in the U.S. Department of Justice's case accusing former company executives of bribing a Filipino official to secure contracts, slamming the superseding indictment as part of a "crusade to unconstitutionally target" President Donald Trump's perceived political enemies.

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Roblox Investors Aim To Preserve Claims As Clock Runs Down

By Emilie Ruscoe

Funds invested in immersive gaming platform Roblox are asking to intervene in a proposed class action alleging the company understated the likelihood of a post-COVID lockdown user revenue slump, saying the clock was running out for bringing certain claims while the judge weighs dismissing the suit.

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Pole Upgrades Too Often Lead To Sticker Shock, FCC Told

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission needs to put guardrails on the cost of adding broadband gear to utility poles because bills often take years to show up and in some cases far exceed the pole owners' estimates, a cable industry group said.

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Keep CBRS Rule Framework Intact, Supporters Tell FCC

By Christopher Cole

Regulators shouldn't mess with the rules and device power levels that have made the Citizens Broadband Radio Service run smoothly over the last decade, supporters of the tiered system for farming out critical midband spectrum say.

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Brief

CenturyLink Ready To Retire Legacy Networks In 3 Areas

By Nadia Dreid

CenturyLink is ready to drop legacy voice services entirely in two parts of Iowa and one section of Utah, it has told the Federal Communications Commission, saying that there are less than 100 people in those areas still using them.

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Ballot Selfie Ban Doesn't Flout Free Speech, NC Judge Rules

By Hayley Fowler

A North Carolina federal judge has upheld the state's ban on ballot selfies, rejecting a First Amendment challenge by a former Libertarian state senate candidate and voter who accused state and local election officials of trampling her free speech rights by enforcing the ban.

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Trump Admin Sued Over Immigration Censorship Policy

By Nadia Dreid

The Trump administration's new immigration "censorship policy" is aptly named, not because it actually prevents censorship but because it targets noncitizens who advocate against misinformation in order to scare them into silence, according to a new lawsuit.

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Dropkick Murphys Concertgoer Sues Venue Over Assault

By Julie Manganis

Inadequate security during a Dropkick Murphys show at MGM Music Hall in Boston in 2023 led to a concertgoer being punched in the face, according to a suit in Massachusetts state court.

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Military Attys In DOJ 'Erodes Democratic Norms,' Ex-JAGs Say

By Lauren Berg

Nearly a dozen former military lawyers raised the alarm about the Trump administration appointing judge advocate officers to U.S. attorneys' offices, urging a Minnesota federal judge Tuesday to bar an Army lawyer from prosecuting a case that accuses a civilian of assaulting federal immigration enforcement agents.

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DOJ Official Faces Ethics Case Over Georgetown DEI Letters

By Alison Knezevich

U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin has been hit with disciplinary charges in the nation's capital over threatening letters he sent to Georgetown University Law Center last year while he was interim U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C.

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Dems Confront Roberts At Wide-Ranging Judiciary Gathering

By Jeff Overley

The federal judiciary's top administrator voiced "serious and urgent concerns" Tuesday regarding threats of retribution against judges, a warning that coincided with a judicial gathering where Democrats discussed security fears and controversial U.S. Supreme Court rulings.

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Prosecutor Resigns, Judge Shows Slide Deck On AI Errors

By Abigail Harrison

A federal prosecutor told a North Carolina federal court Tuesday that he was separating from the office after admitting in open court to using artificial intelligence to help draft a response brief, what he called "the worst decision I've ever made in my 30-year career."

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Calif. Atty Gets Over 11 Years For Solar $1B Ponzi Scheme

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge has sentenced a corporate attorney to 11 years and five months behind bars after he pled guilty to nearly two dozen charges for his role in DC Solar's $912 million Ponzi scheme, which duped major investors including Berkshire Hathaway, Progressive and SunTrust Equipment Finance & Leasing.

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Ex-Moses & Singer Partner Admits Tax Crimes, Will Pay $2.8M

By Aaron Keller

A former Moses & Singer LLP partner admitted to practice in New York and North Carolina courts has pled guilty to three counts of failing to file personal income tax returns and will pay $2.8 million in restitution, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut announced Monday.

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Judiciary Approves Supreme Court Public Defender Office

By Katie Buehler

The federal judiciary approved a new office Tuesday aimed at improving the quality of representation for indigent defendants with cases in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. 

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DOJ Unveils Superseding Policy For Corporate Criminal Cases

By Sarah Jarvis

The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday released its first-ever, department-wide, corporate enforcement policy for criminal matters, outlining how it will decline to prosecute companies that voluntarily disclose misconduct, cooperate with investigators and remediate wrongdoing.

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DLA Piper Can't Rep Itself At Bias Trial, Fired Atty Says

By Pete Brush

DLA Piper should not be permitted to represent itself at trial in a pregnancy discrimination case brought by a senior associate who was fired in 2022, lawyers for the plaintiff told a Manhattan federal judge.

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Judge Nixed Over MAGA Op-Ed Seeks Reinstatement

By Emily Sawicki

A retired Illinois state trial court judge pursuing First Amendment claims against the state Supreme Court after his right-wing opinion column resulted in his removal from a temporary judgeship has moved for immediate reinstatement to the Cook County Circuit Court.

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Wisconsin Judges Decline To Extend Interim US Atty's Term

By Courtney Bublé

A majority of judges in the Eastern District of Wisconsin have declined to extend the tenure of interim U.S. Attorney Brad Schimel, according to an announcement Tuesday.

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J&J Opposes Beasley Allen Reinstatement Bid In NJ Talc Fight

By Emily Sawicki

Johnson & Johnson is urging the New Jersey Supreme Court to not take the "extraordinary step" of intervening in an appellate panel ruling that disqualified Beasley Allen from representing hundreds of women in product liability litigation against the pharmaceutical giant after the Georgia-based firm "knowingly collaborated" with a former Johnson & Johnson outside counsel.

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