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Good morning. Edward Blum, the activist behind the U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down affirmative action at colleges, has chosen two new targets this week. Plus, a group of Clare Locke partners who represented Dominion Voting Systems in its fight with Fox break off to form their own firm, and Connecticut’s assault weapons ban survives a gun industry challenge. It’s here: Friday.
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Edward Blum, the activist behind the U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down affirmative action, set his sights on two new targets this week, report Nate Raymond and Rachel Nostrant.
Students for Fair Admissions, Blum’s group behind the high court case, has launched a new campaign to end an affirmative action exemption at military schools with a website called West Point Not Fair. “Were you rejected from West Point? Or the Naval Academy or the Air Force Academy?” the site asks. “It may be because you’re the wrong race.”
Blum said in an interview that people who respond to the website could be possible litigants in any suit by Students for Fair Admissions.
And earlier this week, the nonprofit American Alliance for Equal Rights, founded by Blum, sued an Atlanta-based venture capital fund that supports Black women who own small businesses, accusing it of unlawful racial discrimination. The group said in its lawsuit that the firm, called Fearless Fund, is violating Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, a U.S. law barring racial bias in private contracts, by making only Black women eligible in a grant competition.
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- A lawyer who supported Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat was charged with illegally accessing voting machines in Michigan. Stefanie Lambert Junttila, who along with other Trump allies tried to reverse Trump’s defeat to President Joe Biden in Michigan, was accused of accessing, tampering with and having undue possession of voting machines in the state, according to court records. (Reuters)
- Four partners who represented Dominion Voting Systems in its defamation lawsuit against Fox Corp have left Clare Locke to launch their own practice in D.C., Meier Watkins Phillips Pusch, which will focus on “reputation management and fighting misinformation.” Former Clare Locke partners Megan Meier, Daniel Watkins and Dustin Pusch were part of Dominion’s litigation team. (Reuters)
- A Florida lawyer who was accused of filing hundreds of fraudulent disability lawsuits with identities he allegedly stole was sentenced to four years in prison for mail fraud. U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe also ordered Stuart Finkelstein, 68, to pay a $200,000 fine. Prosecutors said Finkelstein filed more than 300 lawsuits on behalf of two plaintiffs who he claimed visited public establishments but could not enter them because they were not in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. (Reuters)
- Philadelphia-based law firm Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis is dissolving after operating for nearly 90 years. Leslie Corwin, a Duane Morris lawyer who is advising the 91-lawyer firm on its dissolution, said the firm’s equity partnership is poised to vote on the wind-down plan by next week. (Reuters)
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That’s the floor that law firm Akin wants to sublease to Bank of America in the 51-story office tower One Bryant Park in Manhattan. Akin was just sued by its New York landlord over the firm’s request to sublease part of the office. One Bryant Park LLC is seeking a declaration in New York state court that its lease agreements with Akin and Bank of America, which is already a major tenant in the building, allow the landlord to reject the law firm’s request to sublet an entire floor. Akin had no comment on its reasons for wanting to sublease the 46th floor. The lawsuit comes as many U.S. law firms look to reduce their office space.
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It took Anastasia Wullschleger more than four years, two trips to a federal appeals court and one failed attempt to attract the interest of the U.S. Supreme Court, but she has finally pulled off a return to Missouri state court for her claims that pet food giants Royal Canin U.S. and Nestle Purina tricked her and other pet owners into buying “prescription” dog food that contains no medication. Alison Frankel explains why the 8th Circuit rejected defense accusations of jurisdiction gamesmanship and ordered the remand based on an amended complaint that stripped out all references to federal law.
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“No other constitutional right waxes and wanes based solely on what manufacturers choose to sell and how Congress chooses to regulate what is sold.“
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What to catch up on this weekend
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- Coinbase is due to respond to the SEC’s lawsuit in Manhattan federal court accusing the cryptocurrency platform of making billions of dollars by operating as a middleman on crypto transactions, while evading disclosure requirements meant to protect investors. Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s general counsel, has said the company will continue operating as usual and has “demonstrated commitment to compliance.” Coinbase’s defense lawyers include William Savitt of Wachtell, co-chair of the firm’s litigation group, and former Trump-era SEC enforcement leader Steve Peikin of Sullivan & Cromwell.
- Drugmaker Endo International will ask a U.S. bankruptcy judge to approve its bankruptcy sale and overrule the DOJ’s objections. Endo said last week the federal government’s opposition to its plan to sell itself to its senior lender group threatened to undo nearly $600 million in settlements reached with states and people harmed by the U.S. opioid crisis. Endo filed for bankruptcy last year, seeking to address its $8 billion debt load and to settle thousands of lawsuits over allegations of its role in the opioid epidemic. The DOJ has said the proposed sale violates U.S. bankruptcy law because it would pay some creditors, such as the opioid claimants, while leaving nothing for federal government agencies and other creditors.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- Texas won another round in its antitrust complaint against Google, after a U.S. judicial panel refused to pause the court’s decision to return the state’s lawsuit to federal court in Texas. The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation had decided in June to let Texas leave an MDL in Manhattan and return to the Lone Star State. Google then asked for the decision to be stayed so that the company could pursue an appeal over the venue in the 2nd Circuit. That appeal is pending. (Reuters)
- Boies Schiller is representing sports trading-card company Panini in an antitrust suit in Tampa federal court against rival upstart platform Fanatics, accusing it of arranging exclusive long-term deals with professional sports leagues. Fanatics called Panini’s suit “meritless.” (Reuters)
- A former NBA player was sentenced to 10 years in prison after leading a “brazen” scheme involving at least 19 players to defraud a league health plan into paying millions of dollars for bogus medical procedures, federal prosecutors said. Terrence Williams, 36, who played for the New Jersey Nets and three other teams from 2009 to 2013, had pleaded guilty last August to conspiracy to commit healthcare and wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft. (Reuters)
- The Ninth Circuit revived a whistleblower lawsuit accusing Bausch Health Companies of fraudulently obtaining patents on its ulcerative colitis drug Apriso, causing artificially high prices to be charged to Medicare and Medicaid. In a unanimous opinion, the appellate panel said that the whistleblower, Kroub Silbersher & Kolmykov patent lawyer Zachary Silbersher, was not merely repeating publicly available information in his lawsuit, as a lower court judge had found. (Reuters)
- U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco dismissed a private civil consumer suit alleging Kroger’s $25 billion purchase of rival grocer Albertsons would violate federal antitrust law. The judge found the lawsuit lacking in detail about how the proposed deal, which faces FTC scrutiny, would harm the consumers. (Reuters)
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- Sean Edgett, a former general counsel at the social media company formerly known as Twitter, will serve as chief legal officer at lab-grown meat company Upside Foods. Edgett left Twitter, now called X, in October after more than 10 years in several roles on the company’s legal team. (Reuters)
- Vinson & Elkins added New York-based white-collar partner Jim McGovern from Hogan Lovells. (Vinson & Elkins)
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