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Good morning. Florida’s highest state court today is set to take up abortion rights, looking at the scope of privacy protection in the state’s constitution. Plus, Microsoft says it will help defend its AI customers if they are sued for copyright claims; Massachusetts justices ruled to allow electric shock therapy for disabled patients; and lawyers said an exam showed a 96-year-old U.S. appeals judge fighting ethics claims is still fit to serve. It’s Friday, and we’re ready to close out the week.
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The Florida Supreme Court today will hear arguments over whether the state’s constitution protects the right to end pregnancies, a new test for the future of abortion rights in the state, our colleague Joseph Ax reports. Florida’s ban on most abortions after 15 weeks took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court last year overturned a national right to abortion.
The outcome will also determine the fate of a stricter six-week ban, which has been on hold since Governor Ron DeSantis signed it into law in April. Under a “trigger” provision, the law would take effect only if the court upholds the 15-week restriction. The case carries consequences for abortion access throughout the South. Most of Florida’s neighboring states have installed even more stringent limits.
The Florida Supreme Court in 1989 said a voter-approved guarantee of the right to privacy in the state constitution extends to abortion. Lawyers for the DeSantis administration have asserted that the 1989 case should be overturned. The group of abortion providers who filed the lawsuit, including Planned Parenthood, has argued that there is no legal basis to do so. Most legal observers expect the conservative court to side with DeSantis and uphold the 15-week ban.
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- Sidley Austin and the American Psychological Association must face a lawsuit brought by retired military psychologists who said they were defamed in a report about detainee interrogations following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the D.C. Court of Appeals said. An APA spokesperson said the group was disappointed by the ruling. Representatives for Sidley did not immediately respond to requests for comment. (Reuters)
- Lawyers at the New Civil Liberties Alliance representing 96-year-old judge Pauline Newman said a report by a forensic psychiatrist shows the judge is still fit to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Newman, an expert on intellectual property law, has for months been fighting an investigation into her fitness by a panel of her fellow judges on the Federal Circuit. (Reuters)
- The U.S. Senate in a 53-45 vote confirmed Adriana Kugler, a World Bank economist whose research has focused on labor markets, to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Kugler is the first Latina to be nominated to the U.S. central bank. The Senate also confirmed Fed Governor Philip Jefferson as Fed vice chair and Fed Governor Lisa Cook to a second term (Reuters)
- The Senate voted to confirm Democratic telecommunications attorney Anna Gomez to a key fifth seat on the FCC. The 55-43 vote to confirm Gomez gives Democrats a majority on the telecom regulator, which has been deadlocked 2-2 since January 2021 (Reuters)
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That’s how much Philips agreed to pay in a settlement to resolve one category of legal claims against it following a major recall of the Dutch medical equipment maker’s sleep apnea and respiratory devices. The company said it has struck a deal to settle U.S. “economic damages” claims. The $479 million will cover payments to claimants covered by the settlement. Lawyers from Sullivan & Cromwell represent Philips. The plaintiffs’ firms, including Levin Sedran & Berman, Seeger Weiss, Chimicles Schwartz Kriner & Donaldson-Smith and Lynch Carpenter, have not reached a deal yet on how much they will receive in legal fees. Philips still faces other legal actions over the recall, including personal injury claims.
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The private company that oversees the securities industry, best known by its acronym FINRA, is facing what could be an existential threat in a federal appeals court in D.C., where judges have already signaled “serious” constitutional concerns about whether FINRA can exercise enforcement power. Donald Trump’s former Attorney General William Barr and former U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco want to hasten FINRA’s defanging. Their arguments in a friend of the court brief put them at odds with the Biden Justice Department. Alison Frankel dives into a case that, according to FINRA, could “destroy the self-regulatory model that has served the securities industry and investors so well for decades.”
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“This case … involves
a heart-wrenching issue.”
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—Chief Justice Scott Kafker of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, in a ruling that said a Massachusetts institution for the developmentally disabled can continue to use controversial electric shock devices to address aggressive or self-harming behavior in residents. The justices in their unanimous ruling upheld a 2018 lower court decision that said the state acted in bad faith in regulating the Canton-based Judge Rotenberg Educational Center. The center is the only institution in the country to use the treatment. The court left the door open to future challenges.
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What to catch up on this weekend
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- U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers in Pensacola, Florida, federal court will hold a case management conference in mass-tort litigation against 3M’s combat earplugs. 3M has agreed to pay $6.01 billion to settle lawsuits by U.S. military veterans and service members who say they suffered hearing loss from using the earplugs. The deal comes after a failed attempt by 3M earlier this year to move the lawsuits, which had grown into the largest mass tort litigation in U.S. history, into bankruptcy court in the hope of limiting its liability. At its height, the litigation accounted for about 30% of all federal court cases nationwide. 3M did not admit liability as part of the proposed settlement.
- Generic drugmaker Teva Pharmaceuticals’ lawyers at Kirkland will ask the Federal Circuit at a hearing to invalidate a patent covering a dosing regimen for Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceuticals schizophrenia drug Invega Sustenna. Teva says Janssen, represented by Patterson Belknap, has misused the patent to “extend its monopoly over a lucrative antipsychotic drug by more than a decade.” J&J earned more than $1 billion from its sales of Invega Sustenna and related schizophrenia drugs worldwide last year, according to a company report.
- In Seattle federal court, U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly will weigh pretrial disputes in a case that defunct home-listing platform REX lodged against industry giant Zillow alleging false advertising and consumer deception. Zilly recently threw out REX’s antitrust claim against Zillow, which has denied claims that its business practices drove REX out of business. An expert for REX said the company was valued at $444 million when it ceased operations, but Zillow’s attorneys at Orrick and Dechert contend that number is flawed. Boies Schiller represents REX.
- A special grand jury report on Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results is due to be released. The report, whose contents had remained secret while prosecutors pursued their case, included charging recommendations. The special grand jury, which did not have the authority to issue indictments, was convened by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and heard from 75 witnesses over the course of seven months.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- A 2nd Circuit panel revived a racial bias lawsuit against General Motors filed by a Black safety supervisor, who said she endured years of racism and sexism at an upstate New York plant where other workers displayed Confederate flags and nooses. GM declined to comment. (Reuters)
- The 9th Circuit gave two gun owners a new chance to block California’s restrictions on openly carrying firearms in public, citing last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that expanded gun rights. The appeals court ruled that a lower-court judge applied an incorrect legal standard when she declined to issue a preliminary injunction barring enforcement of California’s law. (Reuters)
- Amazon.com must face a prospective consumer class action in Seattle federal court accusing the online retail giant of a price-fixing scheme that has artificially inflated prices for numerous goods on its platform. U.S. District Judge John Chun ruled that the plaintiffs could advance their claims challenging Amazon’s pricing policies. Amazon’s lawyers at Paul Weiss and Davis Wright have denied wrongdoing. (Reuters)
- U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in D.C. federal court rejected a bid by mining company Antofagasta’s Twin Metals subsidiary to restore canceled leases for a proposed Minnesota copper and nickel mine, which the Biden administration had blocked over concerns it could pollute a major recreational waterway. The mine would have been one of the biggest U.S. sources of metals used in electric vehicle batteries and other clean energy technologies. (Reuters)
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- Arnold & Porter added Frank Cruz-Alvarez, Brian Jackson, Christopher Nease, David Thorne, and Michael Walden as partners, and Rachel Forman as counsel, to its product liability litigation practice. The team arrives from Shook, Hardy & Bacon. (Reuters)
- Duane Morris hired Tarsha Phillibert as a partner in the firm’s trial practice in D.C. Phillibert previously worked at the fraud section of the DOJ’s criminal division (Duane Morris).
- Nixon Peabody brought on real estate finance lawyer Kristen Fallon as a Boston-based partner. Fallon previously was at Riemer & Braunstein. (Nixon Peabody).
- Venable hired Chicago-based white-collar partner Daniel Hayes, who was previously a senior counsel at the SEC. (Venable)
- Foley & Lardner brought on Christopher McNamara in New York as an energy litigation partner. McNamara was previously at Barton. (Foley & Lardner)
- Mayer Brown hired Chicago-based partner Ryan Lawrence to its corporate and securities practice. He was previously general counsel at Avant. (Mayer Brown)
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