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Good morning. The U.S. Supreme Court justices return to the bench this morning, opening what is expected to be a major term with a thicket of big cases on the docket and more in the wings. Plus, an 11th Circuit panel blocked a venture capital fund’s grant program for Black women, Donald Trump’s business empire is in peril as his civil fraud trial opens, and crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried heads to trial on fraud charges. Happy first Monday in October!
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Chief Justice John Roberts speaks at The American Law Institute’s 2023 Annual Dinner. REUTERS/Sarah Silbiger
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The U.S. Supreme Court’s new term kicks off today, and the justices’ docket features an array of cases involving gun rights, the power of federal agencies, social media regulation and Republican-drawn electoral districts, John Kruzel reports.
The court on Tuesday will consider the first of at least three disputes that could result in new limits on the authority of regulatory agencies. The justices will take up a constitutional challenge to the funding structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The court later in the term will hear a case seeking to limit the SEC’s in-house enforcement proceedings.
Last Friday, the court added a group of new cases to the term’s argument docket. In one of them, the justices agreed to decide the legality of Republican-backed state laws in Texas and Florida that constrain the ability of social media companies to curb content on their platforms that they deem objectionable. The court also will hear disputes over the scope of shareholder lawsuits, arbitration exemptions for transportation workers, and copyright damages.
As the new nine-month term is set to begin, the public is focused not only on the big cases but also on the ethics standards of the justices themselves, Andrew Chung reports. Revelations in recent months involving some of the justices’ hobnobbing with the rich and powerful have raised new questions about the lack of an ethics code at the high court.
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- White & Case’s Jonathan Hawk is representing Elon Musk’s X Corp in a lawsuit seeking more than $713,000 in unpaid rent and other fees from a former sublease tenant. X filed the case in San Francisco Superior Court, where the social media platform formerly known as Twitter is also facing a demand from its own landlord for millions of dollars in alleged rent due. (Reuters)
- Boies Schiller Flexner hired former federal judge Shira Scheindlin from New York firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, marking another high-profile departure. Scheindlin, who was appointed to the Manhattan federal trial bench in 1994, joined Boies Schiller as an of counsel. Stroock has been seeking a potential merger partner amid escalating attorney departures. (Reuters)
- The Children’s Place asked a Chicago federal judge to sanction lawyers who said in a proposed class action that school uniforms sold by the company contain toxic chemicals, calling their case a “reckless” attack based on unreliable evidence. The children’s clothing company said the attorneys did not adequately test for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, in the uniforms before filing their lawsuit. (Reuters)
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That’s about how many students are expected to enroll next year at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles for the country’s first fully online, full-time J.D. program accredited by the American Bar Association. The online program will cost the same as Southwestern’s residential program — $58,392 a year for full-time students and $38,944 for part-time students. The ABA approved the program in August, and Southwestern said this week that it will begin accepting applications in October for the program’s start in the fall of 2024. The classes will be entirely online and asynchronous — meaning that students can complete them whenever it is convenient for them.
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Securities class action defendants and their lawyers are very good at attracting the attention of the U.S. Supreme Court by predicting that terrible things will happen if the justices don’t intervene. The latest case in point: On Friday, the court granted a petition by Macquarie Infrastructure Corp to review a 2022 ruling in which the 2nd Circuit allowed a class of shareholders to proceed with securities fraud claims based on, among other things, the company’s alleged violation of the SEC’s administrative disclosure rules. MIC and its backers said the ruling will force companies to lard up securities filings with unimportant disclosures. Shareholders, meanwhile, said the whole issue is a tempest in a teapot since these claims almost never survive. Alison Frankel has an analysis.
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“The harm alleged is not immediate, and it is too speculative to stop the program through preliminary injunctive relief.”
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- Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella is expected to testify as a witness for the DOJ in its antitrust court fight against Alphabet’s Google. The government is likely to ask Nadella about Microsoft’s efforts to expand the reach of Edge and Bing, its browser and search engine, and the obstacles posed by Google’s dominance, Diane Bartz reports. Google will likely argue that the better quality of its products are the reason for its success rather than illegal behavior.
- U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth, Texas, will hold a hearing to decide whether to issue an injunction barring the Biden administration from enforcing a ban on a type of rapid-fire gun accessory used with AR-15 type rifles it has categorized as illegal machine guns. O’Connor had previously issued a narrow temporary restraining order, finding the categorization of “forced reset triggers” as machine guns was “likely unlawful.”
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- On Tuesday, FTX crypto exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried is set to stand trial in Manhattan federal court on fraud charges. Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of fraud and conspiracy stemming from FTX’s collapse in November 2022. He may face a “very long sentence” if convicted, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan said at a hearing last week. Bankman-Fried faces a statutory maximum of 110 years in prison, though any sentence would be determined by Kaplan based on a range of factors, and he would likely get far less. Reporter Luc Cohen looks at Bankman-Fried’s defense.
- On Wednesday, lawyers for Texas will urge the 5th Circuit to overturn an injunction barring it from enforcing a new law requiring age verification and a health warning for viewing pornographic websites. A group of online pornography websites, performers and advocates have alleged the law would violate their First Amendment rights. U.S. District Judge David Ezra in Austin blocked it from taking effect.
- On Thursday, Intel will ask the Federal Circuit to throw out a $2.2 billion jury verdict in its ongoing dispute with Fortress Investment Group-affiliated patent owner VLSI Technology. VLSI won the award in Waco, Texas, federal court in 2021 after a jury found that Intel infringed two of its semiconductor patents. WilmerHale’s William Lee will argue for Intel, facing off against MoloLamken’s Jeffrey Lamken for VLSI.
- On Friday, Morrison & Foerster is slated to respond to a lawsuit filed by the conservative activist behind the successful U.S. Supreme Court challenge to the consideration of race in college admissions. The complaint in Miami federal court challenged a fellowship the firm launched that is aimed at promoting diversity in the legal profession. Morrison & Foerster after the lawsuit was filed changed the criteria for the fellowship, removing language specifying that the fellowship is only open to Black, Hispanic, Native American or LGBT applicants.
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- Idaho can fully enforce its near-total abortion ban after a 9th Circuit panel lifted a lower court order that had partially blocked it. The appeals court said that the state ban on abortion, which includes a narrow exception for abortions necessary to prevent the mother’s death, does not conflict with a federal law on emergency care. (Reuters)
- The DOJ told a Massachusetts federal judge that it wants to investigate a proposed settlement in a lawsuit challenging commissions to real estate brokers because it has “significant concerns.” DOJ antitrust lawyers filed a “statement of interest” to U.S. District Judge Patti Saris in a lawsuit that is challenging a requirement that sellers offer a set commission to any broker who finds a buyer for a house. (Reuters)
- U.S. District Judge Charles Eskridge in Houston threw out a lawsuit claiming Texas A&M University discriminates against white and Asian men through its workforce diversity initiatives. Eskridge ruled that the 2022 lawsuit became moot when Texas in June adopted a law prohibiting public universities from giving race-based preferences to employees and job applicants. (Reuters)
- U.S. District Judge George Russell III temporarily blocked portions of a new Maryland law limiting where firearms may be carried, in a decision that relied on the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling expanding gun rights. Russell partially approved a preliminary injunction in a challenge to Maryland’s gun law S.B. 1 and regulations brought by the Firearms Policy Coalition and several Maryland gun rights groups. (Reuters)
- Credit-scoring giant FICO lost its bid to dismiss claims from credit unions, real estate brokerages, auto dealers and other businesses alleging they have paid artificially inflated prices for services involving the company’s widely used “FICO” score. In the ruling, U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang in Illinois dismissed claims against credit bureaus TransUnion, Experian and Equifax. He said the plaintiffs could file a new suit within 30 days. (Reuters)
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Employers should take appropriate steps to prevent disclosure of employee data when using AI systems, write Keith Markel, Alana Mildner and Jessica Lipson of Morrison Cohen. That means training employees, ensuring the security of AI tools and closely paying attention to various privacy laws. Not all AI systems are alike.
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