This week at the U.S. Supreme Court …
U.S. Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical that a California lawyer can own a federal trademark covering the phrase “Trump Too Small” – an irreverent criticism of former President Donald Trump … The top court grappled with a pair of cases from California and Michigan involving public officials blocking critics on social media … Three Tennessee families of transgender children asked SCOTUS to strike down a state law banning so-called gender-affirming care for patients under 18 … The high court declined to hear a challenge from Chicago drivers over hourly meter rates for public parking in the city as well as an American steel importer’s bid to invalidate tariffs on certain steel products.
Employment disputes …
An anti-affirmative action group founded by Edward Blum sued Winston & Strawn over its diversity program … Uber and Lyft will pay a combined $328 million to settle claims that they systematically cheated drivers out of pay and benefits … The NLRB and OSHA will collaborate to investigate and enforce protections for workers who raise safety concerns in retaliation cases … The NCAA has been sued by two brothers for denying them an “amateur” status to play for Chicago State University … UFC lost its appeal to revoke class action status from hundreds of martial arts fighters suing over alleged wage suppression.
Housing market litigation …
A U.S. jury found the National Association of Realtors and some residential brokerages, including units of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, liable to pay $1.78 billion in damages for conspiring to artificially inflate commissions for home sales … D.C. sued RealPage and more than a dozen of the city’s largest apartment building landlords, accusing them of a scheme to artificially fix rental prices … A discount brokerage rival to Zillow sought a new trial on its claims that the home-listing platform sought to drive it out of business.
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In a flood of new litigation, plaintiffs lawyers are attempting to stretch a half-century old California law that bans unauthorized wiretapping to cover consumer interactions with retailer chatbots, asking, say, how to return a sweater. Jenna Greene in her latest column looks at the cases, which aspire to class action status and could add up to millions of dollars in damages. Are the claims legitimate? Or is this “gotcha” litigation, with plaintiffs lawyers filing cookie-cutter complaints in the hopes of getting quick settlements? The answer may be both.
Check out other recent pieces from all our columnists: Alison Frankel, Jenna Greene and Hassan Kanu
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Additional writing by Tanvi Shenoy.
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