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Good morning. TikTok and its users are fighting Montana’s ban on the popular social media app in court, laying out a roadmap if other states – or the U.S. government – move forward with bans of their own. Plus, E. Jean Carroll is going after Donald Trump over his comments after the verdict in her trial, and experts tell us why the Allen & Overy/Shearman & Sterling deal isn’t likely to spur copycats. It’s Tuesday. Let’s go.
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REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo
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TikTok and its users have brought a pair of lawsuits in federal court challenging Montana’s first-in-the-nation ban on the popular short-video app, offering an early glimpse of the litigation fallout as states and the U.S. government weigh actions against the Chinese-owned company.
Lawyers for TikTok at Covington hit Montana with a federal suit just days after TikTok users sued the state. Critics of the app have raised national security concerns over its widespread use. Covington’s legal team includes litigator Alex Berengaut, who represented the company in successfully fighting the Trump administration’s effort to ban the app. Lawyers from Davis Wright, including Ambika Kumar, co-chair of the firm’s media law practice, represent the TikTok user plaintiffs. Kumar was on the Davis Wright legal team in 2020 that won an injunction against the Trump administration’s moves against TikTok.
TikTok is already banned on government-issued devices in about 30 U.S. states and for employees of the country’s federal agencies. Montana’s ban is set to take effect in January 2024. Enforcement of the geography-based ban will pose practical challenges for the state. The ACLU has urged Congress not to ban TikTok, saying it would violate the free speech rights of millions of Americans.
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- The potential deal between Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling would be one of the biggest law firm mergers in decades – and it’s set the legal world buzzing. But it doesn’t mean other large, transatlantic mergers are around the corner, experts said. (Reuters)
- 3M CEO Michael Roman must attend mediation aimed at resolving nearly 260,000 lawsuits alleging the company’s military earplugs caused hearing loss. U.S. Judge Casey Rodgers in Florida, saying that the negotiations have reached a “critical juncture,” ordered Roman to attend mediation talks in Pensacola, Florida on May 25 and 26 so that he may “listen and engage directly with the mediators.” The mediation requires 3M senior leadership to push ahead, Rodgers said. (Reuters)
- Quinn Emanuel said it was starting an intellectual property litigation practice in London, hiring partner David Lancaster from Pinsent Masons. (Reuters)
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REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
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That’s the amount of an arbitration award that Walgreens is fighting in D.C. federal court, after a JAMS arbitrator sided with insurer Humana in a drug-pricing dispute with the retail pharmacy chain. Walgreens’ attorneys at Reed Smith argue, among other things, that the arbitrator used a flawed damages model, and also that Humana’s outside counsel at Crowell had a conflict of interest that should have barred the firm from participating in the arbitration. Crowell told Reuters that Walgreens’ ethics claim was “meritless.” Walgreens separately is suing Crowell in D.C. Superior Court. Humana has asked the D.C. federal court to uphold the arbitration award.
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Faced with an extraordinary flood of objections from AMC Entertainment Holdings investors who are suspicious of a proposed $129 million settlement on their behalf, a Delaware judge on Saturday ordered the company to throw open access to all of the evidence underpinning the deal – including internal AMC financial information and discovery obtained from banks and investment funds. Alison Frankel explains why Vice Chancellor Morgan Zurn of Delaware Chancery Court ruled that individual investors in AMC common stock are entitled to see the discovery underpinning the settlement, despite warnings from AMC and the shareholders who back the deal that bad actors could hurt the company by abusing the right to see its secrets.
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“After the merger (if it happens), they can play Call of Duty exactly as they played just before the merger.“
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- In Boston federal court, U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns will hold a scheduling conference in the lawsuit by a union for U.S. federal government employees that claims a law setting a $31.4 trillion debt ceiling is unconstitutional. The National Association of Government Employees said the debt limit law adopted in 1917 violates the U.S. Constitution’s separation of powers because it forces the president in the event of a default to cut spending already authorized by Congress. The lawsuit filed in Boston federal court says the Constitution’s 14th Amendment requires the president to find funding to meet the country’s debt obligations.
- In West Virginia federal court, U.S. District Judge Robert Chambers will hear arguments on the state’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit by abortion pill maker GenBioPro challenging its abortion ban. The company argues the ban is preempted by the FDA’s approval of its drug, a generic version of mifepristone. GenBioPro said West Virginia’s Unborn Child Protection Act, which in September banned nearly all abortions, “conflicts with the strong national interest in ensuring access to a federally approved medication to end a pregnancy.” GenBioPro’s legal team includes attorneys from Arnold & Porter; Kellogg Hansen and Democracy Forward Foundation.
- Donald Trump will appear by video in a New York courtroom for Justice Juan Merchan to order him not to publicly disclose certain evidence in the criminal case against him over a hush payment to a porn star. Merchan arranged for the former president to appear virtually after the massive police presence necessitated by his in-person arraignment last month. Trump will appear on a large screen, while his lawyers and prosecutors will be in the courtroom. Trump has pleaded not guilty.
- Lawyers for UnitedHealthcare and Kaiser at Sheppard Mullin will press their claim in a new court filing that Quinn Emanuel should be required to open up more about its handling of a $185 million legal-fee award that was distributed to partners prior to a U.S. appeals court striking down the amount and ordering a do-over. Quinn Emanuel, which represented a class of insurers that netted a $2 billion healthcare settlement with the U.S., has said UnitedHealthcare and Kaiser are on an unwarranted “fishing expedition.” The firm has denied any wrongdoing in how it handled and distributed the fees, saying there was a final order that did not mandate holding onto the funds.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- A group of Chinese citizens living in Florida sued the state with the ACLU to strike down a new law that would bar citizens of China and several other countries from owning homes and land in the state. The lawsuit, filed in Tallahassee, Florida federal court, says that the state law is unconstitutional. (Reuters)
- First Citizens, which acquired Silicon Valley Bank following its collapse, accused HSBC in a new lawsuit of poaching more than 40 of the failed bank’s employees in order to launch its own U.S. venture banking business. Fisher & Phillips represents First Citizens in the suit in San Francisco federal court. HSBC, represented by Gibson Dunn, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reuters)
- U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly in Chicago tossed some claims from the nationwide litigation against Abbott Laboratories over recalled baby formula. Kennelly said parents suing Abbott claiming they would not have bought the formula if they had known about a “substantial risk” of bacterial contamination in the products lacked standing to sue. The judge found they did not show which Abbott products or lots were contaminated, or that their children experienced symptoms. (Reuters)
- U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni in Manhattan dismissed long-running litigation by investors who accused HSBC and Bank of Nova Scotia of conspiring to fix silver prices. In her ruling, Caproni said investors lacked legal standing to pursue federal antitrust claims under the Sherman Act, or claims under the federal Commodity Exchange Act. (Reuters)
- In the latest reversal for the DOJ in a major corruption inquiry, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out lower court decisions upholding the convictions of two real estate developers and a former state university official. The three were convicted of fraud for rigging bids for one of former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s signature projects. The ruling in the cases of Steven Aiello, Joseph Gerardi and Alain Kaloyeros comes after the high court overturned related convictions of former Cuomo aide Joseph Percoco and construction executive Louis Ciminelli, holding the jury had been instructed on the wrong test for honest-services fraud. (Reuters)
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Sports betting is legal in 33 states and D.C., and it is quickly becoming a multibillion-dollar industry. But as it grows, it has attracted intense scrutiny from both regulators and putative class action plaintiffs — with particular attention on “risk free” promotions that offer to pay bettors back for their losses in credits, write Robert Fumerton, Anthony Dreyer and Karen Lent of Skadden. Here’s why they say those types of promotions aren’t so “risk free” for the gambling companies.
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