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Texas
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January 30, 2025
5th Circ. Says 18-Year-Olds Can Buy Handguns
The Fifth Circuit found a law banning Americans under 21 years old from buying handguns was unconstitutional, saying in a Thursday opinion the law doesn't have any kind of historical analogs that would pass a Second Amendment smell test.
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January 30, 2025
Texas Panel Asks If Late Votes Should Decide Judge's Election
A Texas appellate panel asked what it was supposed to do with voters who wrote that they lived outside the county in deciding the last remaining challenge to the county's 2022 election results, saying during oral arguments Thursday that voters' own assertions seemed convincing.
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January 30, 2025
R. Allen Stanford's $6.8B SEC Bill In Ponzi Suit Finalized
A Texas federal court on Wednesday entered a judgment finalizing a 2013 order requiring convicted Ponzi schemer Robert Allen Stanford to fork over $6.76 billion in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's nearly 16-year-old suit over the $7 billion fraud scheme.
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January 30, 2025
Lower Court Altered Contract Reading, Texas Justices Told
An Energy Transfer subsidiary told the Texas Supreme Court that a lower court upended the way contracts are interpreted in the state when it found no remedy for alleged losses from a soured $1 billion deal with an Exxon Mobil Corp. unit.
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January 30, 2025
FERC Says Pacific NW Pipeline Approval Was By The Book
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is defending its approval of a controversial TC Energy Corp. pipeline expansion project in the Pacific Northwest, telling the Fifth Circuit it reasonably determined that the project was needed and adequately reviewed its environmental impacts.
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January 30, 2025
Valve Maker Had Decades To Prevent Lyondell Leak, Jury Told
Eight men injured in a chemical leak at a LyondellBasell facility in La Porte, Texas, told a Houston jury Thursday that a pipe valve manufacturer knew its product posed a "serious and deadly hazard" for workers decades before the 2021 leak.
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January 30, 2025
Meta VR Headsets Are Not 'Wireless Telephones,' Judge Says
A federal judge in the Western District of Texas has decided Meta's Quest brand of virtual reality headsets can't be considered "wireless telephones" in a patent lawsuit just because they come preinstalled with the Messenger app, which can take calls.
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January 30, 2025
Split 5th Circ. Clears Insurers In $2.7M Flood Row
A split Fifth Circuit panel upheld a ruling finding that a general contractor and others cannot recover $2.7 million from insurers for water damage, because the flood deductible in the applicable builder's risk policy exceeded the claimed losses.
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January 30, 2025
Texas AG's Deputy Tapped For Trump's DOJ
A deputy in Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office has been tapped for President Donald Trump's Justice Department, Paxton announced Thursday.
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January 30, 2025
Fla. Firm's $1M Loan Dispute Returns To NJ State Court
A New Jersey federal judge has remanded a suit accusing a Florida firm and a lender of fraudulently inducing an investor to make a down payment of more than $1 million on a loan that never materialized, according to a Thursday court order.
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January 30, 2025
DOJ Challenges HPE's $14B Deal For Juniper Networks
The U.S. Department of Justice sued Thursday to block Hewlett Packard Enterprise's planned $14 billion purchase of Juniper Networks Inc. over concerns about competition for local wireless networking technology.
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January 30, 2025
Nelson Mullins Grows In Houston With Osha Bergman IP Duo
Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP has grown its Houston attorney roster to more than 30 since setting up shop in the city last year and is continuing that expansion with two experienced intellectual property lawyers from Osha Bergman Watanabe & Burton LLP.
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January 29, 2025
SEC Wins $11.3M In Texas Oil Investment Fraud Case
A Texas federal judge ruled in favor of the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission in an 11-year-old case accusing brokers of soliciting more than 340 "partners" to invest in drilling projects that were actually unregistered investment vehicles, granting the request for over $11 million in disgorgement, interest and a civil penalty from one of the brokers and his companies.
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January 29, 2025
Allstate Says Houston Referral Site Ran Kickback Scheme
Allstate Insurance told a Texas federal court that a group of clinics ran a kickback scheme with a medical referral website, saying in a Wednesday complaint the website funneled car crash victims to clinics that overcharged in exchange for payouts.
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January 29, 2025
5th Circ. Rejects Outside Bid To Defend CFPB Small-Biz Rule
The Fifth Circuit on Wednesday stood by its decision to refuse two advocacy groups' request to help defend the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's small business lending data rule, a day after the bureau and the suing banking trade groups pushed back and said they are fine to litigate themselves, without intervention.
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January 29, 2025
Labcorp Can't Flip Patent Board Loss At Fed. Circ.
Labcorp had no luck Wednesday trying to convince Federal Circuit judges to overturn a patent board decision that refused to invalidate a host of claims in a patent covering a way of detecting genetic disorders.
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January 29, 2025
LG Foe Loses Fed. Circ. Appeal On Image Processing Patent
The Federal Circuit shot down an appeal launched by a face detection technology patent owner over how a lower court construed claim terminology in the patent, handing a win Wednesday to LG in a suit accusing it of infringement.
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January 29, 2025
Cobalt Refiner Hits Ch. 11 With Plan To Cut $164M In Debt
A Texas bankruptcy judge Wednesday put the operator of one of the world's largest cobalt refineries on course for a March hearing on a Chapter 11 plan to shed nearly $164 million in debt as it deals with depressed cobalt prices it blames on Chinese oversupply.
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January 29, 2025
5th Circ. Says DOT Must Redo Airline Fees Disclosure Rule
The Fifth Circuit has ordered the U.S. Department of Transportation to reassess its rule requiring airlines to more clearly disclose add-on fees upfront, saying the Biden administration failed to properly consider public comments on how costly it would be for airlines to comply with the 2024 mandate.
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January 29, 2025
Brother Hits Back In Family Feud Over Padres Ownership
The late owner of the San Diego Padres did not give control of the Major League Baseball franchise to his widow, and his brothers are not wrongly withholding assets and control of the team from her, one of the brothers argues in his reply to her Texas state lawsuit.
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January 29, 2025
Chevron, Ex-Manager End Bias Suit Over Altered COVID Tests
Chevron and a former manager agreed to end the worker's lawsuit claiming she was fired for not speaking up about workers changing COVID-19 test records to avoid travel restrictions while men who did the same thing kept their jobs, according to Texas federal court filings.
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January 29, 2025
Small Biz Org Can't Jump Into 5th Circ. Noncompete Ban Case
A Fifth Circuit judge has summarily refused to permit an entrepreneurs group to intervene in support of the Federal Trade Commission's currently blocked noncompete ban, an intervention sought in case the commission opts to abandon its defense.
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January 29, 2025
Texas-Led States Can Sue Google, Ad Tech Judge Says
A Texas federal judge refused to toss a state enforcer coalition's lawsuit accusing Google of monopolizing the display advertising placement technology market, rejecting Google assertions that the states lack standing to sue on behalf of their citizens in a case where trial now appears likely to be delayed.
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January 29, 2025
Southwest Worker Can't Yet Snag $2M Atty Fees In Bias Case
A flight attendant cannot recover nearly $2.5 million in attorney fees incurred while litigating her suit in which she claimed Southwest terminated her after she sent pictures of aborted fetuses during a Transport Workers Union of America Local 556 action, a Texas federal judge ruled.
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January 29, 2025
Southwest's Plan Oversight Cost Workers Millions, Court Told
Southwest Airlines cost workers millions of dollars in retirement savings by failing to ax a costly and underperforming investment fund from its combined $14 billion retirement plans, according to a proposed class action filed in Texas federal court.
Expert Analysis
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Opinion
6 Changes I Would Make If I Ran A Law School
Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner identifies several key issues plaguing law schools and discusses potential solutions, such as opting out of the rankings game and mandating courses in basic writing skills.
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The Current State Of Play Around Corporate Transparency Act
Although a Texas court preliminarily enjoined enforcement of the Corporate Transparency Act and paused an impending Dec. 31 reporting deadline, multiple states have similar requirements, so companies should continue to monitor compliance obligations regardless of the CTA's constitutionality, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.
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Firms Still Have The Edge In Lateral Hiring, But Buyer Beware
Partner mobility data suggests that the third quarter of this year continued to be a buyer’s market, with the average candidate demanding less compensation for a larger book of business — but moving into the fourth quarter, firms should slow down their hiring process to minimize risks, say officers at Decipher Investigative Intelligence.
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Reviewing 2024's State Consumer Privacy Law Enforcement
While we are still in the infancy of state consumer privacy laws, a review of enforcement activity this year suggests substantial overlaps in regulatory priorities across the most active states and gives insight into the likely paths of future enforcement, says Thomas Nolan at Quinn Emanuel.
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5th Circ. Crypto Ruling Shows Limits On OFAC Authority
The Fifth Circuit's recent decision that immutable smart contracts on the Tornado Cash crypto-transaction software protocol are not "property" subject to Office of Foreign Assets Control jurisdiction may signal that courts can construe OFAC's authority more restrictively after Loper Bright, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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AV Compliance Is Still A State-By-State Slog — For Now
While the incoming Trump administration has hinted at new federal regulations governing autonomous vehicles, for now, AV manufacturers must take a state-by-state approach to compliance with safety requirements — paying particular attention to states that require express authorization for AV operation, say attorneys at Frost Brown.
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Think Like A Lawyer: 1 Type Of Case Complexity Stands Out
In contrast to some cases that appear complex due to voluminous evidence or esoteric subject matter, a different kind of complexity involves tangled legal and factual questions, each with a range of possible outcomes, which require a “sliding scale” approach instead of syllogistic reasoning, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.
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How Litigation, Supply Chains Buffeted Offshore Wind In 2024
U.S. offshore wind developers continue to face a range of challenges — including litigation brought by local communities and interest groups, ongoing supply chain issues, and a lack of interconnection and transmission infrastructure — in addition to uncertainty surrounding federal energy policy under the second Trump administration, say attorneys at Liskow & Lewis.
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Think Like A Lawyer: Note 3 Simple Types Of Legal Complexity
Cases can appear complex for several reasons — due to the number of issues, the volume of factual and evidentiary sources, and the sophistication of those sources — but the same basic technique can help lawyers tame their arguments into a simple and persuasive message, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.
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Permitting, Offtake Among Offshore Wind Challenges In 2024
Although federal offshore wind development started to pick up this year, many challenges to the industry became apparent as well — including slow federal permitting, the pitfalls of restarting permits after changes in project status, and the difficulties of negotiating economically viable offtake agreements, say attorneys at Liskow & Lewis.
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Series
Gardening Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Beyond its practical and therapeutic benefits, gardening has bolstered important attributes that also apply to my litigation practice, including persistence, patience, grit and authenticity, says Christopher Viceconte at Gibbons.
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How Trump's 2nd Term May Alter The Immigration Landscape
Rhetoric from Donald Trump's campaign and his choice of hardline appointees indicate that a more restrictive and punitive approach to immigration is in our immediate future, especially in areas like humanitarian relief, nonimmigrant visa processing, and travel and green card eligibility, says John Quill at Mintz.
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Equitable Mootness Insights From Greenlit Ch. 11 Plan Appeal
A Texas federal court recently allowed a challenge to ConvergeOne's Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan to proceed because it wouldn't disrupt the IT company's confirmed plan or harm creditors, reinforcing the importance of judicial restraint in applying equitable mootness where limited relief is possible, say attorneys at Parkins & Rubio.
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Litigation Inspiration: Reframing Document Review
For attorneys — new ones especially — there is much fulfillment to find in document review by reflecting on how important, interesting and pleasant it can be, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.
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Opinion
FTC Actions In Oil Cases Go Against Its Own Rulemaking
Two recent Federal Trade Commission actions concerning the oil and gas industry appear to defy its own merger guidelines, with allegations that fall far short of the commission's own standard — raising serious questions about the agency's current approach, say attorneys at Clifford Chance.