By alleging SpaceX retaliated against them for opposing conduct that they asserted amounts to sexual harassment—Elon Musk’s Twitter posts—the employees alleged conduct constituting a sexual harassment dispute. Rejecting SpaceX’s contention that the EFAA requires that sexual harassment allegations must state a claim that would survive a motion to dismiss under the federal pleading standard, a divided Ninth Circuit held that, in deciding whether the statute’s definition of “sexual harassment…

The SEC said it “respectfully takes no position” pending a 60-day review of a CFTC approval of equity perpetual contracts. The SEC has submitted a proposed amicus brief in a lawsuit challenging the CFTC’s recent approval of perpetual contracts on individual equity securities. The SEC said it is reviewing the CFTC’s approval pursuant to its own authority over security futures and currently takes no position on whether the CFTC rule changes should be abrogated and required to undergo…

A resolution calling on Congress to take steps to shore up the cyber defenses of water utilities was adopted yesterday by the board of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC). The resolution was adopted at NARUC’s annual meeting and was largely unchanged from the version introduced by New Jersey Board of Public Utilities Commissioner Michael Bange (CPR, Nov. 6). It asks Congress to “remedy the funding shortfall” facing the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security…

Disputed evidence that a pharmacy director reported allegedly unlawful 340B patient qualification and was then suspended and discharged required a jury to resolve retaliation and defamation claims. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana denied summary judgment on claims for retaliation under the False Claims Act and defamation under Indiana law. In reaching its denial, the court found that evidence could permit a reasonable jury to find that a hospital pharmacy director…

The ABA and ABASA seek a $2,000,000 executive-officer other-purpose loan threshold, while ICBA supports the proposed $400,000 limit. The American Bankers Association (ABA) and ABA Securities Association (ABASA) called for a $2,000,000 executive-officer other-purpose loan threshold in a Nov. 4, 2026, joint comment letter in response to insider-lending proposals issued by the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA),…

Although the video streaming patents claimed abstract ideas, their allegedly unconventional caching arrangements supplied sufficient inventive concepts to withstand dismissal. Netflix, Inc. must defend claims that its streaming platform infringes three patents covering distributed video caching and partial video pre-fetching technologies, after a federal district court in Delaware rejected its challenge to patent eligibility and the sufficiency of the infringement allegations. The court…

The UK antitrust enforcer also announced that it is inviting comments on Pilgrim's Pride's proposed acquisition of Walkers Deli & Sausage Co. The UK Competition & Merkets Authority (CMA) announced on November 11 that it has decided, on the evidence currently available to it, that it is or may be the case that the proposed merger of chemical and paint products companies Akzo Nobel N.V. (AkzoNobel) and Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. may be expected to result in a substantial lessening of…

The chatbot engaged the minor in discussions involving self-harm and suicide, the complaint asserts. The parents of a 13-year-old student have sued Google LLC and Alphabet Inc. on their child’s behalf, alleging that Google’s Gemini chatbot contributed to a severe mental health crisis after the student accessed the technology through a school-issued Chromebook. The parents seek compensatory and punitive damages, injunctive and declaratory relief, and a jury trial. The case was recently removed…

The Court declined the opportunity to weigh in on whether courts must independently interpret agency precedents announced through adjudication, denying review of a petition that argued the NLRB had effectively rewritten one of its own labor-law rules. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a petition in Rieth-Riley Construction Co. v. NLRB , wherein the employer argued that the Sixth Circuit had improperly allowed the National Labor Relations Board to reinterpret one of its own longstanding…