Although it was not attached to her complaint, the Ninth Circuit determined that under the incorporation-by-reference doctrine, the lower court should have considered the contents of the letter. Reversing a district court’s dismissal of a registered nurse’s Title VII and state-law claims alleging religious discrimination in the face of a COVID-19 vaccine mandate, the Ninth Circuit found the lower court erred when it dismissed the claim without leave to amend. In her opposition to the motion to…

The district court based joint-and-several liability on the participants’ “concerted wrongdoing.” A group of defendants held joint-and-severally liable for disgorgement are appealing that judgment to the Supreme Court. The petitioners assert that the SEC had not shown that they received any funds at all from the alleged pump-and-dump scheme. To impose joint-and-several disgorgement based only on “concerted wrongdoing” conflicts with the principles espoused in Liu v. SEC , the petitioners argue…

A federal law on technology supply-chain threats provided sufficient authority for the Department of Defense to designate Anthropic as a national security threat after the company refused to allow the use of its AI (artificial intelligence) systems for mass domestic surveillance or autonomous weaponry, an appeals court ruled today. But the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is at odds with a decision by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of…

The court permanently enjoined the company from receiving or shipping FDA-regulated products until they eliminate pests and filth, repair the facility, and obtain written FDA approval to resume operations. The U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota entered a consent decree of permanent injunction against Gold Star Distribution, Inc. (Gold Star), a Minnesota-based multi-commodity warehouse operator, and its owner, Bassam Abu Samrah, after the FDA observed persistent insanitary…

The Fed proposed reserve, capital and risk management rules for stablecoin issuers it supervises, and a bank application process. The Federal Reserve Board (Fed) has proposed a regulatory framework for payment stablecoin issuers under its supervision to implement the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act), together with a separate proposal setting out how insured state member banks may apply for approval for a subsidiary to issue payment stablecoins.…

Common evidence could determine whether making individuals’ names searchable within an online yearbook database commercially exploited their identities without consent under California’s right-of-publicity statute. A class action challenging an online yearbook service’s alleged use of individuals’ names to promote paid subscriptions can proceed, the Ninth Circuit has found. Affirming certification of damages and injunctive classes, the court rejected the website operator’s arguments that…

During pendency of litigation, the California legislature enacted a statute specifically prohibiting the use or distribution of "a common pricing algorithm" as a method to violate state antitrust law. A California state appellate court has reversed the demurrer granted to a data analytics provider and healthcare third-party payors in a lawsuit alleging the use of pricing algorithms in a conspiracy to hold down healthcare reimbursement rates for services provided to out-of-network patients. The…

An insurer’s allegations that a shower valve was defective without identifying any defect, inadequate warning, express warranty, or alternative design were insufficient for its claims to survive. In an insurance subrogation action arising from a homeowner’s flood allegedly caused by a shower valve, a federal district court in New Jersey granted the valve company’s motion to dismiss. The court held that negligence and implied-warranty claims based on an alleged defective product were subsumed…

In this case, the Fifth Circuit made clear that the Board’s decision in Lion Elastomers II exceeded the scope of the court’s first remand order. On remand from the Fifth Circuit for a second time, a four-member panel of the NLRB, in a 3-1 decision, ruled that it is “impossible to reconcile the court’s finding that the Board’s attempt to overrule General Motors in Lion Elastomers II was invalid because it was beyond the scope of the court’s remand with any argument that General Motors remains…