The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has handed federal prosecutors a significant win in the Buffalo mass-shooting case, ruling that the Justice Department may rely on the alleged gunman’s racist motive as part of its pursuit of the death penalty. The decision addresses a high-stakes issue in one of the most closely watched federal criminal prosecutions in…
Continue Reading Second Circuit Clears DOJ to Use Racist Motive in Buffalo Death-Penalty Case

Luxottica of America Inc. has filed a new inter partes review proceeding at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, opening another matter for practitioners tracking how major consumer-brand companies use PTAB challenges as part of broader patent defense strategy. The petition, docketed as IPR2026-00412 and filed on August 7, 2026, is now pending before the Board.

At this early stage,…
Continue Reading Luxottica Launches New PTAB Challenge in IPR2026-00412

The Federal Trade Commission has inserted itself into a debate with potentially long-term consequences for the legal profession: who gets to decide whether a lawyer’s education is good enough for bar admission. In a recent endorsement of an Ohio Supreme Court proposal, the FTC supported reducing the American Bar Association’s outsized role in determining whether a law school credential qualifies…
Continue Reading FTC Backs Ohio Plan to Loosen ABA Control Over Bar Eligibility

In a brief opinion filed August 3, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the district court’s judgment in docket No. 25-1162. Based on the docket entry presently available, the panel—identified as DC, RJS, and AJN—left the lower court’s ruling intact without signaling a major doctrinal shift. For practitioners, that often matters as much as a…
Continue Reading Second Circuit Affirms District Court in Docket No. 25-1162, Signaling a Fact-Bound Ruling

Weill Cornell Medicine has reached a settlement with Manhattan federal prosecutors to resolve a criminal investigation into allegations that the institution failed for years to prevent a physician’s sexual abuse of patients. The matter, handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, is notable not only because of the underlying misconduct allegations, but because prosecutors…
Continue Reading Weill Cornell Medicine Resolves SDNY Criminal Probe Over Abuse Reporting Failures

The Third Circuit’s August 5, 2026 opinion in No. 25-3032 is now available, but practitioners should note an immediate limitation for analysis: the public case information provided here identifies the court, docket number, and filing date, but does not include the text of the opinion itself. That means any substantive assessment of the panel’s holding, its reasoning, or its precedential…
Continue Reading Third Circuit Opinion in No. 25-3032: Key Takeaways for Appellate Practitioners

The U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division has announced that it is resuming a more targeted Hart-Scott-Rodino merger review process, an important procedural shift for companies navigating premerger notification in 2026. Although this is not a court filing or enforcement complaint, it is still a meaningful legal development: it tells dealmakers and their counsel how one of the government’s primary…
Continue Reading DOJ Revives Targeted HSR Merger Review, Signaling Faster but Focused Antitrust Scrutiny

The Justice Department’s proposed settlement with Willow Bridge Property Company LLC marks another important step in the government’s expanding antitrust challenge to rent-setting tools and shared market data in multifamily housing. The case, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, fits into a broader enforcement push targeting allegations that landlords used common pricing software…
Continue Reading DOJ’s Willow Bridge Deal Signals More Aggressive Antitrust Review of Rental Pricing Software

The Tenth Circuit’s August 4, 2026 order in appeal No. 26-6021 appears to be a procedural disposition rather than a published merits opinion, and that matters for how practitioners should read it. Based on the docket entry, the panel—Judges Bacharach, McHugh, and Eid—issued a final order, but the available case detail does not indicate a precedential published opinion or a…
Continue Reading Tenth Circuit Order Flags Procedural Stakes in Appeal No. 26-6021

The Justice Department said on August 6 that Duke University School of Law intentionally discriminated on the basis of race in admissions for its 2023, 2024, and 2025 entering classes, concluding that the school’s practices violated Title VI and the Supreme Court’s ban on race-based admissions in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College et …
Continue Reading DOJ Finds Duke Law’s Admissions Practices Violated Title VI

The Justice Department has announced a $400 million settlement to cover healthcare costs for the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, marking one of the larger recent federal settlements and an important development at the intersection of tribal healthcare, federal funding obligations, and government-liability litigation.

For legal professionals, the size of the resolution is only part of the story. Settlements of…
Continue Reading DOJ’s $400 Million Alaska Native Tribal Health Settlement Signals Major Exposure in Federal Tribal Healthcare Disputes

The Ninth Circuit’s August 4, 2026 opinion in No. 61 OPINION (Milan D), Docket No. 26-1444, is worth watching for practitioners handling federal appeals in the circuit. Based on the available case information, the decision appears to address issues significant enough to merit a published opinion, which usually signals the panel intended to provide guidance beyond the immediate parties.

Although…
Continue Reading Ninth Circuit Flags Key Appellate Issues in No. 61 Opinion

The Justice Department has announced a $36.4 million settlement with Access DX Laboratory, its former CEO Michael Stewart, and Florida businessman Harold Shatz to resolve allegations that the defendants participated in a kickback-driven scheme involving medically unnecessary genetic testing billed to Medicare and Medicaid. The case is the latest sign that federal healthcare-fraud enforcement remains sharply focused on laboratory testing…
Continue Reading DOJ’s $36.4 Million Access DX Settlement Puts Genetic-Testing FCA Risk Back in Focus