A federal appeals court has refused to let the Trump administration implement an executive order affecting mail-in voting while the case moves forward, leaving in place a district court ruling that found the challenged action likely exceeded presidential authority. The decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit preserves a preliminary injunction entered by U.S. District Judge…
Continue Reading First Circuit Keeps Block on Trump Mail-Voting Order Pending Appeal

A federal judge in Washington, D.C. has voided a proposed settlement between Donald Trump and the IRS, concluding that the agreement was tainted by an improper effort to leverage a massive damages suit for personal benefit rather than a legitimate litigation resolution. In the same ruling, the court referred lawyers on both sides to disciplinary authorities, turning what might have…
Continue Reading D.C. Judge Throws Out Trump-IRS Deal and Refers Counsel for Discipline

A federal judge has issued a striking rebuke in litigation involving President Donald Trump and the IRS, concluding that the lawsuit was pursued for an improper purpose and referring lawyers involved for possible disciplinary review. Although the underlying case had already been dismissed and a proposed settlement blocked, the opinion carries consequences far beyond this dispute.

According to the ruling…
Continue Reading Judge Finds Trump IRS Suit Was Filed for an Improper Purpose

Google LLC has filed a new inter partes review petition at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, opening IPR2026-00418 on July 30, 2026. At this stage, the publicly available docket information identifies Google as the petitioner, but the filing summary does not yet provide the full patent details or the patent owner name in the case caption. Even so, the…
Continue Reading Google Launches New PTAB Challenge in IPR2026-00418

A new inter partes review, IPR2026-00408, was filed at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board on July 28, 2026, under the caption Zhuhai CosMX Battery Co., Ltd. For patent practitioners tracking battery-sector disputes and PTAB filing trends, this is a proceeding worth watching as the record develops.

At this early stage, the publicly available docket information identifies the petitioner as…
Continue Reading New PTAB Challenge Filed in Zhuhai CosMX Battery IPR2026-00408

A federal judge has reportedly voided a settlement involving the IRS and former President Donald Trump, a ruling that could have consequences well beyond the parties to the agreement. At a high level, the decision appears to turn on whether the settlement was lawfully structured and whether the government actors involved had the authority to bind the IRS in the…
Continue Reading Judge Voids Trump-Era IRS Settlement, Reopening Questions on Tax Authority and Executive Power

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has issued a significant state constitutional ruling, unanimously holding that Article I, Section 8 of the Pennsylvania Constitution protects private landowners from warrantless searches of posted private property. In doing so, the court rejected the federal “open fields” doctrine as a matter of Pennsylvania law, marking an important divergence from federal search-and-seizure doctrine.

The “open fields”…
Continue Reading Pennsylvania High Court Bars Warrantless Searches of Posted Private Land

Johnson & Johnson has announced a proposed $5.5 billion global resolution aimed at settling tens of thousands of lawsuits alleging its talcum powder products caused ovarian cancer, a major development in one of the country’s most closely watched mass torts. The deal is significant not only for its size, but for what it suggests about the future of talc litigation…
Continue Reading J&J’s $5.5 Billion Talc Deal Signals a New Phase in Ovarian-Cancer Litigation

Zoom Communications, Inc. has launched a new challenge at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, filing inter partes review petition IPR2026-00424 on July 24, 2026. For patent litigators and in-house IP teams, the case is worth watching both for what it may reveal about Zoom’s defensive patent strategy and for how the Board addresses the prior-art arguments once the petition…
Continue Reading Zoom Targets PTAB Review in IPR2026-00424

A new inter partes review, IPR2026-00448, was filed on July 29, 2026, at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board and is captioned Dolby Laboratories, Inc. For patent litigators and in-house IP teams, the filing is worth watching not only because Dolby is a well-known player in audio and media technology, but also because PTAB challenges involving established portfolio owners often…
Continue Reading Dolby Heads to the PTAB in Newly Filed IPR2026-00448

The Supreme Court’s June 18 decision in Hunter v. United States is poised to reshape how courts, prosecutors, and defense counsel think about appeal waivers in criminal plea agreements. In a significant ruling, the Court held that such waivers are not categorically enforceable when enforcing them would result in a miscarriage of justice.

That holding marks an important shift in…
Continue Reading Supreme Court Limits Reach of Criminal Appeal Waivers in Hunter

The Justice Department is elevating data security into a core national-security enforcement priority, with new public messaging and implementation activity around the federal government’s effort to restrict sensitive U.S. data from reaching foreign adversaries. While privacy and cybersecurity lawyers have been tracking the issue for months, the latest developments make clear that this is no longer a theoretical compliance problem:…
Continue Reading DOJ’s Data Security Program Signals a New Enforcement Era for Cross-Border Transfers

The EPA has finalized a settlement with Denka Performance Elastomer, LLC over alleged hazardous-waste mismanagement and chloroprene-related violations at the company’s LaPlace, Louisiana facility, closing out claims brought under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. While RCRA settlements are not unusual on their own, this one stands out because EPA framed waste-handling deficiencies as part of a broader set of…
Continue Reading EPA’s Denka Settlement Puts Hazardous-Waste Compliance and Air-Risk Exposure on the Same Track