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J&J maintains its talc products are safe. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan was set to preside over the hearing for the subsidiary, called LTL Management, in Trenton, New Jersey. In October 2021, J&J offloaded the tidal wave of talc lawsuits it faced onto one of its newly created units, LTL, which then declared bankruptcy. Reuters last year detailed the secret planning of Texas two-steps by Johnson & Johnson and other major firms in a series of reports exploring corporate attempts to evade lawsuits through bankruptcies. LTL declared bankruptcy while J&J avoided seeking Chapter 11 protection, with all its inherent financial and reputational wreckage.

☆ U.S. court rejects J&J bankruptcy strategy for tens of thousands of talc lawsuits
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

J&J said it will challenge the Third Circuit's ruling and continue to seek a resolution of the lawsuits in bankruptcy court. The appeals court was urged to dismiss the bankruptcy petition by plaintiffs suing over the talc products. The cancer victims asked the appeals court to overrule a New Jersey bankruptcy judge who had allowed LTL's bankruptcy to continue. LTL's bankruptcy filing automatically stopped lawsuits from proceeding against it, and U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan in Trenton, New Jersey ruled in February that LTL's bankruptcy should also stop talc lawsuits from proceeding against parent company J&J. Kaplan said the bankruptcy court is better equipped to handle mass tort litigation than other courts.

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Many of the details of the case are unclear, as the names of the law firm and client have been kept from the public record during the normally secretive grand jury probe. The law firm says it prepared the client's tax returns and also provided legal advice on how to determine ownership of cryptocurrency assets and value them. Those records, the firm said, were "dual-purpose" communications that contained legal advice as well as non-legal, advice concerning the preparation of its tax returns. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the lower-court judge in saying legal advice had to be the "primary" purpose of the communication to qualify for attorney-client privilege. She jokingly asked a lawyer for the law firm to comment on "the ancient legal principle of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it.'

☆ LIV Golf reaches U.S. broadcasting deal with CW Network
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] Oct 29, 2022; Miami, Florida, USA; General view of the 18th green and clubhouse during the second round of the season finale of the LIV Golf series at Trump National Doral. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY SportsJan 19 (Reuters) - LIV Golf secured the United States television deal it had been seeking, announcing on Thursday that the CW Network will broadcast all 14 events of the Saudi-backed series. Beginning this year the CW Network will bring the rebel circuit's tournaments to 120 million households across the United States, LIV Golf said in a statement. "This is a momentous day for LIV Golf as this partnership is about more than just media rights," said LIV Golf CEO and commissioner Greg Norman. LIV Golf will play from February to September and features simultaneous team and individual play with golfers competing for an unprecedented $405 million in prize purses.

Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar to file a brief expressing the Biden administration's view on the litigation and whether the Supreme Court should take up the matter. Charter schools are publicly funded but operated separately from school boards run by local governments. The 4th Circuit ruling did not make a conclusion on the Title IX claim. Circuit Judge Barbara Milano Keenan, in a decision joined by her fellow Democratic appointees on the 4th Circuit. The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority.

☆ If the Supreme Court strikes down student-loan forgiveness, it could have 'startling implications,' Biden says — and set a strange legal precedent going forward
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-08 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Biden's administration filed its full legal defense of its student-debt relief plan to the Supreme Court. Student-loan company MOHELA is central to the lawsuit filed by six GOP-led states. The DOJ said that ruling in favor of the states' argument could set a strange legal precedent. She added that the states' standing is questionable, and she's concerned of the legal precedent it would set should the Supreme Court rule in their favor. Should the Supreme Court rule in favor of the states, it would have "startling implications," the filing said.

Dec 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to consider how strictly to interpret the landmark Title IX civil rights law's protections for gender equality in college sports in a lawsuit challenging Michigan State University's elimination of its women's swimming and diving team. The high court rejected the university's appeal of a lower-court ruling in favor of former members of the team who say MSU violated Title IX by not providing enough opportunities for women athletes to participate in sports. At issue is how to determine whether a school has met a key benchmark in assessing if it provides equal opportunities to participate under Title IX, the 50-year-old law credited with expanding access to sports for female student-athletes. He said no court had ever held a gap of less than 2% violated the law. In a petition to the Supreme Court, MSU argued the 6th Circuit's approach was "unworkable" and conflicted with how every other federal appeals court that had examined the issued had approached Title IX.

Dec 9 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a bid by President Joe Biden's administration to revive a federal law that makes it a criminal offense to encourage illegal immigration after it was struck down by a lower court as a violation of free speech rights. Circuit Court of Appeals invalidating the law for infringing on rights guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment. The dispute is similar to one that the Supreme Court heard, but did not resolve, in 2020. The 9th Circuit upheld Hansen's other convictions and ordered that he be resentenced. Biden's administration urged the Supreme Court to hear the case, faulting the appeals court for invalidating an "important tool for combating activities that exacerbate unlawful immigration."

☆ The Supreme Court will hear Biden's student-loan forgiveness case in February. Here's what that means for millions of borrowers waiting for relief.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-04 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The Supreme Court agreed to hear oral arguments on Biden's student-debt relief in February. The good news is that President Joe Biden's debt relief isn't dead in the water — the Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments to the case early next year. In the meantime, all eyes are on the Supreme Court. The issue of standing has long been the focus of not only this specific lawsuit, but the other conservative lawsuits that have sought to block debt relief. "Our student debt relief program is necessary to help 40M eligible Americans struggling under the burden of student loan debt recover from the pandemic," Education Secretary Miguel Cardona wrote on Twitter.

Rulings by lower courts in two challenges filed against the debt relief program have put Biden's policy on ice. Biden announced in August that the U.S. government would forgive up to $10,000 in student loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 a year, or $250,000 for married couples. The Congressional Budget Office in September calculated that the debt forgiveness program would cost taxpayers about $400 billion. Biden and his predecessor Trump had invoked the law to pause student loan repayments. Biden on Nov. 22 extended the repayment pause to no later than next June 30 to give the Supreme Court time to decide the case.

The 11th Circuit also overturned Cannon's decision to bar investigators from accessing most of the records pending the review. Trump is likely to appeal the 11th Circuit's action to the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court. Cannon appointed Raymond Dearie, another federal judge, at Trump's request to review the records to consider whether any should be walled off from the criminal investigation. Trump sued two weeks after the Mar-a-Lago raid, arguing that his status as a former president required a third-party review of the documents. Justice Department lawyers also said Trump, as a former president, cannot invoke executive privilege for documents that belong to the current executive branch of the U.S. government.

☆ Why Biden's student-loan forgiveness plan is legal and should be reinstated by the Supreme Court, according to 44 economists, legal experts, and advocates
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Biden's administration recently asked the Supreme Court to revive its student-debt relief plan. Biden's Justice Department quickly appealed the 8th Circuit's decision and took the issue to the Supreme Court, asking it on November 18 to revive the student-loan forgiveness plan. It's unclear when, or what, the highest court will ultimately decide, but 44 advocates, economists, legal experts, and scholars joined the Biden administration's fight by filing amicus curiae briefs before Thanksgiving supporting the revival of debt relief. As you know, it's up to the Supreme Court, and we're going to continue to fight. Here are the main arguments the experts and advocates used as to why the Supreme Court should reinstate Biden's student-debt cancellation plan.

☆ Six states urge U.S. Supreme Court to keep block on Biden student debt relief
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Andrew Chung | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

In their filing, the states said Biden's administration is trying to "assert power far beyond anything Congress could have conceived." The administration has said the Nov. 14 decision to block the plan leaves millions of economically vulnerable borrowers in limbo. The administration stopped taking applications for student debt relief after that decision. Biden's administration asserts that the pandemic represented such an emergency. That timing, Biden said, would give the Supreme Court time to decide the case before the pause ends.

☆ An architect of the law Biden is using to cancel student debt tells the Supreme Court that the relief falls 'exactly' under the Education Secretary's authority and should be revived
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Former Rep. George Miller, who constructed the law Biden is using to cancel student debt, filed a brief with the Supreme Court supporting the plan. Miller stood with Biden's request to the court to revive the relief after lower federal courts blocked it. After Biden announced up to $20,000 in broad debt relief for federal borrowers at the end of August, a number of conservative lawsuits arose seeking to block the policy. The Supreme Court should lift the injunction put in place by the Eighth Circuit." Along with Miller, advocates, legal experts, and economists filed a series of briefs to the Supreme Court also expressing support for reviving Biden's debt relief.

☆ Biden's administration just asked the Supreme Court to reinstate its student-loan forgiveness plan to 'avoid prolonging this uncertainty for the millions of affected borrowers'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The Biden administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to revive its student-debt relief plan. It comes after a lower federal court ruled on Monday to keep the relief paused. The Biden administration also told the Supreme Court that the appeal can be considered a formal petition for a full briefing on the dispute "to avoid prolonging this uncertainty for the millions of affected borrowers," Prelogar wrote. Since Biden announced the one-time debt cancellation in August, a number of conservative lawsuits have attempted to block the debt relief. Given the lower courts' rulings blocking the relief, it's unclear how the Supreme Court will intervene.

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about student loan debt at the White House on Aug. 24, 2022 in Washington, DC. The Biden administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to reinstate its federal student loan program after a federal appeals court issued a nationwide injunction against the plan. The administration's request, which was previewed in another court filing Thursday, blasted the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit for blocking the debt relief plan. And if the Supreme Court accepts the administration's appeal, if could "set this case for expedited briefing and argument this Term," she wrote. The judge ruled that while the states raised "important and significant challenges to the debt relief plan," they ultimately lacked legal standing to pursue the case.

☆ Biden will ask the Supreme Court to allow his student-loan forgiveness plan to move forward after lower courts blocked the relief
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The 8th Circuit Court blocked Biden's student-debt relief from moving forward on Monday. On Thursday, the Justice Department said it's planning to ask the Supreme Court to reverse that decision. It also appealed another ruling from a Texas judge who declared the debt relief illegal. On Thursday, Politico first reported that the Justice Department is planning to ask the Supreme Court to allow Biden's debt relief plan to move forward. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett has already dismissed two requests from different conservative lawsuits that were seeking to block Biden's debt relief, but it's unclear how the Court will rule on the lawsuits Biden's administration is challenging given the lower courts' decisions to block the debt cancellation.

WASHINGTON, Nov 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rebuffed a bid by Bristol Myers Squibb Co's Juno Therapeutics Inc to reinstate a $1.2 billion award it won in its patent fight with Gilead Sciences Inc (GILD.O) subsidiary Kite Pharma Inc over a lymphoma drug. The justices turned away Juno's appeal of a lower court's ruling throwing out the award in the litigation over Kite's biologic drug Yescarta, in a case that could have repercussions for the cutting-edge biologic drug industry. Juno and Sloan Kettering Institute for Cancer Research sued Kite in 2017 in federal court in Los Angeles, accusing it of copying technology that the institute licenses to Juno. Juno and Sloan Kettering have told the Supreme Court that the Federal Circuit's decision to invalidate the patent and other rulings against biologic patents have been "devastating for innovation." On Nov. 4, the Supreme Court took up another patent case involving biologic drugs, agreeing to hear Amgen's bid to revive patents on its cholesterol drug Repatha.

The justices took up Amgen's appeal of the lower court ruling that threw out the Repatha patents. Amgen and other drugmakers have called the case a test of their ability to earn and defend patents for important drugs. Amgen first sued Regeneron and Sanofi in 2014 over their rival drug Praluent, which works by a similar mechanism as Repatha. Thousand Oaks, California-based Amgen sold more than $1.1 billion worth of Repatha worldwide last year. Regeneron sold $170 million worth of Praluent in the United States last year, and Sanofi sold over $200 million worth in the rest of the world.

☆ Aces high as Johnson leads team to LIV Golf team title
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-30 | by ( Steve Keating | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/6] Oct 30, 2022; Miami, Florida, USA; 4Aces GC captain Dustin Johnson celebrates after winning the individual championship during season finale of the LIV Golf series at Trump National Doral. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY SportsMIAMI, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Captain Dustin Johnson led the 4 Aces to the first LIV Golf team championship and the $16 million winner's purse on Sunday at Trump National Doral to bring the curtain down on the Saudi-back venture's tumultuous inaugural season. That total also does not include the reported $150 million LIV paid to lure Johnson away from the PGA Tour, and make him one of the rebel circuit's marquee recruits. Johnson's 4 Aces team mates Pat Perez, Patrick Reed, and Talor Gooch, who all defected from the PGA Tour, also pocketed $4 million. A total of 12 team took part in the $50 million team final with the last four teams splitting $1 million for a single round of golf.

☆ A court just ruled that CFPB's funding is unconstitutional, and that could be 'catastrophic' for mortgage markets
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Stephanie Dhue | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Mortgage rules at riskIf the agency's legal authority is undermined, it could have a profound affect on home lending markets — an industry that's prone to disruption when laws are murky, especially as interest rates rise. That extended the potential damages to the Wall Street banks as well as mortgage investors Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Appeal likelyIf the Fifth Circuit decision is upheld, it could call into question those long-standing mortgage rules. "The loss of the CFPB mortgage regulations and the effect on the market would catastrophic," said Andreano. "Potential changes in how the CFPB are funded aren't likely to have an immediate effect on the mortgage market."

Royal Bank of Scotland signs are seen at a branch of the bank, in London, Britain December 1, 2017. RBS agreed to settle Justice Department and FHFA investigations over its sales of residential mortgage-backed securities in the run-up to the financial crisis. The SEC did not pursue its own action against RBS in this instance. The petition Hong filed on Monday asks the Supreme Court to consider what constitutes an "action" within the SEC's whistleblower incentive program. "The better a whistleblower's information, the larger the sanctions, the larger the whistleblower award, and the greater the self-interested motivation for the SEC to take enforcement actions that it has conveniently placed outside of Dodd-Frank's reach," it added.

The Justice Department on Friday asked a federal appeals court to vacate an order appointing a special master to review documents seized during the FBI's search of former President Donald Trump's Florida estate — and to throw out Trump's legal challenge altogether. The 11th Circuit also blocked the special master and Trump's lawyers from being able to review those classified documents, citing the DOJ's national security concerns. The Justice Department also said that Trump's team has not provided any evidence the documents were wrongly seized or that the former president has any need for their return. Trump's team is scheduled to file its response in the case on Nov. 10. Trump's team had sought to allow the special master, federal Judge Raymond Dearie, to review the more than 100 documents taken from Mar-a-Lago that were marked classified.

In a filing on Tuesday, the Justice Department urged the Supreme Court to reject Trump's request because he has not pointed to any "clear error" in the lower court's decision or shown how he is harmed by it. Cannon had temporarily barred the Justice Department from examining the seized documents until the special master she appointed, Judge Raymond Dearie, had identified any that could be considered privileged. The Justice Department has "attempted to criminalize a document management dispute and now vehemently objects to a transparent process that provides much-needed oversight," Trump's lawyers added. At issue in the 11th Circuit's ruling were documents bearing classified markings of confidential, secret or top secret. In an interview on Fox News last month, Trump asserted that he had the power to declassify documents "even by thinking about it."

The case centers on how courts decide when an artist makes "fair use" of another's work under copyright law. The Supreme Court will hear arguments in the estate's appeal of a lower court's decision favoring Goldsmith. The Supreme Court's eventual decision could have broad or narrow implications for fair use depending on the ruling, Tushnet said. The Warhol estate told the Supreme Court the 2nd Circuit's decision "casts a cloud of legal uncertainty over an entire genre of visual art, including canonical works by Andy Warhol and countless other artists." Goldsmith's lawyers told the Supreme Court that a ruling favoring the foundation would "transform copyright law into all copying, no right."

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