Good morning. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s ban on COVID-19 vaccine mandates sets up a clash with President Joe Biden’s edict to employers, putting businesses in a tough spot as the question of which rule applies to them in the state is hashed out in the courts. Plus, read about a trial attorney couple’s huge donation to a California law school, and who the U.S. Supreme Court wants to hear from in a case about excessive punitive damages. No shortage of news for you today!
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After Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed an executive order banning private employers and other entities from imposing vaccine mandates, several major businesses in the Lone Star State found themselves picking sides between the state rule and President Joe Biden’s national mandate that most employers require their workers to get vaccinated.
Southwest Airlines and American Airlines both have already said Abbott’s move won't make them change their policies, a sign they’re betting Biden will win out when the fight heads to court, writes Tom Hals. And they’re likely right, experts told Hals.
But until that’s hashed out before judges — which could take months — employers have to find a way forward.
In the meantime, cases challenging the mandates are working their way through the courts. Late Tuesday in Fort Worth, Texas, U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman granted a temporary restraining order putting a United Airlines vaccine mandate on hold for employees who have asked for religious or medical exemptions.
The temporary restraining order expires Oct. 26, but Pittman is holding an evidentiary hearing on a preliminary injunction in the case this morning. He will also consider a bid by United, represented by Jones Day, to dismiss the bulk of the suit at the hearing.
Read what lawyers are saying about Abbott’s vaccine order.
- Las Vegas trial lawyers Robert and Tracy Eglet gave $25 million to The University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law, Robert Eglet’s alma mater. (Reuters)
- Six partners are joining the global human capital and compliance group at King & Spalding. The group comes from three different firms: Seyfarth Shaw, Simpson Thacher and Barnes & Thornburg. (Reuters)
- The SEC has opened a broad inquiry into how Wall Street banks are keeping track of employees' digital communications, contacting banks to check whether they have been adequately documenting employees' work-related communications — with a focus on the workers’ personal devices. (Reuters)
That’s the amount, and it’s still growing, that Russia owes in civil sanctions after a federal judge in Washington, D.C. in 2013 declared the country in contempt in a long-running lawsuit over the return of a collection of Jewish texts and artifacts. The penalty was in focus on Tuesday in the D.C. Circuit as two Russian-affiliated corporate entities represented by White & Case and Freshfields urged a three-judge panel to block subpoenas seeking information about assets that might be used to satisfy U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth’s judgment against Russia. Steven Lieberman of Rothwell Figg argued for plaintiff Agudas Chasidei Chabad of United States in the appeal. Read more about the case.
- U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon in Manhattan plans to issue her ruling today on a bid to stay the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy plan pending appeals of its approval, she said at a Tuesday hearing. The company, which makes opioid painkiller OxyContin, had its bankruptcy plan approved in September, but the DOJ’s bankruptcy watchdog and a handful of states are challenging the deal’s broad liability protections for the company’s owners.
- Munger Tolles’ Ginger Anders will argue for convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev at the U.S. Supreme Court as he challenges the government’s bid to reinstate the death penalty. A federal appeals panel last year ordered a new penalty phase amid concerns about juror bias at his trial. The U.S. Justice Department, represented by deputy U.S. solicitor general Eric Feigin wants Tsarnaev to be executed for his role in the 2013 attack that killed three people and wounded 264 others. Bombing victims are divided over whether Tsarnaev should face capital punishment. Read more about the case.
- Representatives for former shareholders of cancer treatment maker Amplimmune will ask the Delaware Supreme Court to revive a lawsuit seeking at least $200 million from AstraZeneca unit MedImmune for allegedly failing to make certain milestone payments as part of the companies' 2013 merger. A lower court ruled last year that the plaintiffs did not meet their burden of proving one of the milestones had been met. Paul Weiss represents the former shareholders, and a team from Williams & Connolly represents AstraZeneca.
- Chief U.S. District Judge Edmund Sargus in Columbus will hold a virtual hearing on preparations for the second bellwether trial in the multidistrict litigation over Becton, Dickinson and Co subsidiary C.R. Bard's hernia mesh products. The dispute, with more than 14,000 pending actions, is the country’s third-largest MDL. Both sides face an Oct. 15 deadline to file motions to limit evidence at trial, which is scheduled to start on Jan. 10.
Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
"Intervention is not a revolving door that allows a party to agree to be bound, procure their dismissal, fail to appeal, and then gain re-entry to the suit after the court of appeals has ruled."
ACLU lawyer Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, representing the Louisville, Kentucky, abortion clinic EMW Women's Surgical Center, at a U.S. Supreme Court argument on Tuesday. Kentucky Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron wants to jump into a case — dropped by the state’s Democratic governor — to defend an abortion statute. Kolbi-Molinas argued that the state attorney general's office, early in the litigation, agreed to be bound by the lower court's final judgment and did not appeal. Read more about the arguments.
- The U.S. Supreme Court has asked the U.S. Solicitor General to weigh in on a case in which the 7th Circuit slashed a $280 million award against IT service provider Tata Consultancy Services for stealing medical software company Epic Systems' trade secrets after the court found the ratio of punitive to compensatory damages excessive. Epic is represented by Michael Brody of Jenner & Block and Tata is represented by Carter Phillips of Sidley Austin. (Reuters)
- Opening arguments are slated to begin today in the criminal trial of Lev Parnas, a former associate of Rudy Giuliani who is accused of orchestrating illegal campaign donations to former President Donald Trump and others. Parnas, who is represented by Stephanie Schuman of Leaf Legal PC and Joseph Bondy, has pleaded not guilty. (Reuters)
- The U.S. Supreme Court won’t hear a California Republican club's suit over an organization's cancellation of a 2017 event at a Pasadena city property that was to have featured Trump supporter and attorney John Eastman. The appeal challenged a lower court’s ruling that found the cancellation did not violate the First Amendment. (Reuters)
- A Department of Transportation plan to expand the use of navigable waterways to transport goods puts imperiled species like the North Atlantic right whale at risk, the Center for Biological Diversity said in a new suit. (Reuters)
- Read the deferred prosecution agreement between former Wake Forest women's volleyball coach William Ferguson and federal prosecutors resolving allegations he participated in the U.S. college admissions fraud and bribery scheme known as Varsity Blues. The firms Brooks Pierce and Smyser, Kaplan & Veselka represented Ferguson. (Reuters)
- A former assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, Kirti Reddy, has joined Quarles & Brady’s Washington, D.C. office as a partner in the firm’s health and life sciences practice group. (Quarles & Brady)
- Sarah Krissoff has joined Day Pitney as a New York-based partner focused on government enforcement and white-collar defense. Previously, Krissoff was an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. (Day Pitney)
- Josh Rataezyk jumped to Snell & Wilmer, where he’ll be the firm’s first attorney based out of Seattle. Rataezyk, who was previously with Hillis Clark Martin & Peterson, focuses on bankruptcy, restructuring and reorganization. (Snell & Wilmer)
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