Good morning. Conservative U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo today will hear a lawsuit that could ban an abortion pill nationwide, even in states where the drug is now legal. Democratic-led states have warned of “devastating consequences” if the FDA loses the closely watched case. Plus, two large U.S. law firms announce their Saudi Arabia office plans; new civil filings in U.S. courts fell for the second year in a row; the U.S. is probing the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank; and Ohio sued Norfolk Southern over the East Palestine derailment. It’s a newsy Wednesday. Let’s jump in.
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U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo today will hear arguments from anti-abortion groups seeking to ban sales of the abortion pill mifepristone across the country, even in states where abortion is legal, our colleague Brendan Pierson reports. Legal experts said the lawsuit, led by the Texas-based Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, could be the most significant abortion case since the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority last year overturned the abortion rights ruling Roe v. Wade.
The complaint against the FDA claims the agency used an improper process when it approved mifepristone in 2000 and did not adequately consider the drug's safety when used by girls under age 18 to terminate a pregnancy. The DOJ has argued the drug's approval was supported by science, and that the challenge is untimely. Dozens of U.S. state attorneys general have weighed in on the lawsuit, with Republicans backing it and Democrats warning of "devastating consequences" if it succeeds.
Kacsmaryk, a Trump-appointed judge and one-time Christian activist, is the lone U.S. district judge in Amarillo. His courthouse has become a priority destination for Republicans seeking a potentially sympathetic judge in cases challenging parts of President Joe Biden's agenda. Kacsmaryk had sought to keep news of the hearing from becoming public for as long as possible by delaying posting notice of when it would occur on the court's docket and asking lawyers to keep it secret. He could rule any time after hearing arguments. Any decision is likely to be appealed immediately to the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit.
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A seventh-year associate who said she was fired from law firm DLA Piper six days after submitting her request for maternity leave filed a discrimination charge at the EEOC. Gibson Dunn, representing the law firm, said DLA “has a generous leave policy and a great track record of supporting working parents.” (Reuters)
Squire Patton Boggs and Greenberg Traurig revealed changes to their presence in Saudi Arabia ahead of new rules in the country that will allow global practices to operate there more independently. The kingdom last year announced plans to remove a requirement that firms work through affiliated law offices located in Saudi Arabia. (Reuters)
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Dentons said it is combining with Philippine law firm PJS Law, giving the firm an outpost in the fast-growing Southeast Asian country. The combination will add 57 lawyers and professionals in Makati City, which is part of a broader metropolitan area that includes the Philippine capital of Manila. The combination will be finalized later this year. (Reuters)
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Steve Helber/Pool via REUTERS |
That’s the drop in the number of new federal civil lawsuits in the 2022 fiscal year, compared to the prior year, marking a decrease for the second year in a row. The court system continued to recover from disruptions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report from the judiciary. The decline in new civil cases to 274,771 came amid an overall drop off in activity in the federal courts in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, with new criminal cases declining 8% and filings in regional appeals courts falling 6%. The judiciary reported a 27% drop in civil cases in 2021.
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Delaware Chancery Court books and records disputes, in which shareholders go to court to enforce their right to access internal corporate documents, are usually dry affairs. But not a case headed for trial on Wednesday by a shareholder who wants documents detailing Disney’s decision to speak up against Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law. Alison Frankel lays out Disney’s contention that the case is being orchestrated by lawyers with ties to The Thomas More Society, a conservative legal group known for anti-abortion litigation. Those lawyers, in turn, have turned Disney’s arguments back on the company, accusing Disney of suffusing the case with “anti-Catholic bigotry” in another example of Disney’s misguided corporate values. The culture wars, Frankel writes, have come to Chancery.
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"The decisions made over the weekend had nothing to do with crypto." |
—A New York State Department of Financial Services spokesperson, who countered comments from Signature Bank board member and former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank that the regulators’ decision to shutter the bank was meant to send an “anti-crypto message.” As of September, almost a quarter of Signature’s deposits came from the cryptocurrency sector, but the bank announced in December that it would shrink its crypto-related deposits by $8 billion. The spokesperson said the decision to close Signature Bank and appoint the FDIC as receiver “was based on the current status of the bank and its ability to do business in a safe and sound manner on Monday.”
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U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown in Galveston will hear arguments from Texas as it seeks a preliminary injunction blocking the EPA from implementing a rule protecting waterways that feed into rivers and lakes under the Clean Water Act. The rule restores protections to waterways that have a “significant nexus” to navigable U.S. waters. Developers, ranchers and manufacturers had complained those protections are overly broad. Lawyers for Texas contend the rule relies on an “arbitrary” test that “strays far from any legal authority.”
U.S. Circuit Judges James Ho and Elizabeth Branch, who both had called for a boycott of law clerks from Yale Law to protest "cancel culture" on its campus, will appear at the school with other members of the judiciary to discuss their "lasting friendships across political divides." Ho and Branch, appointees of Republican former President Donald Trump, are set to speak to a Yale-only audience alongside six other judges appointed by presidents of both parties. They will be joined by three appointees of Democratic former President Barack Obama: 4th Circuit Judge Pamela Harris, 5th Circuit Judge Stephen Higginson and D.C.-based U.S. District Judge James Boasberg.
The National Judicial College is holding its annual Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lecture in a virtual event. This year’s lecture, held on what would have been the late justice’s 90th birthday, features remarks from former Ginsburg clerks Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, University of Virginia School of Law associate professor Rachel Bayefsky and Complex Appellate Litigation Group partner Anna-Rose Mathieson.
Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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Signature Bank, its former CEO Joseph DePaolo, former CFO Stephen Wyremski and former COO Eric Howell were sued by shareholders who accused the New York bank of fraudulently proclaiming it was financially strong a mere three days before it was seized by a state regulator. The lawsuit was filed by the Rosen Law Firm, the same firm that sued Silicon Valley Bank's parent SVB Financial Group and its CEO and CFO on Monday. (Reuters)
Satellite provider DirecTV sued Nexstar Media and two other television station owners in Manhattan federal court, claiming they violated antitrust law by scheming to drive up retransmission fees for stations broadcasting the four major networks. Lawyers from Crowell filed the lawsuit. Nexstar, the largest local TV station owner in the United States, did not immediately comment. (Reuters)
A proposed class action accuses drugmaker Amgen of waiting too long to tell investors it might owe $10.7 billion to the IRS in taxes and penalties. The complaint in Manhattan federal court from a Detroit-based pension fund, represented by Robbins Geller, said Amgen artificially inflated its stock price by concealing the dispute over its international tax strategy between July 2020 and April 2022. (Reuters)
Quinn Emanuel lawyers representing eBay want a U.S. judge to block Meta from deposing a corporate executive at the e-commerce platform, as the social media company builds its defenses to the FTC’s monopoly claims. Ebay argues the subpoena from Meta, represented by Davis Polk, seeks confidential information that is irrelevant to the underlying case. (Reuters)
In a tentative ruling, California Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo said he will allow Tesla to get information about an investigation that a state civil rights agency conducted into claims of widespread race discrimination at the electric car maker’s flagship assembly plant. If the information reveals that the agency did not probe certain claims before filing a lawsuit, the company could seek to have them removed from the case. Tesla has denied the claims and called the suit politically motivated. (Reuters)
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Hogan Lovells added Kenneth Field as a D.C.-based partner and head of the health care antitrust practice. He arrives at the firm from Jones Day, where he was co-chair of the health care practice.
DLA Piper brought on Boston-based corporate partner Elizabeth Burkhard in the firm’s technology, sourcing and commercial team. She was previously at Holland & Knight. (DLA Piper)
Reed Smith added Lara Treinis Gatz as a Pittsburgh-based partner in the firm’s regulatory enforcement practice. She was most recently a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of Florida. (Reed Smith)
Barnes & Thornburg brought on William Essig as a Chicago-based litigation partner. He was previously at Faegre Drinker. (Barnes & Thornburg)
Akerman added Michael Doherty as a corporate partner in New York. He was previously at Faegre Drinker. (Akerman)
George Singer joined Holland & Hart as a partner in the firm’s Denver office. Singer, who was previously at Ballard Spahr, is a corporate finance attorney. (Holland & Hart)
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Slarskey added partner Adam Hollander. Hollander was previously at Bernstein Litowitz. (Slarskey)
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