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MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama’s reporter shield law does not protect all information that could reveal a confidential source but only “information that would inevitably reveal the identity of a confidential source,” a split Alabama Supreme Court held in answering a certified question from an Alabama federal court that is presiding over a defamation case brought by a member of the University of Alabama’s men’s basketball team against The New York Times.

Suit Limitations Provision Bars Breach Of Contract, Bad Faith Suit, Panel Says

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A district court properly determined that an insured’s breach of contract and bad faith claims against a homeowners insurer fail because it is clear that the insured failed to file suit within the policy’s one-year suit limitations provision, a panel of the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in affirming the lower court’s judgment.

Federal Judge Dismisses Insured’s Hurricane Helene Flood Damage Suit As Untimely

TAMPA, Fla. — A federal judge in Florida on April 13 granted a Write-Your-Own insurer’s motion to dismiss with prejudice an insured’s breach of contract lawsuit arising from its flood damage caused by Hurricane Helene, holding that the action is untimely because it was not filed within a year of the insurer’s partial denial of the claim.

PTAB’s Invalidation Of Voice Command Patent Affirmed By Federal Circuit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a win for Roku Inc. in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings the company sought, rejecting an appellant technology company’s argument that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) adopted a theory introduced by Roku for the first time in a reply brief.

IBM To Pay $17M In FCA Fraud Initiative Settlement To Resolve Claims Of DEI Bias

WASHINGTON, D.C. — International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) will pay more than $17 million to resolve allegations that it violated the federal False Claims Act (FCA) by failing “to comply with anti-discrimination requirements” in its federal contracts, which “the United States contends discriminated against employees during employment and applicants for employment because of race, color, national origin, or sex and failed to treat employees during employment without regard to race, color, national origin, or sex.”

Parties To Pay Maryland $2.2M For Lead-Paint Contamination, Abatement Violations

BALTIMORE — The owner of a broadcasting tower and a painting company have agreed to pay $2.2 million in penalties to the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) for lead-based paint contamination of soil and water that occurred when the painting company performed lead paint abatement work on the broadcasting tower and did not properly contain the hazardous waste. The MDE also penalized the broadcasting tower for hiring a painting company that was not accredited and authorized to perform lead-paint abatement services in the state.

TPS Holders To High Court: INA Doesn’t Bar Court Review Of Designation Termination

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A court may, under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), review the Homeland Security secretary’s designation of temporary protected status (TPS) and the termination of such designation, Syrian nationals with TPS or pending applications for TPS and Haitian TPS holders argue in separate respondent briefs filed April 13 in putative class cases consolidated by the U.S. Supreme Court and scheduled oral argument for April 29.

Makers Of Mifepristone Say States Lack Standing In Challenge To FDA’s Decisions

WICHITA FALLS, Texas — The drug manufacturers of mifepristone, one of two drugs used to induce early termination of pregnancy, moved separately in a Texas federal court to dismiss a case brought by Florida and Texas that challenges the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval in 2000 of mifepristone and the agency’s subsequent approvals, including allowing the drug to be mailed.

Judge Dismisses In Part Trump $10B Defamation Suit Against Wall Street Journal

MIAMI — A Florida federal judge on April 13 granted in part and dismissed without prejudice a motion filed by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), its holding company, the company’s owner and its CEO and two reporters in a suit filed by President Donald J. Trump seeking $10 billion in damages and alleging that he was defamed when the WSJ published and then republished on the WSJ X account “to all 20,800,000 of its followers” a story on a purported “bawdy” card Trump allegedly sent to now-deceased Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday, finding in part that Trump failed to “plausibly allege” that the article was published with “actual malice,” a requirement for public figure defamation claims.

Plaintiffs Still Mostly Prevail At Dismissal In Tobacco Surcharge Cases

As the number of health plan sponsors facing putative class lawsuits over tobacco surcharges keeps rising, plaintiffs continue to get claims past dismissal most of the time, but in the last month one case has been dismissed while four survived dismissal wholly or in part; additionally, a similar case that slightly preceded the wave was ruled time-barred at summary judgment.

U.S. Says Now Is Not The Time For High Court Review Of Nuclear Waste Tort Liability

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Despite calling the underlying Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling “erroneous,” the United States says that a U.S. Supreme Court petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a uranium processing company and its former owner asking the court to decide whether radiation-dose regulations for nuclear incidents provide the exclusive standard of care in public liability actions pursuant to the Price-Anderson Act (PAA)should be denied, stating that review by the high court “is not warranted at this time.”