JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Monsanto Co. has filed a petition with the Missouri Supreme Court seeking review of an appellate decision that upheld a combined $549.9 million punitive damages award for three plaintiffs who argued that exposure to the herbicide Roundup caused their cancers.  Monsanto contends that review is warranted because there are “fundamental separation of powers concerns” with respect to a statute that is designed to ensure that a defendant is not forced to pay repeated punitive verdicts arising from the same alleged misconduct.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A divided U.S. Supreme Court on July 14 stayed a May 22 preliminary injunction entered by a federal judge in Massachusetts that halted a reduction in force (RIF) that is part of the alleged dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a July 11 opposition to the federal government’s U.S. Supreme Court application to stay a trial court’s ruling reinstating three members of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) who were terminated without cause in May by President Donald J. Trump, the CPSC members argue that the government can’t establish any stay factors, while the government argues in a July 14 reply that it is likely to show that Trump is empowered by the U.S. Constitution to carry out such terminations and that the courts lack the power to restore the members.

OMAHA, Neb. — A federal judge in Nebraska did not err when he issued a series of rulings in favor of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and a deaf job applicant in a case in which Werner Enterprises Inc. and a subsidiary, Drivers Management LLC, (together, Werner) were found by a jury to have violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for failure to hire and accommodate the applicant, the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled.

RICHMOND, Va. — A panel in the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on July 11 affirmed a Virginia federal judge’s implementation of a permanent injunction that bars a video game peripheral maker’s use of the mark “GTRacing” internationally; the panel held that the injunction does not run afoul of the Lanham Act’s territorial limitations because it enforces a previously negotiated and subsequently breached settlement agreement.

NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower federal court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of a homeowners insurer in a breach of contract and bad faith lawsuit seeking further insurance proceeds to repair property damage caused by hurricanes Laura and Delta, rejecting the appellant’s argument that his house purchase included an assignment of post-loss rights to pursue insurance claims for hurricane damage.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of a driver’s class action against her insurer, GEICO, for violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by providing drivers an insufficient rebate on premiums after the COVID-19 pandemic, finding that the insurer was protected by the “‘safe harbor’” doctrine as the state insurance commissioner approved its rebate amounts.

CHICAGO — In a lawsuit by former employees alleging that pre-shift COVID-19 screenings were compensable under the Illinois Minimum Wage Law (IMWL) and other statutes, a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel certified to the Illinois Supreme Court the question of whether the IMWL incorporates the federal Portal-to-Portal Act (PPA) amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) so as to exclude certain pre-shift activities from compensable time.