Divided 4th Circuit Won’t Rehear Intel Agencies’ DEIA Worker Termination Ruling
RICHMOND, Va. — A divided Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Nov. 3 denied a petition filed by the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the Central Intelligence Agency to rehear a panel majority’s decision affirming a preliminary injunction preventing the agencies from firing, without providing reassignment or appeal procedures or obtaining federal district court approval, a group of workers who said they were faced with termination after working in temporary assignments related to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA).
Asbestos Case Settles After Judge Allows Soil Sample Evidence
NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge in Louisiana ordered an asbestos case dismissed on Nov. 3 after the parties notified the court that they had reached a compromise, just days after the judge said she would admit soil testing results because they were relevant to the defendants’ alternative asbestos exposure theory and it was irrelevant that some of the samples came from neighboring properties that the exposed individual never owned.
9th Circuit Affirms Dismissal In Part In Sex-Trafficking Suit Against Meta
SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Nov. 3 affirmed in part and reversed in part and remanded a lower court’s dismissal of a sex-trafficking victim’s suit alleging in part that Meta Platforms Inc. financially benefited from sex trafficking, finding that while Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act bars a product liability design defect claim based on identity and age verification requirements, it does not bar the design defect claim based on reporting requirements.
3M Announces $7.35B Resolution Covering Most PFAS Injury Claims From AFFF MDL
CHARLESTON, S.C. — 3M announced Nov. 3 that it has reached an agreement to make a $7.35 billion pretax nominal commitment to be paid over nine years to settle more than 100,000 per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)-related personal injury claims in and outside the aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) multidistrict litigation (MDL) in a federal court in South Carolina.
Texas High Court Orders Vacatur Of Homestead Inspection Ruling
AUSTIN, Texas — Conditionally granting mandamus relief and saying that “discovery must always be proportionate to the needs of the case,” the Texas Supreme Court ordered a trial court to vacate a ruling it concluded wrongly “compelled entry onto the relator’s homestead for inspection over her objection” in a neighborhood dispute.
Justice Dissents As Texas Court Won’t Rehear Asbestos MDL Jurisdiction Case
HOUSTON — A trial court properly applied admittedly ambiguous rules governing transfer of older asbestos cases to the Texas multidistrict litigation, a Texas appellate court justice said in a dissent after the court denied en banc reconsideration of a ruling ordering remand of the cases.
En Banc 5th Circuit Will Rehear Ruling Reinstating Fired Trader Joe’s Worker
NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals will rehear en banc a panel majority’s ruling granting a cross-petition filed by the National Labor Relations Board to enforce an order reinstating and making whole a Trader Joe’s employee — whom the company said was “described by her colleagues as a toxic bully” — after finding that she was unlawfully fired after she engaged in protected activity regarding COVID-19 safety protocols.
High Court Denies U.S.’s Injunction Bid To Segregate California Mail Ballots
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 2 denied the federal government’s emergency application to require California to segregate mail-in ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters identified as suspected noncitizens pending verification of their citizenship, leaving in place a Ninth Circuit ruling that federal law prohibiting noncitizen voting does not preempt California’s election procedures and that the government failed to establish irreparable harm.
Mississippi Federal Judge Denies Dismissal Of NAACP CAA Data Center Suit
OXFORD, Miss. — Holding that the NAACP has statutory standing under the Clean Air Act (CAA), that gas combustion turbines are not “mobile sources” under Mississippi’s State Implementation Plan (SIP) and that citizen suit provisions do not violate the U.S. Constitution, a federal judge denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed against xAI Corp. and an energy infrastructure affiliate over the construction and operation of dozens of turbines that power a Memphis, Tenn., data center.
Unpleaded Title VII Exemption That Nixed Pregnancy Bias Suit Argued In High Court
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Nov. 2 in a dispute over whether a defendant can obtain summary judgment based on an affirmative defense regarding Title VII’s personal staff exclusion that was never pleaded in a fired pregnant woman’s pregnancy discrimination case against the Fulton Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office in Georgia.
9th Circuit Affirms Denial Of Arbitration With Minors In ‘Robux’ Gambling Case
SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Oct. 30 rebuffed all arguments brought by the developer of a third-party gambling app that allegedly accepted “Robux,” the in-game digital currency used on Roblox Corp.’s online gaming platform, including from minors, for enforcing the app’s arbitration agreement included in its terms of service (TOS), writing that there was “no evidence” players received notice of the TOS.