HARRISBURG, Pa. — Going “one step further” than the response in opposition, a Pennsylvania federal judge held that a motion filed by the last remaining defendant in a lawsuit brought by the estate of a man who died while working at a natural gas drilling site to compel genetic testing of two children listed as beneficiaries was “meritless” and precluded by limitations prescribed by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 35.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A split District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Sept. 30 granted an emergency motion by U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) and its board seeking to prevent federal government parties from allegedly “carrying out plans to carve President [Donald J.] Trump’s name into the façade of the iconic USIP headquarters building”; the motion was filed in a case in which the USIP parties are challenging Trump’s authority to have fired them in March 2025.

CHICAGO — A pharmacist who filed a qui tam complaint against Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., Walgreen Co. and various subsidiaries (collectively, Walgreens) on allegations that the company violated federal law by filling millions of invalid controlled-substance prescriptions and seeking payment through Medicare and other federal health care programs must turn to state courts to resolve his claims that 28 states owe him a portion of the funds they recovered in a multistate agreement reached with Walgreens and in a settlement to end federal claims reached after the government intervened.

SAN DIEGO — A California federal judge on Sept. 29 granted a fruit snack maker’s motion to dismiss a putative class action lawsuit against it for allegedly violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by labeling its gummy snacks as “Made with Real Fruit Juice,” finding that the product does contain pear concentrate and that a reasonable consumer would not be deceived by the label, and denied the plaintiff leave to amend.

SAN FRANCISCO — A legal advocacy group filed suit Sept. 29 in a California court under the state’s unfair competition law seeking to enjoin OpenAI entities’ artificial intelligence models from accessing computers, networks or systems without authorization in the wake of allegations that the company’s AI agents hacked third-party websites.

SAN DIEGO — A California federal judge on Sept. 29 granted a woman’s motion to certify a statewide class bringing claims against a tampon manufacturer for violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by allegedly misrepresenting its tampons as safe when they in fact contained lead in its tampons and granted in part and denied in part a defense motion to exclude the plaintiff’s expert witness.

DENVER — Resolving cross-appeals filed after the class in an early retirement benefits dispute concerning a multiemployer fund obtained a judgment in the amount of $24,851,056, the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Sept. 29 revived fiduciary breach claims asserted by 66 boilermakers but otherwise affirmed the trial court.

PITTSBURGH —  Ruling on what he called an issue of first impression concerning the constitutionality of the Internal Revenue Code’s (IRC) 15% prepayment requirement, a Pennsylvania federal judge denied renewed motions for dismissal and for summary judgment filed by a Pittsburgh-based corporation challenging more than $6.5 million in promoter penalties tied to a purported captive insurance program, applying in part a constitutional originalism analysis of the Seventh Amendment to determine that the requirement does not violate the right to a jury trial because it is analogous to founding-era requirements that parties whose assets are at risk post security before trial.