SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted the National Archives & Records Administration’s (NARA) motion for summary judgment on allegations by an open records advocacy group that it violated the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), holding that it was not a violation for NARA to require proof of permission from the holder of copyrights to allow access to a well-known video showing the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

NEW YORK — Saying the total would be nearly $10 million higher than the verdict a jury issued in their favor, a class of retirement plan participants who challenged the record-keeping and administration fees of a multiple employer retirement plan (MEP) on July 2 asked a New York federal court for preliminary approval of a settlement that would include a $48.5 million payment and other relief.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition for certiorari filed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency asking the court to determine whether the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals is the proper venue to decide challenges to the EPA’s decision to disapprove state implementation plans for new air quality standards under the Clean Air Act (CAA).

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A California state court jury on July 1 awarded $314,626,932 to plaintiffs in a class action against Google LLC alleging that it misappropriated their cellular data allowances via passive transfers of information between Google and their mobile devices.

MONTPELIER, Vt. — The Vermont Supreme Court has partially affirmed and partially reversed plaintiffs’ claims against Burlington, Vt., for contamination of their drinking water and property from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the firefighting agent aqueous film forming foam (AFFF), finding that the U.S. government and the National Guard were not necessary parties for the claims, which alleged that the pollution came from activities at Burlington International Airport. The Supreme Court said the case “has to do with what defendant did or did not do to limit the damage by containing the runoff from the foams on its own property,” therefore many of the claims were valid.

SALISBURY, N.C. — While there is evidence that a man worked with pipe at Camp Lejeune, the record does not support the conclusion that it contained asbestos or that fittings would have been used often enough or in a way that released asbestos, a federal judge in North Carolina said July 1 in granting summary judgment.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Alaska Supreme Court affirmed a lower court’s holding that an insurer failed to send a general contractor insured notice of the nonrenewal of its workers’ compensation and employers liability insurance policy pursuant to a statute and, therefore, breached its contract with the insured, but reversed the lower court’s determination of when prejudgment interest began to accrue and remanded for recalculation of the interest.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 30 granted a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by two trade associations that advocate for the expansion of the use of ethanol and other biofuels that challenged whether the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals is the proper venue to review exemptions from the Clean Air Act’s (CAA) Renewable Fuels Standards (RFS) program that mandates the amount of fuel to be blended annually into the national supply of gasoline and diesel fuel, with the high court also vacating and remanding the Fifth Circuit’s ruling in light of a decision in EPA v. Calumet Shreveport Refining, LLC, et al.