AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Supreme Court on May 8 reversed an appellate court in part and held that oral nicotine pouches satisfy the state tax code’s definition of tobacco products because the products’ powdered composition including nontobacco matter and nicotine isolate is a taxable “tobacco substitute” and remanded the pouch-maker’s constitutional challenge to the tax code for further review.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An individual subjected to federal surveillance warrants tells the U.S. Supreme Court in a May 7 letter that he has settled and will release his claims against the United States, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI but is not seeking dismissal of his petition for a writ of certiorari against former FBI personnel in his suit alleging unlawful surveillance under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) arising from the FBI’s 2016 investigation of claimed links between Donald Trump campaign members and the Russian government.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The manufacturers of mifepristone, one of two drugs used to induce early termination of pregnancy, are not entitled to a stay or vacatur of a decision by the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that granted Louisiana’s motion to stay the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 2023 decision that removed the in-person dispensing requirement for the drug because there is not a reasonable probability that the court will grant certiorari, Louisiana tells the U.S. Supreme Court in a May 8 response to the applications for a stay.

DENVER — A Colorado federal magistrate judge on May 7 granted in part a motion to compel discovery of certain text messages sent by a woman whose company sued its business owner’s insurer for breach of contract for its purported failure to cover a claim for fire damage to her retail store, finding in part that privacy considerations related to the text messages are outweighed by the need to view them in connection with an arson investigation related to the fire.

SAN FRANCISCO — A split Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a California federal judge’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Igloo Products Corp. on a federal false advertising claim against it, with the panel majority saying that Igloo’s claim that it had created the “first biodegradable cooler” was not a comment on the nature of the product itself and thus not actionable under the Lanham Act.

CINCINNATI — Saying in part that the administrator of a long-term disability (LTD) plan “adequately considered the evidence . . . and arrived at a reasoned decision,” a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on May 7 affirmed judgment against a project director who stopped working because of symptoms she attributed to long COVID, was denied LTD benefits and then unsuccessfully asserted breach of contract and bad faith claims; the panel also affirmed the lower court’s denial of the claimant’s requests for both broad and limited discovery.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a decision from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) to find that the company formerly known as DraftKings Inc. failed to show that a single patent claim was invalid in its otherwise successful challenge of another company’s online gaming patent; the panel agreed with the PTAB that an argument regarding the patent claim was inappropriately raised for the first time in a footnote in a reply brief.

CHICAGO — A split Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel upheld a trial court’s decision to extend a 2021 consent decree in a class action by noncitizens challenging warrantless arrests by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and partially upheld an order to release class members arrested without warrants, reversing only the portion of the order that required the release of “potential class members” and any other individual arrested pursuant to I-200 warrants, warrants that were issued in the field.