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September 30, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Immigration detainees and the state of Washington filed supplemental briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court on Sept. 29 opposing arguments made by the United States in an amicus curiae brief supporting a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by the operator of immigration detention centers, which is asking the high court to decide whether the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause permits a state to find that detainees participating in a voluntary work program are employees who are owed state-mandated minimum wages.
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September 30, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court majority on Sept. 29 granted an application by federal government parties and stayed a February ruling by a federal court in Massachusetts that declared the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s March 2025 third-country removals policy “unlawful”; the high court also treated the application by DHS and others as a petition for a writ of certiorari, granted it and directed the parties to provide briefs addressing jurisdiction, classwide declaratory relief and the lawfulness of the federal government’s guidance.
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September 29, 2026
NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York dismissed an investor’s putative securities fraud class action against a global offshore drilling company and certain of executives for alleged misstatements about the readiness of two rigs to conduct operations, finding that the investor’s allegations did not give rise to the requisite strong inference of scienter.
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September 29, 2026
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Three life insurance trusts filed a putative class action complaint in a Connecticut federal court alleging that private equity owners acquired PHL Variable Insurance Co. after promising regulators and policyholders they would preserve and strengthen it, but instead diverted assets through a stranger-originated life insurance (STOLI) buyback program and captive reinsurance arrangements, concealed the insurer’s deteriorating financial condition and ultimately left policyholders subject to a $300,000 death benefit cap.
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September 29, 2026
BOSTON — Overruling objections from each party in a putative class action that is part of a wave of pension risk transfer (PRT) challenges, a Massachusetts federal judge on Sept. 28 adopted a report and recommendation that concluded that the amended complaint “plausibly alleges that a fiduciary breach occurred” but that only a claim against an independent fiduciary and one of the fiduciary’s managing directors survives dismissal.
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September 29, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Nestle USA Inc. filed a petition for a writ of certiorari asking U.S. Supreme Court justices to consider three questions concerning damages and injunctive relief classes in a case by consumers who allege that the company’s cocoa labeling is misleading.
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September 28, 2026
DENVER — Consumers of “Natural American Spirit” (NAS) cigarettes filed a brief opposing three tobacco companies’ petition urging the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to rehear en banc a challenge to certification of a class action representing smokers in 12 states who brought claims in a multidistrict litigation alleging that NAS are misleadingly labeled as “natural” and “additive-free,” writing that the panel properly evaluated the certification orders.
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September 28, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court should deny a petition by the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other federal government parties in a noncitizen removal class case seeking consideration of three questions concerning the lawfulness of a presidential proclamation that limited asylum and withheld removal applications and the availability of classwide relief as the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals majority “correctly held that the President may not invent by fiat a new removal system that eviscerates the protections Congress mandated by statute,” three nonprofits and 13 individuals argue in their opposition brief.
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September 28, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Petitioners whose certiorari petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision focuses on the Fourth Circuit’s recent Trauernicht v. Genworth Fin. Inc. ruling have filed a supplemental brief highlighting two developments they say “underscore that this case raises a certworthy question on the scope of ‘appropriate relief’” under part of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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September 28, 2026
SEATTLE — The manufacturer of a generic drug used to treat high blood pressure and other heart-related disorders asked a Washington federal court to dismiss a proposed class action alleging that its generic carvedilol was contaminated with a potentially harmful nitrosamine, arguing that the named plaintiff failed to allege that she purchased any recalled or defective tablets.
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September 25, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Individuals with ownership interests in Indian trust lands on a North Dakota reservation filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court asking the justices to decide in a long-running putative class pipeline dispute whether they have “a federal common-law cause of action for trespass on their allotments.”
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September 25, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A woman seeking to represent nationwide and California classes of purchasers on Sept. 24 amended her complaint against Veracity Wellness Inc. that alleges that the company deceptively markets its Metabolism Ignite dietary supplement as “Nature’s Ozempic” and as a natural alternative to prescription weight-loss drugs, asserting claims for violation of California’s unfair competition law and other laws.
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September 25, 2026
HAMMOND, Ind. — An Indiana federal judge adopted the result of a magistrate judge’s report and recommendation and denied two motions for partial judgment on the pleadings filed by manufacturing companies accused of exposing to lead 11 minors who lived in homes and attended elementary school in an area later discovered to be contaminated, writing that “throwaway lines in a brief” regarding four plaintiffs not having injuries do not constitute “judicial admissions” that would warrant dismissal of their claims.
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September 24, 2026
CHICAGO — One of the cases in a wave of tobacco surcharge challenges would be resolved for $8.95 million under a class settlement an Illinois federal judge has granted preliminary approval.
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September 24, 2026
RICHMOND, Va. — Following briefing that was conducted on an accelerated schedule, the Fourth Circuit has scheduled oral argument for Oct. 30 in an interlocutory appeal concerning certification of an opt-out class in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case where the initial certification of a mandatory class was vacated under the Trauernicht v. Genworth Fin. Inc. ruling the appellate court handed down in March.
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September 24, 2026
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Noting that interest from the defendants’ early payment of $13.4 million had grown the common fund to $13,524,410.05, a Massachusetts federal judge gave final approval to the class settlement of a case in which 401(k) plan participants challenged recordkeeping and managed account fees and inclusion of two allegedly underperforming investment options.
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September 23, 2026
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Missouri state judge granted final approval of a $980,000 nonreversionary common fund that resolves privacy claims brought in a class action by those whose personal and financial information was potentially accessed in a cyberattack on the law firm’s IT network.
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September 23, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel issued its mandate after affirming in a split opinion a lower court’s final approval of a $62 million class action settlement providing injunctive relief and resolving claims that Google LLC unlawfully stored users’ location data after they disabled the “Location History” feature, with the majority holding that direct distribution was infeasible and that the approved cy pres recipients had a sufficient nexus to the class’s privacy interests; one judge dissented on the basis that the record did not establish that direct distribution to class members was infeasible.
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September 22, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The New York Times and the class representative in a settled case over an alleged illegal “automatic renewal” scheme filed separate opposition briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court opposing a class member’s petition seeking review of class representative payments.
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September 22, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Bayer HealthCare LLC petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for review of a question in a supplement labeling lawsuit concerning whether class certification is permitted “when virtually all members of the proposed class lack evidence of an Article III injury.”
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September 21, 2026
CINCINNATI — An Ohio federal judge on Sept. 18 granted final approval to a class action settlement under which one of the largest vision benefits companies in the U.S. agreed to establish a $5 million nonreversionary common fund after a company email account was breached in 2020 and hackers were able to obtain current and former clients’ protected health information (PHI) and personally identifying information (PII).
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September 21, 2026
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An Alaska federal judge granted a federally supported healthcare provider’s motion to substitute the United States as the sole defendant and denied remand in a proposed class action over a cyberattack that allegedly exposed patients’ personal and health information, despite the government’s opposition to substitution, finding that the act of safeguarding electronic health records (EHR) is sufficiently tied to the provision of medical care to trigger federal immunity.
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September 21, 2026
MINNEAPOLIS — Direct purchaser class plaintiffs (DPPs), one of four groups of pork purchasers pursuing antitrust claims against certain pork producers in a federal court in Minnesota, concluded the last of their claims with a conduct reform agreement with Agri Stats Inc.; the DPPs’ other settlements total more than $180 million.
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September 21, 2026
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — An employee welfare benefit plan that offered voluntary benefits including long-term disability (LTD), life insurance and critical illness coverage is the focus of a putative class complaint filed in New York federal court, with plan participants accusing their employer of violating the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by making choices that resulted in “excessive charges embedded in premiums, diminished Plan and participant assets, and the loss of value and loyalty owed by a fiduciary operating free of self-dealing.”
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September 18, 2026
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A federal judge in Connecticut partially dismissed putative class claims brought by firefighters, unions and the Uniformed Professional Fire Fighters Association of Connecticut (UPFFA), alleging harm from certain personal protective equipment containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS); the judge found that the unions lacked associational standing to bring medical monitoring and damages claims on behalf of their members, that defendant 3M Co. can’t be liable for manufacturing PFAS when the alleged defects of PFAS “are characteristic of PFAS itself” but may still be liable for making PFAS-containing products and that standalone claims for medical monitoring and statutory punitive damages can’t proceed.