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The Daily Docket

A newsletter by Reuters and Westlaw

By Caitlin Tremblay

Good morning. Today, let’s catch up on the legal battles stemming from President Trump’s attempts to fire government officials. Plus, the criminal trial of the man accused of trying to assassinate President Trump got off to a contentious start; the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced four judicial nominees; and a U.S. appeals court revived a motion-capture copyright verdict against Disney. A NASA rover found a potential sign of ancient life in Martian rocks and that, uh, rocks (sorry). Happy Friday. Have a great weekend.

Trump's firings spark legal battles across federal agencies

REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

President Trump has recently taken steps to remove several high-ranking government officials, triggering legal battles. Here's a quick summary of what happened this week:

After Trump fired Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook late last month, the administration on Thursday asked the D.C. Circuit to lift U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb's ruling that temporarily blocked Cook’s removal. Find out more.
On Wednesday, the D.C. Circuit blocked Trump from firing U.S. Copyright Office Director Shira Perlmutter while she appeals a lower court's ruling that allowed her termination.
Perlmutter’s lawsuit claims that she was fired one day after her office said in a report that technology companies' unauthorized use of copyrighted works to train generative AI systems may not always be legal. Read more.
Meanwhile, former FBI acting director Brian Driscoll and two other former senior officials who were fired without cause last month sued the Trump administration on Wednesday, alleging they were dismissed in a "campaign of retribution" that targeted officials viewed as insufficiently loyal. More on that here.
Also on Wednesday, a group of former federal employees filed a lawsuit seeking to force the U.S. Office of Special Counsel to investigate their claims that the Trump administration broke the law by firing thousands of recently hired government workers en masse earlier this year. Learn more.

Coming up today

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in D.C. will hold a discovery hearing in a lawsuit brought by Democratic lawmakers against President Trump and others over their role in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The civil lawsuit accuses them of violating the Ku Klux Klan Act, an 1871 law passed to crack down on the white supremacist organization. In 2022, Mehta denied Trump’s claim that presidential immunity shields him from the lawsuit.

Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.

More top news

Industry insight

A U.S. Senate panel voted along party lines on Thursday to advance four of President Trump's judicial nominees, including two picks to serve on a pair of federal appeals courts, one of which has no Republican appointees. Read more about the vote here.
Houston-based law firm Jackson Walker said it agreed to pay $1.4 million to its ex-client JCPenney seeking to recover legal fees awarded by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Jones, whose undisclosed romantic relationship with a Jackson Walker partner sparked an ethics scandal and cast uncertainty over the firm's fees in dozens of cases.
A federal judge in Manhattan said consumers who are suing Live Nation could collect evidence about the entertainment giant's ties to its law firm Latham & Watkins and arbitration firm New Era. Read more in this week’s Billable Hours.
Moves: Complex litigation partner Ed Chang moved to Morrison Foerster from Jones Day … Bradley added former federal prosecutor Alexis Gregorian as a partner in its government enforcement and investigations practice … Troutman Pepper hired tax and benefits partner Heather Heath Ryan from Robinson Bradshaw.

$375 million

That’s how much Susman Godfrey and Lieff Cabraser said they would ask for in legal fees from the blockbuster $1.5 billion settlement with AI startup Anthropic. Read the court papers.

In the courts

The 1st Circuit cleared the way for the Trump administration to implement a provision of his recently enacted tax and spending bill that would deprive Planned Parenthood and its members of Medicaid funding. Read the order. In other news, the court said it won’t allow the Trump administration to take steps to shut down federal agencies that fund museums and libraries, mediate labor disputes, and support minority-owned businesses.