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The Daily Docket

A newsletter by Reuters and Westlaw

By Caitlin Tremblay

Good morning. Today the U.S. Supreme Court will weigh Hawaii’s limits on handguns. The court is also expected to issue opinions this morning. Plus, a challenge to two state laws requiring that the Ten Commandments be displayed in classrooms goes before the 5th Circuit; and the 10th Circuit will weigh an EPA PFAS rule. There’s a hidden landscape under Antarctica’s ice sheet. Let’s defrost from the long weekend and dive in.

We're changing things up! Beginning January 26 The Daily Docket and The Afternoon Docket will become one newsletter. The DD will continue to go out every morning and the AD will go out on Thursday afternoons. If you have any feedback on the changes feel free to email me.

U.S. Supreme Court to hear challenge to Hawaii handgun limits

REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Today the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a challenge to a Hawaii law that restricts the carrying of handguns on private property that is open to the public such as most businesses.

Why it matters: The case could give the justices a chance to further expand gun rights. The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, widened gun rights in three major rulings in 2008, 2010 and most recently in 2022. The plaintiffs in the Hawaii case have cited that 2022 ruling in their case.

Context: Three Hawaii residents with concealed-carry licenses and a Honolulu-based gun rights advocacy group appealed a lower court's determination that Hawaii's measure likely complies with the Second Amendment. The Hawaii law requires concealed carry licensees to get an owner's consent before bringing a handgun onto private property open to the public.

Who: Neal Katyal of Milbank for Hawaii; Alan Beck for the petitioners; Sarah Harris of the DOJ for the U.S. as amicus curiae.

Coming up today

SCOTUS: The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a second case, this one about pension plans, and will also issue orders in pending cases. The court is also expected to issue opinions this morning with the tariffs case still pending.
Immigration: The Trump administration faces a deadline today to respond to a lawsuit by the state of Minnesota seeking to block a surge of thousands of ICE agents in Minneapolis and Saint Paul.
Privacy: U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in D.C. will hold a motion hearing in a lawsuit from current and former federal employees alleging their sensitive personal data was unlawfully disclosed to DOGE. Read the complaint.
Constitutional law: The 5th Circuit will hear arguments in consolidated lawsuits challenging state laws in Louisiana and Texas that mandate the display of the Ten Commandments in all public school classrooms.
Health: The first trial in thousands of lawsuits over claims Teva's Paragard IUD can break apart during removal will begin before U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May in Atlanta.
Environment: The D.C. Circuit will take up a challenge to a 2024 EPA rule that designated two PFAS substances as hazardous. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other industry groups argue the EPA ignores costs and acted improperly. Read the Chamber’s brief here and the EPA’s brief here.
Energy: The 10th Circuit will hear arguments in a case where the U.S. government and the Osage Nation sued wind farm developers for building turbines on Osage land without a mineral lease. The case centers on whether digging for turbine foundations counts as mining.
Trade secrets: Elon Musk's xAI will ask U.S. District Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco for a preliminary injunction that continues to block former company engineer Xuechen Li from sharing its AI trade secrets with his new employer OpenAI. Lin granted xAI's request for a temporary restraining order against Li in September.

Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.

More top news

Industry insight

Florida became the second state to reduce its reliance on the ABA to determine which law school’s graduates may become lawyers, following Texas.
University of Pennsylvania law professor Amy Wax asked the 3rd Circuit to revive her discrimination lawsuit against the school, saying a lower court judge put too much stock in Penn’s version of events when he dismissed her case in August.
An investment firm sued Kirkland and Jackson Walker, alleging the firms concealed a secret relationship between a Jackson Walker attorney and former U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Jones while representing Chesapeake Energy.
Moves: King & Spalding added two IP litigators: Paul Fakler and Jacob Ebin from Mayer Brown … Womble Bond Dickinson added a 36-person national consumer financial services team, including 11 partners, from McGlinchey Stafford, which is closing … DLA Piper hired Adrián del Paso to its environmental regulatory practice from Assembla Law … Tax partner Klas Holm joined Sterlington from Curtis … Buchalter added IP partner Steven Weigler from EmergeCounsel.
New partners: Orrick elevated 20 to partner.

In the courts

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Bayer's bid to sharply limit lawsuits claiming that the company's Roundup weedkiller causes cancer and potentially avert billions of dollars in damages.
The Supreme Court also agreed to take up Hikma’s appeal in a patent dispute over Amarin’s cardiovascular drug Vascepa, a case that could have broad implications for generic drug makers and the use of “skinny labels” that omit patented indications.
U.S. District Judge Jamar Walker cleared Dominion Energy to resume work on its Virginia offshore wind project, the third legal blow to President Trump's anti-offshore wind agenda.
The RNC failed to convince the 9th Circuit to reinstate its lawsuit accusing Google of intentionally misdirecting the political party's email messages to users' spam folders.