+ New arguments set in the case

Get full access to Reuters.com for just $1/week. Subscribe now.

 

The Daily Docket

The Daily Docket

A newsletter by Reuters and Westlaw

 

By Shruthi Krishnamurthy

Good morning. A federal judge is set to hear new arguments over the fate of President Trump's planned $400 million White House ballroom. Meanwhile, an evidentiary hearing is scheduled to review the proposed settlements reached by Jackson Walker with its former bankruptcy clients. California may become the first state to require law schools to teach AI. Here are some candid moments from the Oscars to brighten your Tuesday. Let’s go!

 

Judge weighs new bid to halt Trump's $400 million ballroom project

 

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington today will hear arguments challenging President Trump's authority to move forward with a $400-million ballroom on the site of the demolished East Wing. Here's what to know:

  • The National Trust for Historic Preservation is seeking a preliminary injunction, arguing that Trump launched the project without required approvals or congressional authorization. Read the National Trust's updated injunction request.
  • The National Trust sued Trump and several federal agencies in December, after the Republican president in October began tearing down the 120-year-old East Wing to build what he has vowed will be the "finest" ballroom in the country.
  • Leon previously declined to grant an injunction but allowed the Trust to present additional arguments questioning the president's authority. Read the opinion.
  • The DOJ contends the project will modernize White House infrastructure, improve security, and ease strain on the historic Executive Mansion for preservation.
  • The 90,000-square-foot project is part of broader plans to reshape Washington, including a proposed 250-foot arch and upgrades to the Kennedy Center.
  • Find out more here.
 

Coming up today

  • Immigration: The 4th Circuit in Richmond, Virginia, will hear arguments in a case involving pro-Palestinian Georgetown scholar Dr. Badar Khan Suri, who was detained last year and later released on a judge's order. Suri’s legal team will ask the court to affirm previous lower court rulings that ordered the government to release him on bail.
  • Antitrust: The 2nd Circuit will weigh arguments from Ivy League students that their schools’ bans on sports scholarships and other compensation for athletes violates federal antitrust law. U.S. District Judge Alvin Thompson in Connecticut dismissed the proposed class action in 2024, saying the students could not establish the schools were harming competition in a specific, relevant market as required for antitrust claims.
  • Bankruptcy: Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Eduardo Rodriguez in Houston will oversee a two-day evidentiary hearing examining the proposed settlements U.S. law firm Jackson Walker has struck with its former bankruptcy clients. The law firm has agreed to pay more than $4 million to clients whose bankruptcy cases were overseen by former U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Jones, whose undisclosed romantic relationship with a Jackson Walker partner sparked an ethics scandal.
  • Antitrust: Dan Guarnera, who leads antitrust enforcement at the FTC, will speak live at Reuters Events' Pharma USA conference in Philadelphia.
  • Judiciary: Chief Justice John Roberts is set to discuss his experience as chief justice, the state of the U.S. judicial branch and key moments of his tenure in a conversation with U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal at Rice University in Houston.
  • Judiciary: The Senate will vote on confirmation of the nomination of Anna St. John to be U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.

 

More top news

  • What is in Trump's bill that requires proof of citizenship to vote? 
  • Lawsuits against Trump administration's health policy changes
  • Minority contractors say Trump DEI rollback poses threat to their livelihoods
  • US federal jury convicts Assad-era Syrian official of torture
 
 

Industry insight

  • U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston, who blocked major parts of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s sweeping moves to upend U.S. immunization policies, has already drawn the ire of the Trump administration for numerous rulings impeding his policies in other cases. Here's a profile on Murphy. 
  • California-accredited law schools could soon be required to train students on artificial intelligence technology and how to use AI tools responsibly.
  • Prominent Washington lawyer Abbe Lowell hired his first partner at the law firm he launched last year, as he defends multiple, high-profile clients who have been ‌targeted by the Trump administration.
 

"This argument can only be countenanced if one completely abandons the idea of objective fact, a nihilist endeavor this Court does not find appropriately read into Congress’s public health statutes."

—U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy, in blocking key parts of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s effort to reshape U.S. vaccine policy, including reducing the number of ‌shots routinely recommended for children, and revamping a federal advisory committee on inoculations. The Trump administration had argued that Kennedy had unreviewable authority to set vaccine policy. Read the order.

 

$30,000

That's the combined amount a 6th Circuit panel fined attorneys Van Irion and Russ Egli, after they were sanctioned for submitting filings that bore the hallmarks of AI "hallucinations." Read the order.

 

In the courts