A newsletter by Reuters and Westlaw |
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By Diana Novak Jones, Mike Scarcella and Sara Merken |
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Welcome. Let’s dive into today’s legal news: President Donald Trump suspended security clearances for lawyers at Paul Weiss. Plus, there are no quick fixes for California’s disastrous February bar exam, and a federal appeals court said the Trump administration could temporarily implement a ban on diversity, equity and inclusion programs at federal agencies and businesses with government contracts.
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REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo |
New York law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison is the third law firm targeted by U.S. President Donald Trump, our colleagues Kanishka Singh, Mike Scarcella and Andrew Goudsward report. Trump signed an executive order on Friday suspending security clearances for lawyers and other employees at the firm and restricting their access to federal buildings and officials. The order also directed federal agencies to take steps to cancel U.S. government contracts "for which Paul Weiss has been hired to perform any service."
Trump previously stripped security clearances from lawyers at Perkins Coie and Covington & Burling, alarming lawyers and legal experts. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell on March 12 temporarily blocked most of the executive order Trump issued against Perkins Coie, finding it likely violated the U.S. Constitution.
Paul Weiss has ties to high profile Democrats whom Trump has criticized over probes into him and his conduct. Some people associated with a probe by special counsel Robert Mueller into Trump's ties to Russia during his first term are linked to the firm. That probe found no collusion between Trump and Russia during the 2016 election campaign. Read the executive order here.
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The State Bar of California cannot make any decisions about adjusting scores from its disastrous February bar exam until after the tests are graded–a timeline officials acknowledged would be “unpopular” with test takers who faced myriad technical and logistical problems on the exam and want answers.
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The 9th Circuit overturned a judge's sanction against retired Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz over his work on a lawsuit by failed Republican Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake.
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Covington is representing Amazon.com in a new lawsuit accusing the Consumer Product Safety Commission of overstepping its authority in ordering a “wide-ranging recall of products that were manufactured, owned and sold by third parties.”
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That’s the number of universities that the U.S. Department of Education said its office for civil rights is investigating, citing complaints that the schools partnered with a program that seeks to boost diversity in college business programs. Trump and many U.S. conservatives have argued that efforts to increase diversity are unfair and discriminate against white Americans.
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- Today, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly in D.C. will hear arguments in a lawsuit by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting accusing FEMA of illegally freezing funds meant to support the country's emergency alert system.
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Also today, U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss in D.C. will hear arguments in a lawsuit by immigrant rights advocates challenging the Trump administration's decision to impose a stop-work order for legal access programs for immigrants. Gibson Dunn is representing the plaintiffs.
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On Tuesday, a D.C. Circuit panel will hear arguments in the Trump administration’s bid to overturn a lower judge’s order reinstating Cathy Harris, the Democratic chair of the U.S. agency that hears appeals by federal government employees when they are fired or disciplined. The court will also weigh the White House’s ouster of NLRB member Gwynne Wilcox, who also won reinstatement.
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On Wednesday, civil rights, housing and AIDS prevention groups will urge U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly in D.C. to bar the Trump administration’s enforcement of its orders targeting diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility. Lawyers from Covington are on the team for the plaintiffs.
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On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden will take up the lawsuit that the Associated Press filed to restore full access for the news agency's journalists after President Donald Trump's White House barred them for continuing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico in coverage.
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On Friday, the SEC’s newly formed crypto task force will hold a public roundtable. Lawyers from Steptoe, BakerHostetler and Cooley are among the planned speakers.
Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- Major air carriers challenged a U.S. appeals court ruling in January that the Transportation Department has the authority to write airline fee disclosure rules.
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A Missouri judge ordered Abbott Laboratories and Reckitt Benckiser unit Mead Johnson to face a new trial over allegations that they failed to warn a mother about the risks of their specialized baby formulas for premature infants, re-opening a case that had resulted in a victory for the defendants.
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A federal judge said California cannot enforce a state law meant to shield children from online content that could harm them mentally or physically, ruling that the trade group NetChoice deserved a preliminary injunction because it was likely to show the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act violated its members' free speech rights.
- The Trump administration’s policy of deporting some foreign nationals who participate in pro-Palestinian protests is unconstitutional, lawyers for Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil said in a filing asking for his immediate release from immigration detention.
- The U.S. Supreme Court declined to halt a FINRA proceeding to expel one of its members, broker-dealer Alpine Securities, in a case challenging the constitutionality of the Wall Street's self-regulator's enforcement power.
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