+ NY moves to shield doctors.

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The Daily Docket

The Daily Docket

A newsletter by Reuters and Westlaw

 

By Diana Novak Jones, Mike Scarcella and Sara Merken

Good morning. Trump’s asylum ban on the Mexico border was hit with a lawsuit in D.C. federal court featuring a large law firm as co-counsel. Plus, higher education officials and others sued Trump over his anti-diversity orders; the University of California was accused of racial bias in admissions; and an ethics complaint against a law firm over a secret judge romance was just withdrawn. Let’s dive in.

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ACLU sues over Trump asylum ban

 

REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez

The ACLU in a new lawsuit in D.C. federal court accused President Donald Trump of violating U.S. laws and international treaties with his sweeping ban on asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, our colleagues Ted Hesson and Jack Queen report.

The lawsuit challenges a ban issued by Trump that blocks all migrants "engaged in the invasion across the southern border" from claiming asylum or other humanitarian protections. Trump's ban on asylum at the border goes further than restrictions put in place by former President Joe Biden in June to discourage illegal crossings.

A team from law firm Jenner & Block is helping the ACLU. Other major U.S. law firms that have appeared on lawsuits so far against the Trump administration include Gibson Dunn, Arnold & Porter and Lowenstein Sandler. Trump has taken an array of executive actions to deter illegal immigration and ramp up arrests and deportations of migrants in the U.S. illegally.

 

More top news

  • Trump sued in attempt to block his anti-diversity orders 
  • Trump's consumer watchdog freezes CFPB activity on first day of job
  • New York law seeks to shield doctors who provide abortion pills by mail
 

The buzz

  • U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Marvin Isgur withdrew his ethics complaint against Jackson Walker for not earlier disclosing a relationship between former Houston bankruptcy judge David Jones and one of the firm’s partners. Isgur agreed to withdraw the complaint because court rules do not allow judges to sanction law firms, only individual attorneys, U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal said in order.
  • U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman in Manhattan admonished lawyers for Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively not to publicly discuss the actors' competing civil lawsuits stemming from Lively's claim that Baldoni sexually harassed her while filming the movie "It Ends With Us." 
  • Plaintiffs' lawyers behind a pending $2.8 billion class action antitrust settlement with Blue Cross Blue Shield asked a federal judge in Alabama for more than $754 million in legal fees and expenses for their work on the case.
 

$83,500,000

That’s how much meat industry giant JBS agreed to pay to settle antitrust claims from ranchers and other plaintiffs that it conspired with meat-packing companies to curb supply in the U.S. beef market to artificially inflate prices. It’s the largest settlement so far in the meat price-fixing litigation for JBS, which has denied any wrongdoing. The plaintiffs said they’ll seek up to $27.8 million in legal fees from the fund.

 

"We will pursue any and all legal action against anyone who impedes your work or threatens your people."

—Federal prosecutor Edward Martin, in a letter to Elon Musk asking for information about anyone trying to impede the work of the billionaire's government efficiency effort and warning of possible criminal sanctions. Martin, the interim U.S. attorney in D.C., said any action to threaten or confront employees of Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency "may break numerous laws."

 

Coming up today

  • Lawyers for Elon Musk and OpenAI will square off in federal court in Oakland, California, where the billionaire entrepreneur is seeking a ruling to stop the ChatGPT maker from converting to a for-profit entity. OpenAI has said Musk "should be competing in the marketplace rather than the courtroom."
  • In D.C., U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth will hold a hearing in a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration executive order curtailing transgender rights. Three transgender women who are currently incarcerated in federal prison want the judge to block their transfer to a men’s facility.
  • The 5th Circuit also will hear Mississippi's appeal of an injunction blocking the state from enforcing a new law that requires users of social media platforms to verify their ages and restricts access by minors to the sites if they lack parental consent.
  • Steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs is due to respond to a lawsuit filed by U.S. Steel and Japan’s Nippon Steel accusing it of subverting their now-scuttled effort to merge. U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel have separately sued the U.S. government over its denial of the $14.9 billion deal.
 

In the courts

  • The University of California System was sued by a student group for alleged racial discrimination in admissions by favoring Black and Hispanic applicants over Asian-American and white applicants.
  • Target was sued for allegedly concealing the risks of its diversity and social initiatives, leading to a backlash that caused customers to flee and the stock price of the Minneapolis-based retailer to plummet.
  • The U.S. Soccer Federation won a jury verdict in Brooklyn in a civil antitrust case brought by a defunct league that had accused the group of an unlawful scheme to curb competition.
  • Lawyers for Alphabet's Google and "Fortnite" maker Epic Games