An outlier among other circuits that have considered the question, the Eleventh Circuit overruled its practice of imposing an administrative exhaustion requirement for ERISA breach of fiduciary duty claims. Revisiting its decision in Mason v. Continental Group, Inc. , 763 F.2d 1219 (11th Cir. 1985), which imposed a mandatory administrative exhaustion requirement for all statutory claims brought under ERISA, the Eleventh Circuit, sitting en banc , overruled Mason and its progeny to the extent…

The pair of rulemakings address the ongoing debate regarding the jurisdiction of the CFTC versus states over event contracts and prediction markets. The CFTC undertook two rulemakings to clarify what types of prediction market products are “swaps” under the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and which are not. In a new interim final rule, the CFTC excluded some transactions traditionally viewed as gambling from the definition of “swap” under the CEA, including casino games and wagers placed on…

Google LLC’s proposed $10 million purchase of the assets of bankrupt Spirit Airlines—mainly to obtain data to train AI (artificial intelligence)—has prompted warnings from lawmakers and labor unions about the threat to former Spirit employees’ privacy. “This sale presents uncharted territory. According to publicly available court findings, the proposed sale would involve an extraordinary volume of Spirit’s internal records, including approximately 100 million emails, 500 million Microsoft…

The unauthorized disclosure of sensitive health information was akin to a breach of confidence or contract that courts have traditionally recognized as providing a basis for a lawsuit. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has reversed and remanded the decision of the district court that dismissed a lawsuit after the lower court found that the unauthorized disclosure of private health information (PHI) did not constitute an injury-in-fact sufficient to confer Article III…

The inquiry is the latest action by Trump to remove Cook from the Fed following a rebuke by the Supreme Court. President Donald Trump has issued a Presidential Memorandum establishing a committee of inquiry to determine whether cause exists to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook based on allegations that she made false statements in connection with one or more mortgage instruments. The Oct. 7, 2026, action renews an effort that began when the White House told Cook the President was…

Ordinary trademark-infringement judgments cannot include prejudgment interest because Congress expressly authorized that remedy only for intentional counterfeiting, the petition requests. An apparel seller has petitioned the Supreme Court to resolve a division among the federal appeals courts over whether the Lanham Act permits prejudgment interest in ordinary trademark infringement cases. The petitioner, TWD, LLC, challenges a Seventh Circuit ruling that added about $229,000 in prejudgment…

A belief that a legal conclusion about Maxell’s patent was true did not make it so, and Maxell was otherwise entitled to a presumption of patent enforceability. Coretronic Corporation failed to plead a Section 2 Sherman Act claim against Maxell, Ltd in connection with a presumptively valid Maxell projector patent, held the federal district court in San Jose, California. First, Coretronic did not establish a Walker Process exception to Noerr-Pennington immunity because it did not make a facial…

The court declined to reconsider its earlier rulings excluding the estate’s expert opinions, and the lack of expert testimony warranted judgment for the automaker. In an action brought against an automaker by the surviving spouse of a woman who died in a crash after losing control of her car due to its alleged design defects, a federal district court in Illinois granted summary judgment to the manufacturer. The court observed that the estate’s strict liability and negligence claims required…

It has also issued a final rule ending the practice of automatically extending the validity of employment authorization documents (Forms I-766 or EADs) for aliens who have timely filed an application to renew their EAD in certain employment authorization categories. The Department of Homeland Security is proposing to eliminate a Biden-era regulation requiring immigration officers to give weight to prior approvals when adjudicating many requests to extend nonimmigrant worker status. It is also…