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The internet’s favorite stunt-loving rapper, Lil Nas X, has been posting up a storm on TikTok about his upcoming court date with Nike. But is the singer really being sued, or is the controversy merely manufactured to promote his latest single? Call Me When You Want, Call Me When You Need (a Lawyer) Lil Nas X first rose to prominence in 2019 after his song “Old Town Road” (which would later become one of the best-selling tracks of all time) gained traction on TikTok....

After a rash of vaping-related respiratory illnesses this summer – an estimated 500 cases, including six deaths, in over 30 states – the federal government announced plans to crack down on e-cigarettes, highlighting an upcoming ban on flavored e-cigs and nicotine pods. “We can’t allow people to get sick,” President Donald Trump declared in an Oval Office press conference. “And we can’t have our kids be so affected.” The federal action comes on the heels of various city and state measures prohibiting the sale of flavored varieties or banning e-cigarettes entirely, although the particulars of the plan have yet to be finalized....

Free Enterprise Fund v. Pub. Co. Acctg. Oversight Bd., No. 08-861, concerned an action against the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and its members, seeking, inter alia, a declaratory judgment that the Board was unconstitutional and an injunction preventing the Board from exercising its powers. The Court affirmed the D.C. Circuit’s affirmance of summary judgment for defendants, holding that the Board’s appointment was consistent with the Appointments Clause. However, the Court reversed in part, on the grounds that 1) the dual for-cause limitations on the removal of Board members contravene the Constitution’s separation of powers; and 2) the unconstitutional tenure provisions were severable from the remainder of the statute....

In an employment discrimination action brought against the City of Chicago by a former member of the United States Air Force, district court’s judgment is affirmed where: 1) plaintiff’s claim under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) of 1994 was barred by the four-year statute of limitations provided by 28 U.S.C. section 1658(a); and 2) the Veterans’ Benefits Improvement Act’s amendment expressly stating that statute of limitations does not apply to USERRA, has no retroactive effect....

In the taxpayer’s appeal from a tax court’s ruling that the taxpayer could not deduct payments for cash distribution redemptive dividends, the order is affirmed where, because 26 U.S.C. section 404(k) did not provide for a deduction-for-dividends-paid under 26 U.S.C. section 561, the taxpayer did not have a “deduction for dividends paid (within the meaning of section 561)” needed to satisfy the exception in 26 U.S.C. section 162(k)(A)(iii). Read Nestle Purina Petcare Co....

It has been announced that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg actually made it into the Court for the Justices’ regular conference Friday morning. Since her surgery to remove lung cancer tumors in December, she has been working from home and had not shown up to the High Court, not even for January’s oral arguments. Notably, she did not miss any votes though and her return couldn’t have been timed better, as oral arguments are scheduled to start next week....

As a result, the court of appeals vacated the judgment on the ground that defendant was not entitled to the Faragher/Ellerth affirmative defense as a matter of law, and it was necessary to look to the facts and circumstances to determine whether, by not pursuing other avenues seemingly provided in defendant’s sexual harassment policy, plaintiff unreasonably failed to take advantage of the employer’s preventative measures. The matter was remanded for further proceedings as plaintiff presented genuine issues of material fact with respect to her hostile work environment, age, and retaliation claims....

In a petition for review of an order removing petitioner from the U.S., the petition is granted where there was no record documentation supporting the BIA’s determination that petitioner committed a felony involving a controlled substance. Read S-Yong v. Holder, No. 07-70619 Appellate Information Argued and Submitted November 21, 2008 Filed August 25, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Cudahy Counsel For Petitioner: Kathryn M. Davis, Pasadena, CA For Respondent: Mary Jane Candaux, U....

Despite begging and pleading and cable-news cajoling, the Supreme Court has not relented on the cameras in the Court issue for this month’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) hearings. But proving that the Nine aren’t completely immune to the power of public pressure, audio recordings of oral arguments in the case will be available on the Supreme Court website the same day as the hearings, reports SCOTUSblog. Ever since the Supreme Court agreed to hear the individual mandate challenge in November, people have been buzzing about televised broadcasts of the hearings....

The U.S. Supreme Court let stand an appeals court decision allowing transgender students to use boys or girls bathrooms at a Pennsylvania high school. In Doe v. Boyertown Area School District, the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals said transgender students can use bathrooms or locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity. It is the most recent transgender case to make it to the highest court in the land. The Supreme Court declined to decide the issues in the case, however, leaving the debate for another day....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the internet. Long ago in internet time, way back in the 1990s, Congress passed the Communications Decency Act (CDA). A key feature of the CDA is Section 230 of the statute. In essence, Section 230 generally creates immunity for internet service providers (ISPs) with respect to third-party content posted on their sites. Congress desired a strong and robust commercial internet that would be good for the economy....

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals issued a landmark opinion on pay-for-delay deals involving pharmaceutical products, reports Businessweek. The decision involved Merck & Co’s Schering-Plough branch, which entered into pay-for-delay agreements to delay the entry of generic versions of the K-Dur drug into the market. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals found the pay-for-delay agreement to be in violation of antitrust law, reversing a lower court judgment on the matter. This was the first time such an issue came up before the Third Circuit, although it has been addressed by other circuits....

The Second Circuit’s Court of Appeals weighed in on the Deflategate controversy and decided that a reinstatement of a four-game suspension against Tom Brady was the proper route. Brady had earlier petitioned a lower district court ruling on due process grounds. No surprise, the news was met with nodding approval by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell who fast-tracked proceedings against Brady that led to the player’s suspension. Brady was originally suspended from playing in the first four games of the 2015 seasons because of his alleged role in illegally deflating footballs in the AFC game between the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts....

Child Pornography Conviction and Sentence Affirmed In US v. Bauer, No. 09-1970, defendant’s conviction and sentence for attempted receipt of child pornography are affirmed where 1) defendant’s undisputed belief that his victim was a minor satisfied the “knowingly” requirement of the statute; 2) the district court did not commit plain error in determining that the factual basis for defendant’s guilty plea was adequate; and 3) the district court correctly applied U....

Defendant’s sentence of 116 months’ imprisonment for possession of more than five grams of crack cocaine with intent to distribute and for being a previously convicted felon in possession of a firearm is affirmed and remanded where, although the district court’s sentencing was procedurally and substantively adequate, the Guidelines have since been revised to lower the range for certain crack offenses and defendant may be eligible for a sentencing reduction. Read US v....

When police officers in Washington, D.C. responded to a noise complaint one night in 2008, they found an unusual scene: women in lingerie, money hanging from their garter belts, marijuana smoke wafting through the air. It was something out of a make-shift strip joint, not the empty tableau you’d expect in a reportedly vacant building. But the partygoers had an excuse: A woman going by “Peaches” and “Tasty” had invited them....

It’s been an exciting week in the Third Circuit. Pennsylvania joined the ranks among the more enlightened set of states that recognize same sex marriage. And in more entertaining news, the hacker whose sentence was recently vacated by the Third Circuit has sent the U.S. Government an invoice for Bitcoins totaling about $13 million. Weev’s Open Invoice Letter You may remember ‘weev’ as the hacker who proclaimed that he was being sent “to jail for doing arithmetic....

Some 50,000 stray dogs roam – sometimes in packs – the streets and abandoned homes of Detroit. That’s how the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals describes the “dog problem” in Motor City. So how bad is it? It’s so bad the city passed an ordinance authorizing police to enter private property and seize animals without a warrant. That’s bad, too, the appeals court said in Hardrick v. City of Detroit....

This is a disappointing, yet utterly unsurprising result, after a years-long appeals process that was put on hold pending last year’s equally unfortunate Maryland v. King decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. Last year, the High Court held that Maryland’s practice of collecting DNA from felons was pretty much no big deal, akin to fingerprinting as a means of identification. Haskell v. Harris is a similar case, challenging a somewhat similar law in California....

On Friday, the Seventh Circuit heard oral arguments in Frank v. Walker and seemed unimpressed by arguments against Wisconsin’s voter ID law. In fact, the judges were so unimpressed that the panel issued an order, mere hours later, granting a stay pending appeal (allowing the voter ID requirements to go into effect mere weeks before November’s elections). Now, the ACLU is seeking an expedited en banc rehearing, hoping that arguments about the impossibility of instituting a voter ID requirement at the last minute without disenfranchising thousands of voters will sway the full court....