Judge Blocks 'Third Country' Removals Without Due Process

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts federal judge on Friday ordered the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to provide due process protections for immigrants facing deportation to countries where they have no prior ties, saying they must receive written notice and a meaningful opportunity to raise concerns about their safety.

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Tufts Student's ICE Detention Fight To Proceed In Vermont

By Rae Ann Varona

A Vermont federal judge ruled Friday that Tufts University graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk can fight her U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention in the state and not the Trump administration's choice of Louisiana, ordering the federal government to bring her back to Vermont no later than May 1.

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1st Circ. Upholds Massachusetts' Assault Weapons Ban

By Emily Field

The First Circuit on Thursday upheld a lower court's decision that a challenge to Massachusetts' 20-year-old ban on assault weapons is unlikely to succeed on the grounds that the ban comports with historical tradition.

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ACLU Sues To Restore Foreign Students' Immigration Status

By Elliot Weld

The American Civil Liberties Union on Friday sued the federal government in New Hampshire, seeking to restore the F-1 status of more than 100 international students studying at universities in New England who had their visas revoked suddenly.

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Mass General Inks $8.25M Deal To End Retirement Fee Suit

By Patrick Hoff

Boston-based healthcare system Mass General Brigham Inc. agreed to pay $8.25 million to settle a proposed class action alleging it unlawfully allowed its employee retirement plan to pay excessive administrative fees, according to a filing in Massachusetts federal court.

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Roundup

Real Estate Recap: Q1 Dealmakers, Tariff Tension

By Real Estate Authority Staff

Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including the law firms that guided the 10 largest real estate deals of the first quarter, and how dealmakers and companies have been navigating uncertainty in the market.

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Ex-Mass. Transit Worker Gets 6 Years For Fraud, Tax Evasion

By Asha Glover

A former assistant chief engineer for the Boston commuter rail system was sentenced to nearly six years in prison for crimes including failing to withhold and pay federal taxes on income from two illegal schemes, prosecutors said Friday.

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Democratic AGs Say Trump Illegally Fired FTC Commissioners

By Craig Clough

Attorneys general from 20 states and the District of Columbia filed an amicus brief Friday in D.C. federal court backing two fired Democratic Federal Trade Commission members, writing that President Donald Trump's actions violate federal law prohibiting their removal except for cause. 

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Santander Not Responsible For Customer's Bad Crypto Buys

By Julie Manganis

Santander Bank is not liable for more than $750,000 lost by a customer to a cryptocurrency scam, a Massachusetts intermediate appellate court said Friday.

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MLB Players Aim To Strike Out DraftKings NIL Case Appeal

By Ryan Harroff

Major League Baseball players called foul on DraftKings Inc.'s bid for the Third Circuit to decide whether the players' claims that the betting app used photos of them in ads without permission can proceed, arguing that a lower court got it right when it refused to dismiss their claims.

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End May Be In Sight For Small Biz Set-Aside Programs

A Jan. 21 executive order largely disarming the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, along with recent court rulings, suggests that the administration may soon attempt to eliminate set-asides intended to level the award playing field for small business contractors that qualify under socioeconomic programs, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.

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An Unrestrained, Bright-Eyed View Of Legal AI's Future

Todd Itami at Covington offers a bright-eyed, laughing-all-the-way, skydive look at what the legal industry could look like after an artificial intelligence revolution, which he believes may happen much sooner and more dramatically than we expect.

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WilmerHale, Feds Dispute Reach Of Trump Order Against Firm

By Jack Karp

WilmerHale and the U.S. Department of Justice traded salvos in the BigLaw firm's challenge to President Donald Trump's executive order targeting it, with the firm and the government offering "starkly different" versions of what's at stake in the dispute.

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Ex-Katten Partner Hits Firm With $67M Age Bias Suit

By Lauren Berg

A former Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP partner launched a $67 million discrimination lawsuit against his one-time firm in New York federal court, alleging he was pushed out of the aircraft-finance practice group, pressured to resign and then fired because of the firm CEO's "stereotyped views of lawyers in their 60s."

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Joel Katz, Music Law's Longtime Power Broker, Dies At 80

By Chart Riggall

Joel Katz, the powerful music industry lawyer who co-founded Greenberg Traurig LLP's media and entertainment practice and helped bring the firm to the Atlanta market, has died at the age of 80, Law360 confirmed Friday.

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Sunoco Accused Of Age Bias By Ex-Chief Counsel

By Gina Kim

A former chief counsel for Sunoco LP sued her ex-employer in Texas state court Wednesday, alleging she was denied promotional opportunities and later terminated due to her age, while also accusing the company of replacing attorneys older than 50 with significantly younger attorneys with less experience.

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How They Won It

How Manatt Beat A Crypto Trader's 'Code As Law' Defense

By Aislinn Keely

After a crypto user exploited a software bug to create millions of dollars' worth of new tokens from a blockchain network, a Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP team defeated his claim to the tokens — and won an award worth millions — by showing that faulty code can't stand in for rule of law.

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Justices Temporarily Block Removals Under Wartime Law

By Britain Eakin

The U.S. Supreme Court on Saturday ordered the Trump administration to halt removals of alleged Venezuelan gang members detained in Texas under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, pending further input from the court.

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High Court's Pause Of Removals Was 'Premature,' Alito Says

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision early Saturday morning to prohibit the Trump administration from using a 1798 wartime law to remove alleged Venezuelan gang members detained in northern Texas to an El Salvadoran prison was hasty and premature, Justice Samuel Alito wrote in a dissent joined by Justice Clarence Thomas.

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Ex-DOJ Atty Convicted In 1MDB Case Ordered Disbarred In NY

By Craig Clough

A New York appellate court ordered Wednesday that a former U.S. Department of Justice attorney be disbarred due to his felony conviction as part of a sprawling, billion-dollar fraud scandal connected to 1Malaysia Development Berhad and Fugees founder Pras Michél.

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Judge Nixes Feds' DQ Bid In Migrant Kids Legal Funding Case

By Ryan Boysen

A California federal judge has denied the Trump administration's bid to remove her from a lawsuit challenging funding cuts that prevent attorneys from representing child migrants, ruling her employment at one of the plaintiffs nearly seven years ago doesn't undermine her impartiality.

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PTAB Judge Heads To Boutique, Citing Return-To-Office Order

By Andrew Karpan

An outgoing Patent Trial and Appeal Board judge based in Austin, Texas, tells Law360 that President Donald Trump's return-to-office order was a "significant factor" in her decision to return to private practice, joining boutique patent firm Smith Baluch LLP as a partner.

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Judiciary Faces Security Risks Amid Spending Freeze

By Courtney Bublé

The federal judiciary is warning congressional appropriators that funding shortfalls could threaten courthouse security.

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Wis. Sens. Renew Bipartisan Judicial Nomination Commission

By Courtney Bublé

The Republican and Democratic senators from Wisconsin announced Friday they are renewing their bipartisan commission to recommend U.S. attorney and judicial nominees to the president.

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Up Next At High Court: Preventive HealthCare & LGBTQ Books

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in five cases this week, including disputes over the constitutionality of a task force that sets preventive healthcare coverage requirements, a school district's introduction of LGBTQ-themed storybooks and whether parties can establish standing based on harms affecting third parties. 

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

Google and its chief legal officer have now lost two major antitrust cases to DOJ prosecutors after a federal judge ruled Thursday the search engine monopolized markets and servers related to display advertising. Meanwhile, a new study shows companies are disclosing their business risks, and how they are trying to mitigate those risks, amid changing tariffs and the uncertainty of the U.S.-China trade war. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Schlichter Bogard LLC and the University of Virginia School of Law Supreme Court Litigation Clinic lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court revived a class action from Cornell University workers who said their retirement plans were saddled with excessive fees.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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