Commercial Litigation Update

On March 12, 2024, the Judicial Conference of the United States announced new guidance applying to case assignments in federal district courts, with the intent to curb “judge-shopping” by limiting litigants’ ability to pre-select a specific judge by filing in a division where only a single judge sits. Officially titled Guidance for Civil Case Assignments in District Courts, the new guidance recommends that courts randomly assign certain civil actions to any judge within a district rather than only the judge(s) in the division where the case is filed.

Under the guidance ...

A unanimous Supreme Court has eased the route for a plaintiff to prove a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in Muldrow v. City of St. Louis.

Sergeant Jatonya Muldrow brought suit against the St. Louis Police Department when she was transferred from the department’s Intelligence Division to a uniformed role in one of the department’s police districts. Notwithstanding the fact that Sergeant Muldrow (whom her former supervisor addressed as “Ms.” rather than “Sergeant”) was a most dependable “workhorse” on the job, the supervisor determined that ...

The Supreme Court heard arguments this morning in the case of Joseph Fischer, one of more than 300 people convicted of corruptly obstructing an official proceeding: the congressional certification on January 6, 2021, of Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump.

If oral argument is any indication, there is considerable division between the jurisprudential liberals and conservatives concerning the breadth and effect of the obstruction statute. The Fischer case is important because of its potential effects on the numerous convictions entered in the District Court for D.C. and because Special Counsel Jack Smith has charged Trump with the same offense in his pending case.

Of less national significance are the two decisions issued by the Court today.

In Macquarie Infrastructure Corp. v. Moab Partners, L.P., No. 22-1165, 601 U.S. ___ (April 12, 2024), the United States Supreme Court held that “pure omissions are not actionable” for securities fraud asserted specifically under Section 10(b) of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”) and Rule 10b-5(b) promulgated thereunder even in circumstances where regulations require disclosure of related information.

The case concerned a business that stores liquid commodities including oil products. In 2016, the United Nations adopted a regulation that ...

Some commentators claim there are bitter divisions among the Justices, roiling the Court and its processes. Many of the same commentators were critical of the Court’s decision holding that former President Trump was not disqualified from reelection by Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, but they tended to ignore that the Court’s operative opinion was unanimous. The tenor of that unanimity will be explored as soon as April 25, when the Court hears arguments in the immunity case of Trump v. United States.

At least for today, however, peace reigns on the bench, as the Court issued unanimous opinions in each of the three cases decided.

The United States Supreme Court’s pending decision in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services Association of America Ltd., et al. (“Community Financial Services Association of America Ltd.”) in which the high court was asked to determine the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (“CFPB”) independent funding structure, continues to impact pending civil investigative demands brought by the CFPB.

On March 29, 2024, in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Financial Asset Management, Inc., the United ...

On December 26, 2023, the U.S. Sentencing Commission (“USSC”) proposed several amendments to its Guidelines Manual (the “Guidelines”). Two of these proposed amendments have the potential to especially impact sentencing decisions in white collar criminal cases. In particular,  one amendment changes the rule for calculating loss, and another provides new options regarding the consideration of acquitted conduct.

Rule for Calculating Loss

The USSC’s proposed revision to the Guidelines’ rules for calculating loss arises out of an effort to continually evaluate and ...

New episode of our video podcast, Speaking of Litigation: As the spotlight on high-profile judgments intensifies, terms such as “libel,” “slander,” and “defamation” permeate public discourse.

Former U.S. presidents, A-list celebrities, and even college professors and local business owners face the specter of defamatory statements broadcast and scrutinized worldwide. But what lies beneath the surface of these headline-grabbing lawsuits?

Join us on Speaking of Litigation as Epstein Becker Green litigators Jim Flynn, Teddy McCormick, and Lauri Rasnick dissect the intricate legal maneuvers deployed in defamation trials. From the realm of business to the intricacies of employment law, this episode offers a deep dive into the strategies employed when reputations are on the line.

Yonas Fikre, a U.S. citizen who had emigrated from Sudan, found himself placed on the No Fly List by the FBI and unable to return to the United States from an international trip. This action followed Fikre’s having been questioned about the mosque he attended and his refusal to become an FBI informant. Having ended up in Sweden, Fikre brought suit, alleging that the government had violated his procedural rights by failing to give him sufficient notice and the ability to gain adequate redress and had improperly considered his race, national origin, and religious beliefs in putting him ...

On Friday, March 15, a unanimous Supreme Court decided two companion cases (Lindke v. Freed and O’Connor-Ratcliff v. Garnier) that resolved a split in the Circuits concerning whether public officials can be held liable under 42 U.S.C. §1983 for blocking posts on social media sites, in these cases, Facebook.

As the Court noted in Lindke v. Freed, Section 1983—as is well known—provides a cause of action against ‘[e]very person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State’ deprives someone of a federal constitutional or statutory ...