WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) published a tribunal’s order granting the applications of a think tank, two indigenous community advocacy groups and a sustainable investment researcher to file amicus curiae briefs regarding a pending arbitration claim brought by U.S. companies against the Republic of Honduras for allegedly terminating their rights to develop a charter city in a Honduran special economic zone, for which they seek $1.6 billion in damages.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a split decision, the U.S. Supreme Court on Sept. 25 granted an emergency application filed by the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration (SSA) to stay, pending appeal, a lower court’s vacatur of 2025 modifications to the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program, finding that the government was likely to succeed on its argument that the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA) authorized the challenged information sharing, which incorporated SSA records, permitted searches using full or partial Social Security numbers and bulk queries and expanded citizenship verification measures.

LOS ANGELES — A woman seeking to represent nationwide and California classes of purchasers on Sept. 24 amended her complaint against Veracity Wellness Inc. that alleges that the company deceptively markets its Metabolism Ignite dietary supplement as “Nature’s Ozempic” and as a natural alternative to prescription weight-loss drugs, asserting claims for violation of California’s unfair competition law and other laws.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Sept. 24 affirmed a district court’s ruling that a pollution liability insurer has no duty to defend its insured against underlying suits stemming from the insured’s environmental remediation work, agreeing with the lower court that the pollution conditions at issue were not unexpected or unintended as required by the policies.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A partly split District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel vacated the Copyright Royalty Board’s allocation of royalties related to the retransmission of copyrighted sporting events between 2014 and 2017, finding that even though the board evaluated its valuation methods, it never explained how it combined the results to reach the final allocation percentages.

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — After a commercial general liability insurer accepted its insured’s offer of judgment, a New York federal judge on Sept. 23 entered a declaratory judgment resolving the insurer’s suit seeking policy rescission and a declaration that it owes no duty to defend or indemnify in any underlying litigation related to the construction of sidewalk sheds due to purported misrepresentations in insurance applications; the judgment ended the insurer’s obligation to defend the insured in specific underlying litigation or any other action, rescinded the policies and declared them void ab initio.

BOISE, Idaho — The Idaho Supreme Court warned that litigants’ reliance on artificial intelligence is “fraught with potential peril” while ultimately declining to impose any sanction on a pro se litigant and affirming a $1,176,000 defamation judgment.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Several parties, including other tobacco companies, on Sept. 23 filed amicus curiae briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court urging it to grant a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by Philip Morris USA Inc. (PM), which seeks review of a Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling upholding a more than $64 million judgment against it in favor of a smoker’s estate, which the amici say exemplifies the “recurring issue” of courts allowing plaintiffs to “evade” the preemption provision of the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act (FCLAA).