WASHINGTON, D.C. — CNN, MS NOW and POLITICO and three of their reporters on Sept. 24 filed a notice in a District of Columbia federal court asserting that President Donald J. Trump’s administration officials violated a federal judge’s earlier order the same day granting the plaintiffs’ motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) requiring the reinstatement of their White House press credentials by defendants other than Trump.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Arguing in favor of a ban on White House access due to an alleged “threat” to national security because CNN, MS NOW and POLITICO failed to “maintain basic minimum” professional standards, including their purported publication of classified information, the U.S. Department of Justice on Sept. 22 filed a brief opposing the news outlets’ request for a temporary restraining order (TRO) seeking to stop the defendants from taking further action to implement the ban and to immediately restore their press credentials.

NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals majority held that factual disputes over the suspension and investigation of a former West Texas A&M University (WTAMU) police detective need to be decided by a jury in reversing and remanding a Texas federal judge’s summary judgment ruling that the officer failed to establish a prima facie case for retaliation pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A federal judge in Michigan on Sept. 22 issued a final order closing a False Claims Act lawsuit alleging that Abbott Laboratories “made and sold substandard, adulterated, and non-compliant infant formula and nutritional therapy products for distribution to Federal Payer Programs and Private Payers, and submitted false claims for payment to the federal government” after the parties filed a joint stipulation of dismissal indicating that Abbott has agreed to pay $384,999,040.12 to resolve the qui tam lawsuit, as well as intervenor complaints filed by the United States and various states.

PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower federal court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of an insurer in a breach of contract and bad faith lawsuit seeking directors and officers liability coverage for an underlying shareholder derivative action, agreeing with the lower court that the policy’s Ownership Percentage Exclusion (OPE) unambiguously bars coverage.

NEW YORK — Saying that it was joining a sister circuit in holding that the No Surprises Act (NSA) “does not imply a private right of action to enforce” independent dispute resolution (IDR) awards, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed dismissal of a suit that an out-of-network health care provider filed against companies that administer “private employer-sponsored group health plans.”

DENVER — In a unanimous ruling, the Colorado Supreme Court on Sept. 21 answered “no” to a question certified to the court from a federal court asking whether umbrella/excess policies are triggered because payment cannot be collected from the insolvent primary carrier despite an occurrence being otherwise covered, finding that the terms of the umbrella policies do not require that insurer to “step into the shoes of an insolvent, scheduled underlying insurer.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. —The U.S. Supreme Court should “protect the integrity of the bankruptcy system” and “safeguard claimants’ constitutional rights to seek redress in the nation’s civil justice system” by putting a stop to the growing practice by wealthy corporations of shedding their asbestos liabilities through a restructuring known as the “Texas Two-Step,” asbestos claimants in the Chapter 11 case of CertainTeed LLC spinoff DBMP LLC say in a petition for a writ of certiorari.