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Cannabis
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August 12, 2025
Reynolds Asks Justices To Eye Patent Damages In $95M Case
R.J. Reynolds has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a $95 million verdict against it for infringing Altria vape patents, saying the Federal Circuit is flouting high court precedent that patent damages can only be based on the value of the patented features.
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August 12, 2025
2nd Circ. Rules Dormant Commerce Clause Covers Marijuana
A split Second Circuit panel on Tuesday ruled that, despite marijuana's federal illegality, the U.S. Constitution prohibits states from privileging their own residents when awarding licenses to cannabis businesses.
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August 12, 2025
Maryland Says It's Immune To Hemp Cos.' Challenge To Regs
The state of Maryland and its regulators are urging a federal court to toss hemp companies' challenge to a state regulation requiring licenses for intoxicating hemp-derived products, saying the claims are blocked by sovereign immunity under the 11th Amendment.
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August 11, 2025
Consumers Say Vape Makers Can't Escape Price-Fixing Suit
Buyers of cannabis vape brand CCell are pushing back on two bids seeking to dismiss their consolidated proposed consumer class action in California federal court accusing the Chinese manufacturers and U.S. distributors of organizing a price-fixing scheme, saying the companies' interpretation of antitrust law creates a legal loophole.
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August 11, 2025
Canadian CEO Nabs Partial Win In Border Dispute
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security cannot end a lawsuit accusing it of retaliating against the Canadian CEO of a cannabis harvesting equipment company, a Washington federal judge ruled, rejecting government arguments that the case is totally moot because it lifted its initial deportation order against the executive, noting that the government hasn't restored his trusted traveler status.
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August 11, 2025
Judge Rules NYC Can Enforce Kava Cafe Shutdowns
A Manhattan federal judge has ruled that New York City public health and safety officials were within their authority to issue shutdown orders to restaurants that served kava, a federally unregulated psychoactive plant derivative.
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August 08, 2025
Colo. Conviction Axed Over Man's 'Rambling' Midtrial Speech
A man who was allowed to go on an incoherent rant before a jury while wearing prison clothes and was subsequently sentenced to 12 years in prison for growing marijuana will get a new trial, a Colorado state appeals court said, finding that his unsworn ramblings undoubtedly deprived him of a fair hearing.
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August 08, 2025
LA Judges Tosses Suit Over $5.7M Pot Loss In Fire
A Los Angeles cannabis entrepreneur must pay the legal fees of his neighbor, whom he sued for $5.7 million on claims that the defendant allowed his property to become a fire hazard through lax safety standards and by allowing transient people to live there, resulting in an inferno which destroyed millions of dollars worth of cannabis flower.
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August 08, 2025
Vape Maker Must Arbitrate Claims Of Distributor Misconduct
A California federal judge has ordered the owners of a Hong Kong vape maker to arbitrate their claims accusing a competitor of trying to "usurp" their place in the market, concluding that an underlying arbitration agreement was applicable despite the competitor's founder not signing the pact.
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August 08, 2025
LAPD Wins Bid To Withhold 'Embarrassing' Body Cam Footage
The public will not get to see body-camera footage allegedly showing a Los Angeles police officer destroying an MRI machine after his rifle was pulled into its magnetic field during a raid on an X-ray clinic that was wrongly assumed to be a cannabis grow site, a California federal court ruled, seeking to avoid "embarrassing" the officers named in the civil suit.
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August 08, 2025
NY Court Tosses Challenge To Crackdown On Illicit Pot Shops
A New York state judge has dismissed a constitutional challenge to a crackdown on unregulated marijuana sellers, finding that city and state officials acted within their authority when they targeted the self-described cannabis club that brought the petition.
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August 08, 2025
NY Cannabis Sellers Urge Lawmakers To Fix Regulation Flap
New York cannabis retailers facing the revocation of their licenses due to a recent destabilizing shift in regulatory interpretation are urging Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state Legislature to take immediate action to ensure the continuity of their businesses.
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August 08, 2025
Massachusetts Sheriff Charged With Extorting Cannabis Shop
Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Sheriff Steven W. Tompkins was arrested Friday morning in Florida on extortion charges related to his demand for a stake in a cannabis dispensary — and a refund when his shares lost value — federal prosecutors announced.
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August 07, 2025
Class Action Over Kratom Extract Is Resolved
Consumers have agreed to drop a proposed class action against online Missouri hemp retailer CBD American Shaman LLC that accused it of deceptively marketing a concentrated kratom alkaloid, known as 7-OH, as a safe "natural" product while concealing its opioid-level addictiveness.
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August 07, 2025
Calif. Sheriff Says Criminal Law Enforceable On Tribal Land
A California sheriff is asking a federal judge to dismiss the latest complaint from the Round Valley Indian Tribes and three members alleging law enforcement illegally raided cannabis growers, saying criminal laws can still be enforced on tribal land.
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August 07, 2025
Kratom Buyers Take Addictiveness Suit To 9th Circ.
A proposed class of kratom buyers is appealing to the Ninth Circuit after their claims that Thang Botanicals and FTLS Holdings LLC misled them about the addictive qualities of kratom products were dismissed with prejudice.
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August 06, 2025
RJ Reynolds Keeps Trial Win In Cancer Death Suit, Panel Says
A Massachusetts intermediate-level appeals court on Wednesday affirmed RJ Reynolds' trial win in a suit accusing it of causing a man's lung cancer, saying a new trial was not warranted as the trial judge did not unfairly exclude certain evidence.
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August 06, 2025
Bong Maker Warned Of Sanctions After Repeated Errors
A Texas federal judge said Tuesday he's issued his last warning to a California-based bong maker which has filed nearly five dozen trademark infringement cases against head shops in North Texas, saying sanctions will come if the company keeps making the same procedural mistakes.
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August 06, 2025
US Asks High Court To Decide If Drug Users Can Have Guns
The Trump administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve "a four-way circuit conflict" over whether it is legal to prevent users of drugs including marijuana, which has been legalized in some fashion in the vast majority of states, from possessing firearms.
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August 06, 2025
Pa. House Bill Seeks To Legalize, Tax Adult-Use Cannabis
Pennsylvania would legalize adult-use cannabis and impose a tax on its sale and cultivation under a bill introduced in the state House of Representatives.
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August 05, 2025
Cannabis Co. Can't Blame Defaults On Neglectful Attorney
A defunct Los Angeles dispensary and its operators cannot undo default entries issued against them by investors who seek more than $325,000, a California state judge has ruled, rejecting the company's attempt to pin the loss on their attorney who "lost track" of the case.
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August 05, 2025
RI Urges 1st Circ. To Toss Challenge To Pot License Regime
Rhode Island cannabis regulators on Tuesday urged the First Circuit to uphold the dismissal of a Florida entrepreneur's challenge to the state's marijuana licensure program and to reject his bid to have the case remanded back to lower district court.
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August 05, 2025
Utah Judge Blocks 'Bad Faith' Prosecution Of Psilocybin Church
A Utah federal judge has blocked a state court prosecution of the leader of a church that uses psilocybin in its sacrament, finding the prosecution was initiated in bad faith to harass the church and its members following a ruling against the state in the federal case.
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August 04, 2025
Michigan Tribe Joins State Cannabis Market
Michigan has signed its first tribal-state compact with the Bay Mills Indian Community, which will give the federally recognized tribe the ability to sell cannabis goods within the state's borders.
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August 04, 2025
9th Circ. Rejects Most Of Sodexo's ERISA Arbitration Push
The Ninth Circuit said Monday that employers can't unilaterally change Employee Retirement Income Security Act-governed plans to require arbitration, backing the bulk of a trial court ruling that refused to throw out of court a nicotine fee lawsuit against food service company Sodexo.
Expert Analysis
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Series
Playing Soccer Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Soccer has become a key contributor to how I approach my work, and the lessons I’ve learned on the pitch about leadership, adaptability, resilience and communication make me better at what I do every day in my legal career, says Whitney O’Byrne at MoFo.
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Series
Law School's Missed Lessons: Learning From Failure
While law school often focuses on the importance of precision, correctness and perfection, mistakes are inevitable in real-world practice — but failure is not the opposite of progress, and real talent comes from the ability to recover, rethink and reshape, says Brooke Pauley at Tucker Ellis.
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Series
Adapting To Private Practice: From ATF Director To BigLaw
As a two-time boomerang partner, returning to BigLaw after stints as a U.S. attorney and the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, people ask me how I know when to move on, but there’s no single answer — just clearly set your priorities, says Steven Dettelbach at BakerHostetler.
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Series
Playing Baseball Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Playing baseball in college, and now Wiffle ball in a local league, has taught me that teamwork, mental endurance and emotional intelligence are not only important to success in the sport, but also to success as a trial attorney, says Kevan Dorsey at Swift Currie.
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Series
Law School's Missed Lessons: Skillful Persuasion
In many ways, law school teaches us how to argue, but when the ultimate goal is to get your client what they want, being persuasive through preparation and humility is the more likely key to success, says Michael Friedland at Friedland Cianfrani.
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Litigation Inspiration: How To Respond After A Loss
Every litigator loses a case now and then, and the sting of that loss can become a medicine that strengthens or a poison that corrodes, depending on how the attorney responds, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.
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Legal Considerations Around Ibogaine As Addiction Therapy
Recent funding approval in Texas pertaining to the use of ibogaine for the potential treatment of substance use disorders signals a growing openness to innovative addiction treatments, but also underscores the need for rigorous compliance with state and federal requirements and ethical research standards, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.
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The Metamorphosis Of The Major Questions Doctrine
The so-called major questions doctrine arose as a counterweight to Chevron deference over the past few decades, but invocations of the doctrine have persisted in the year since Chevron was overturned, suggesting it still has a role to play in reining in agency overreach, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.
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Feds' Shift On Reputational Risk Raises Questions For Banks
While banking regulators' recent retreat from reputational risk narrows the scope of federal oversight in some respects, it also raises practical questions about consistency, reputational management and the evolving political landscape surrounding financial services, say attorneys at Smith Anderson.
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Series
Playing Mah-Jongg Makes Me A Better Mediator
Mah-jongg rewards patience, pattern recognition, adaptability and keen observation, all skills that are invaluable to my role as a mediator, and to all mediating parties, says Marina Corodemus.
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Series
Law School's Missed Lessons: Navigating Client Trauma
Law schools don't train students to handle repeated exposure to clients' traumatic experiences, but for litigators practicing in areas like civil rights and personal injury, success depends on the ability to view cases clinically and to recognize when you may need to seek help, says Katie Bennett at Robins Kaplan.
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Opinion
4 Former Justices Would Likely Frown On Litigation Funding
As courts increasingly confront cases involving hidden litigation finance contracts, the jurisprudence of four former U.S. Supreme Court justices establishes a constitutional framework that risks erosion by undisclosed financial interests, says Roland Eisenhuth at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association.
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How Attys Can Use AI To Surface Narratives In E-Discovery
E-discovery has reached a turning point where document review is no longer just about procedural tasks like identifying relevance and redacting privilege — rather, generative artificial intelligence tools now allow attorneys to draw connections, extract meaning and tell a coherent story, says Rose Jones at Hilgers Graben.
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Series
Playing The Violin Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Playing violin in a string quartet reminds me that flexibility, ambition, strong listening skills, thoughtful leadership and intentional collaboration are all keys to a successful legal practice, says Julie Park at MoFo.
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Series
Law School's Missed Lessons: Practicing Self-Care
Law schools don’t teach the mental, physical and emotional health maintenance tools necessary to deal with the profession's many demands, but practicing self-care is an important key to success that can help to improve focus, manage stress and reduce burnout, says Rachel Leonard​​​​​​​ at MG+M.