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Civil Law

The federal agency won’t say if it sent a warning letter to makers of Jif peanut butter

The FDA won’t comment on a key element in its investigation into the conditions at a peanut butter plant linked to an outbreak of infections from Salmonella Senftenberg.

Warning letters are routinely sent to companies after inspections turn up deficiencies or illegal conditions at food facilities, especially if the problems are so severe that they result in the issuance of a 483 Form. The warning letters detail problems found at food facilities.

However, the Food and Drug Administration will not … Read the rest

Circuit Courts

The Judicial Conference: A Century of Service to the Federal Judiciary

While meetings of judges to discuss policy are routine today, that first Judicial Conference was a unique milestone in the Judiciary’s history. Chief Justice William Howard Taft had a vision that federal judges could chart their own path as an efficient and independent branch of government. It would begin with judges working together on issues of common interest. Fast forward 100 years; what Taft envisioned has evolved into the Judicial Conference of the United States, a body that is central … Read the rest

Circuit Courts

Federal Judges Support Civics Education Through Summer Teachers Institutes

At court-sponsored institutes across the country, classroom teachers are hearing first-person experiences on topics ranging from judges’ perspectives on judicial independence in their decision-making, to lawyers’ insights into Constitutional tensions between the First Amendment and national security concerns.
Judiciary News – United States Courts… Read the rest

Civil Law

Third Circuit Affirms Law Student’s Cyberstalking Plea, Holding Federal Criminal Cyberstalking Statute Does Not Violate Constitution

This week the Third Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a federal criminal law passed in 2013 regarding cyberstalking, holding that it passes constitutional muster. U.S. v. Yung, Case No. 19-1640 (3d Cir.). The case arose in the context of a criminal matter involving a student who was rejected from Georgetown University Law Center after interviewing with an alumni representative. The decision issued by a three-judge panel is precedential and will impact other federal cyber litigations. Read on to learn … Read the rest

Civil Law

Bipartisan U.S. Federal Privacy Bill Circulated

Keypoint: The chances for the United States to finally enact a federal privacy bill appear to have increased with the circulation of a bipartisan discussion draft although its chances for passage are far from clear.

On Friday, June 3, House and Senate leaders released a bipartisan discussion draft of a comprehensive data privacy bill called the American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA). Although there have been many federal privacy bills introduced in the past, this discussion draft is gaining … Read the rest

Supreme Court

The federal ban on “bump stocks” and the requirements of appellate service

This week we highlight cert petitions that ask the Supreme Court to consider, among other things, whether the federal government’s rule that rifles with “bump stocks” are illegal machineguns comports with the statutory definition of “machinegun” and deserves Chevron deference, and whether a pro se litigant who filed a notice of appeal with the district court, which served the parties, can still bring her appeal.

“Bump stocks,” “machineguns,” and Chevron deference

In Gun Owners of America, Inc. v. Garland… Read the rest

Supreme Court

Majority turns down request to send Texas abortion litigation back to federal district court

The Supreme Court on Thursday afternoon rejected abortion providers’ request to order a federal appeals court to send their challenge to a Texas law banning almost all abortions in the state promptly back to the friendlier confines of a federal district court in that state. The providers argued that failing to do so would “derail indefinitely the timely resolution of the merits of the case” and “compound the ongoing harm to pregnant Texans under” the law, which has been … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Justices field emergency requests on federal vaccine policies for workplaces, health care facilities

As the COVID-19 pandemic enters its third year and the omicron variant causes a spike in cases, challenges to efforts by policymakers to respond to the pandemic continue to arrive at the Supreme Court.

On Friday night, within hours of a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit that reinstated the Biden administration’s vaccine-or-test mandate for large employers, several of the plaintiffs challenging the rule came to the court, asking the justices to stay the … Read the rest