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A California federal judge ordered the Trump administration Wednesday to explain why preparations for layoffs at the State Department and Department of Housing and Urban Development do not violate an injunction she issued last month, saying she needed more details about the agencies' plans to evaluate their compliance.
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Environmental
FRIDAY, JUNE 6, 2025

TOP NEWS

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Trump Ordered To Explain Why Layoffs Don't Flout Injunction

By Tim Ryan

A California federal judge ordered the Trump administration Wednesday to explain why preparations for layoffs at the State Department and Department of Housing and Urban Development do not violate an injunction she issued last month, saying she needed more details about the agencies' plans to evaluate their compliance.

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Judge Grills Kidde-Fenwal About Missing Info In Disclosures

By Emily Lever

A Delaware bankruptcy judge Wednesday questioned why firefighting foam maker Kidde-Fenwal did not include in plan disclosures details about the recoveries its creditors can expect under its Chapter 11 proposal, as the debtor prepares to send its reorganization plan out for a vote.

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Feds Say 'No Viable Path' Forward For Calif. High-Speed Rail

By Linda Chiem

The U.S. Department of Transportation said Wednesday that the California high-speed rail's overblown budget and ongoing mismanagement indicate that there's "no viable path" to completing the project on schedule, so the federal government is preparing to pull nearly $4 billion in funding.

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Winston & Strawn, Cravath Guide $19B Industrial Tech Merger

By Al Barbarino

Chart Industries Inc. and Flowserve Corp. said Wednesday they have agreed to merge in an all-stock deal that values the combined entity at $19 billion, giving it the "scale and resilience" needed to compete, with Winston & Strawn LLP and Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP providing legal guidance.

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ENFORCEMENT

NC Biogas Co. Sanctioned For Breaking Deal With Lenders

By Hayley Fowler

A North Carolina biogas company has been ordered to fork over a six-figure judgment in an ongoing legal battle with its lenders as a sanction for flouting a state court order related to its pursuit of a renewable energy project.

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LITIGATION

Donlin Gold Says Vacatur Not Warranted In Alaska Mine Case

By Tom Lotshaw

A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision confirms that government approvals for a large gold mine in Alaska should not be thrown out even if an agency botched some aspects of an environmental review, the company behind the project told a federal judge.

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Ex-Ga. Chemical Plant Owners Sued For Toxic Waste Dumping

By Chart Riggall

The owner of an abandoned northwest Georgia chemical plant filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against its former owner-operators alleging that they left hundreds of drums of toxic waste behind, resulting in its new owner facing federal prosecution and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to clean up.

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Idaho Mining Co. Hit With Suit Over Dump Site Contamination

By Crystal Owens

The U.S., Idaho and Native American tribes have hit Nu-West Industries Inc. with a Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act lawsuit, alleging that hazardous substances from phosphate mining are being generated and disposed of at a dump site owned by the company within the Caribou-Targhee National Forest.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

Calif. Air Board Offers Early Hints On Climate Reporting

As initial reporting deadlines for California's new climate reporting laws approach, guidance provided by the California Air Resources Board in a virtual public workshop sheds some light on rulemaking to come, and how to prepare for compliance during this period of uncertainty, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

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Series

Law School's Missed Lessons: Supporting A Trial Team

While students often practice as lead trial attorneys in law school, such an opportunity likely won’t arise until a few years into practice, so junior associates should focus on honing skills that are essential to supporting a trial team, including organization, adaptability and humility, says Lucy Zelina at Tucker Ellis.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

Analysis

How Trump's Pardons Could Sway Prosecutorial Discretion

By Phillip Bantz

As President Donald Trump dismantles a growing list of white collar criminal cases with a flurry of clemency grants early in his second term, erasing years of investigative and prosecutorial work with a stroke of his black Sharpie, experts worry his actions will have a chilling effect on prosecutorial decision-making.

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Bernstein Litowitz Can Hire Ex-SEC Atty Over Musk Objection

By Jessica Corso

A New York federal judge on Thursday gave the all-clear for investor-side firm Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP to hire the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's former litigation chief over the objections of Elon Musk.

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Seyfarth Joins Long List Of BigLaw's China Closures

By Aebra Coe

Seyfarth Shaw LLP is the latest large law firm to close an office in China, with a spokesperson confirming Thursday that the firm plans to shutter its Shanghai office later this year.

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Foley & Lardner Says Palestine Support Didn't Doom Job Offer

By Andrea Keckley

Foley & Lardner LLP urged an Illinois federal judge to dismiss a bias suit by a former summer associate, arguing her job offer was rescinded not due to her Arab Muslim identity but because her public comments on Hamas' 2023 attack on Israel "violated the firm's core values" and showed "incredibly poor judgment."

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Analysis

Trump's New Travel Ban May Be Harder To Fight This Time

By Britain Eakin

President Donald Trump's travel ban, which suffered multiple court losses during his first term before the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately upheld it, may be on more solid legal footing in its renewed form, with lessons evidently applied from those losses.

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Dems, GOP Question Contempt Section Of Reconciliation Bill

By Courtney Bublé

Senate Democrats have vowed to do whatever they can to defeat a provision in the budget reconciliation that would limit federal courts' ability to hold federal officials in contempt, and some Republicans are wary of it as well. 

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Girardi's Son-In-Law Admits Contempt In Illinois Theft Case

By Lauraann Wood

Tom Girardi's son-in-law pled guilty to criminal contempt Thursday in Illinois federal court, admitting he knew the once-celebrated plaintiffs lawyer failed to pay millions of dollars in plane crash settlement funds they had been ordered to distribute to their clients "as soon as practical."

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Justices Nix Higher Hurdle For Heterosexual Bias Claims

By Ryan Harroff

A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday vacated the Sixth Circuit's ruling that plaintiffs claiming anti-heterosexual workplace discrimination need to provide extra "background circumstances" evidence, opining that it improperly imposed special standards on majority-group plaintiffs.

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High Court Drops Class Cert. Clarification Bid

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Thursday to weigh in on whether federal courts can certify classes that include uninjured members, holding it improperly agreed to hear a disability discrimination case against diagnostics company Labcorp that raised the important question.

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Atty Coalition Asks Fla. Bar To Open Ethics Probe Into Bondi

By Carolina Bolado

A group of lawyers, law professors and former judges asked the Florida Bar on Thursday to open an ethics investigation into Pam Bondi's actions as attorney general, saying she has pushed U.S. Department of Justice attorneys to violate their ethical obligations under the guise of "zealous advocacy."

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Senate Panel Advances Picks For Nat. Sec. Post, Iowa US Atty

By Courtney Buble

The Senate voted 52-43 along party lines on Thursday to confirm John Andrew Eisenberg to be assistant attorney general for national security.

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Titan Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Joseph Saveri

By Daniel Connolly

Joseph Saveri, now one of the most successful plaintiffs lawyers in the U.S., said he's thought often about the story of his paternal grandparents, who left Italy around 1918, immigrated to America and traveled across the continent to settle in San Francisco.

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LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Abell Eskew

Altshuler Berzon

Arnold & Porter

Bernstein Litowitz

Brown Rudnick

Buckmiller Boyette

Cera LLP

Cheronis & Parente

Chipman Brown

Cleary Gottlieb

Cravath Swaine

Davis Polk

Day Pitney

Edelson PC

Edward L. Gilbert Co. LPA

Foley & Lardner

Girardi & Keese

Gupta Wessler

Hartley LLP

Jones Day

Joseph Saveri Law Firm

Kapitan Gomaa

Kirkland & Ellis

Lane & Waterman

Lewis Brisbois

Lieff Cabraser

Morgan Lewis

Morris Nichols

Nelson Mullins

Patterson Belknap

Paul Weiss

Perkins Coie

Quinn Emanuel

Saveri & Saveri

Schwabe Williamson

Seyfarth Shaw

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP

Smith Anderson Blount Dorsett Mitchell & Jernigan

Stutzman Bromberg

Sullivan & Cromwell

Tucker Ellis

Vitale Vickrey

Willkie Farr

Wilson Sonsini

Winston & Strawn

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

American Federation of Government Employees

American Federation of State County & Municipal Employees

American Immigration Lawyers Association

Apple Inc.

Associated Press

Bumble Bee Foods LLC

Caribou

Carrier Global Corp.

Chart Industries, Inc.

Democracy Forward Foundation

Earthjustice

Fenwal Inc.

Flowserve Corp.

Frost PLLC

GameStop Corp.

George Washington University

Gleason Corp.

HDR Global Trading Ltd.

Howden Group Ltd.

Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings

Lexington Insurance Co.

LinkedIn Corp.

Natural Resources Defense Council

Nikola Corp.

Purdue Pharma LP

Robinhood Markets Inc.

Service Employees International Union

The Florida Bar

Twitter Inc.

Ultimate Fighting Championship Ltd.

University of Virginia

Varsity Brands LLC

Yara International

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Bureau of Land Management

California Air Resources Board

California State Transportation Agency

County of Santa Clara, California

European Union

Federal Railroad Administration

Idaho Department of Environmental Quality

National Security Council

Ohio Attorney General's Office

Shoshone-Bannock Tribes

Surface Transportation Board

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois

U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware

U.S. Department of Defense

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of Transportation

U.S. District Court for the Central District of California

U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska

U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

U.S. Office of Personnel Management

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Supreme Court

US Office of Management and Budget