On Friday, January 11, 2019, the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari in Gerald P. Mitchell v. State of Wisconsin (Docket No. 18-6210). The case questions whether a civil implied-consent statute in Wisconsin, permitting police officers to draw the blood of an unconscious driver, without consent, is constitutional.

In an order issued today, the US Supreme Court has granted the Trump administration's request to stay orders in two cases filed in federal district courts within the 9th Circuit to block the administration's policy banning most transgender people from serving in the military from going into effect. The Court's decision permits the ban to be temporarily implemented while the cases progress through the appeals process and any Supreme Court review. The Court denied the Trump administration's request to bypass the appellate process completely, but provides a preview of how the Court will likely rule if it hears these cases on the merits.

In what will potentially become a landmark decision, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California gave the order as a part of a denial of a search warrant for a property in Oakland.

In the case of Iancu v. Brunetti, the Federal Circuit recently ruled that a section of the Lanham Act was unconstitutional. This federal law governs the registration of trademarks. Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act prohibits the registration of trademarks that are immoral or scandalous. The Federal Circuit reviewed this provision in…

Last week, Chooseco LLC, the publisher of the Choose Your Own Adventure children’s book series, filed a federal lawsuit against Netflix.

Alfonso Ribeiro, who played Carlton Banks on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, has sued Epic Games, Inc. and Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. for copyright infringement. Ribeiro alleged that Epic Games and Take-Two infringed on his copyright to the Carlton Dance by offering in-game purchases in Fortnite Battle Royale and NBA 2K16, respectively,…

On Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge James Gritzner overturned an Iowa law that made it illegal to obtain employment at a livestock farm to investigate animal cruelty through an undercover approach. The federal judge found the law to be a violation of the constitutional right to free speech.

On Monday, January 7, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit found that Phyllis Randall violated the First Amendment rights of Brian Davison when she blocked Davison for twelve hours in February 2016 from her official Facebook Page as the chair of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors.

The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has ruled that the City of Flint is not immune from the federal lawsuit pending against it following the infamous decision by public officials to save costs by switching the city's water supply to corrosive Flint River water that would be processed by an outdated water plant, sickening local residents as a result. Though the Court's decision dismissed three former state officials, it ruled that city officials were not immune, as the city's emergency management status had not made the city's water functions an "arm of the state."

In a lawsuit filed on Thursday on behalf of Californians, the City of Los Angeles alleged that the operator of The Weather Channel's mobile phone application has been "covertly mining the private data of users and selling the information to third parties, including advertisers."