Latest Legislation Headlines
All the headlines from our Legislation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Florida Action Against Disney More Complicated Than Lawmakers May Have Known
Apr 28 2022 // That plan to strip the Disney Corp. of its special municipality status in Florida? It’s more complicated than many Florida officials may have realized. A week after the Florida Legislature acted with lightning speed...
Judge Rules for Elon Musk in $13 Billion Lawsuit Over Tesla-SolarCity Deal
Apr 28 2022 // Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk did not unjustly enrich himself when he guided the electric vehicle maker in 2016 to acquire SolarCity Corp, where Musk was chairman and the largest shareholder, a Delaware...
U.S. Lawmakers Push Insurers to Stop Underwriting Fossil Fuels
Apr 27 2022 // A group of Democratic lawmakers, mostly members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, have asked some of the nation’s biggest insurance companies to stop underwriting new fossil fuel projects that contribute to...
Boy Scouts Bankruptcy Judge Approves Sale of BSA Warehouse
Apr 26 2022 // The judge presiding over the Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy has approved the organization’s request to sell its warehouse and distribution center in North Carolina for roughly $13.5 million and lease back the...
Federal Judge Approves $85 Million Settlement in Zoom Case
Apr 25 2022 // A federal judge in California approved an $85 million settlement between Zoom Video Communications and millions of users who said the teleconference meeting application violated their privacy rights by sharing personal...
Thorny Issues Face Boy Scouts Bankruptcy Judge
Apr 25 2022 // More than two years after the Boy Scouts of America sought bankruptcy protection to stave off a flood of lawsuits alleging child sexual abuse by Scout leaders and volunteers, a Delaware judge is weighing whether to confirm...
Maine Court Rules Intertidal Zone Belongs to Beachfront Owners
Apr 25 2022 // A state judge has ruled that the intertidal zone belongs to beachfront property owners but the judge’s ruling didn’t specify what activities, if any, might be allowed there. The ruling was a setback for...
Judge Rejects ‘Gag Order’ for Elon Musk
Apr 21 2022 // Elon Musk will not be subjected to a “gag order” preventing him from discussing a lawsuit claiming he defrauded Tesla Inc. shareholders by tweeting in 2018 about taking his electric car company private, a...
Judge Approves $34M Settlement Over PFOA Contamination of Vermont Community
Apr 21 2022 // A federal judge has given final approval to a $34 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit against a plastics company over toxic chemical contamination of soil and groundwater in a southern Vermont...
Labor Board Judge Rules Amazon Must Reinstate Fired Warehouse Worker
Apr 20 2022 // A judge has ruled Amazon must reinstate a former warehouse employee who was fired in the early days of the pandemic, saying the company “unlawfully” terminated the worker who led a protest calling for Amazon to...
California Judge Rules 5 Officers Wrongly Fired
Apr 19 2022 // A Northern California judge ruled that five Oakland police officers who fatally shot a homeless man in 2018 were unjustly fired and should have kept their jobs. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch said in his...
U.S. Will No Longer Enforce Mask Mandate on Airplanes, Trains After Court Ruling
Apr 19 2022 // The Biden administration will no longer enforce a U.S. mask mandate on public transportation, after a federal judge in Florida on Monday ruled that the 14-month-old directive was unlawful, overturning a key White House...
Federal Judge Certifies Class Action vs. PGAC on Auto Policy Fees
Apr 19 2022 // A subsidiary of American Family Insurance now faces a federal class-action lawsuit in Florida, alleging it regularly charged auto policyholders a cancellation fee that was never mentioned in the policy. The size of the...
ATV Is Not a Farm Vehicle Covered Under Homeowner’s Policy, Virginia Court Rules
Apr 18 2022 // The Virginia Supreme Court has ruled that an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) is not a “farm type vehicle” covered by a homeowner’s insurance policy, reversing a lower court that ruled in favor of coverage. The...
Maine Lawmakers Advance Bill Granting Tribes Sovereignty
Apr 18 2022 // The Maine House voted Thursday to give the state’s tribes the same rights enjoyed by Native Americans elsewhere across the country, a first step in an effort to uphold the tribes’ sovereignty. The 81-55 tally...
California Court Rules Hospitals Can Be Responsible for Abuse by Employees
Apr 18 2022 // A state appeals court ruled that a Southern California hospital can be held responsible for sexual abuse by an employee, upholding a jury’s damage award of $6.75 million to two elderly patients who were abused at a...
Judge Finds Tesla Liable to Black Former Worker Who Alleged Bias, but Slashes Payout
Apr 14 2022 // A federal judge said on Wednesday Tesla Inc. was liable to a Black elevator operator who said the electric car company ignored racial abuse at the factory where he worked, but reduced a nearly $137 million jury award to...
U.S. Gunmakers to Ask Judge to Toss Mexico’s $10 Billion Lawsuit
Apr 12 2022 // A U.S. judge on Tuesday questioned whether allowing Mexico to sue U.S. gun manufacturers for facilitating the trafficking of weapons to drug cartels would open the door to other countries suing them, including Russia over...
Judge Orders Demolition of Packard Plant in Detroit
Apr 11 2022 // A judge has ordered the demolition of the deteriorating Packard auto plant in Detroit, finding that it had become a public nuisance. Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Brian Sullivan wrote in an order that the plant’s...
Maine Lawmakers Move to Phase Out PFAS
Apr 11 2022 // Lawmakers in Maine have made a move toward banning pesticides that contain long-lasting chemicals. The proposal would ban distribution of pesticides with intentionally added perfluoroalkyl or polyfluoroalkyl substances by...
