U.S. District Court News

Judge Hits Uber’s Background Check on Passenger Bringing Price-Fixing Suit

A federal judge on Monday banned Uber Technologies Inc. and its Chief Executive Travis Kalanick from using information from a background check on a passenger bringing a price-fixing lawsuit, saying the investigative firm conducting the probe may have engaged in …

JPMorgan Must Face Discrimination Claim by Arab-American Family Business

An Arab-American family whose business and personal bank accounts were closed in 2014 without explanation can sue JPMorgan Chase for racial discrimination, a federal judge in Detroit has ruled. Filed in February, the lawsuit by Najah Manni, his wife Kathy …

Court Battles Begin as U.S., States Sue to Halt Anthem, Aetna Mergers

U.S. antitrust enforcers roundly rejected a pair of proposed deals that would consolidate the nation’s five biggest health insurers into just three. The Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit to stop Anthem Inc.’s merger with Cigna Corp. in federal court …

Case Testing FAA Authority to Regulate Drones Advances

The father and son who posted videos of drones firing a handgun and incinerating a Thanksgiving turkey with a flame-thrower can be questioned by aviation regulators, a U.S. judge ruled in a closely watched case that may determine the government’s …

U.S. Says Judge Nixing MetLife Too-Big-to-Fail Tag ‘Profoundly Mistaken’

The U.S. properly labeled MetLife Inc. as “too big to fail,” the government said, arguing to overturn a ruling that dealt a major blow to efforts to rein in risk in the financial system. A federal judge “was profoundly mistaken” …

Citigroup Sues AT&T, Says It Owns Trademark to ‘Thank You’

Citigroup Inc. sued AT&T Inc. on Friday, saying the phone company’s use of “thanks” and “AT&T thanks” in a new customer loyalty program infringed its trademark rights to the phrase “thankyou.” The lawsuit may threaten the business relationship between two …

‘Stairway to Heaven’ Copyright Trial Opens

The trial over whether Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and Robert Plant stole the iconic opening riff to “Stairway to Heaven” opened with testimony about when the British rockers might have heard the 1968 song they’re accused of copying. Jurors in …

Judge Questions FedEx Liability for Illegal Drug Shipments

Proving to jurors that FedEx Corp. is a criminal because it delivered illegal prescriptions from Internet drug stores was never going to be easy. Convincing a federal judge who questioned the “novel prosecution” may be even tougher. Federal prosecutors go …

Copyright Claim Targets Justin Bieber’s ‘Sorry’ Vocal Riff

Canadian pop star Justin Bieber and the co-writers of his 2015 smash hit “Sorry” are being sued for allegedly stealing a vocal riff from another artist who said she used it on her own song a year earlier. In a …

Liability Insurer Accuses Surgical Robot Maker of Hiding Injury Claims

It’s health insurers’ cardinal rule: disclose pre-existing conditions. Now comes a case in which that familiar decree involves not a patient, but rather a $1.5 million surgical robot known as the da Vinci system. Two insurance companies say da Vinci’s …