US Legal News

The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit Thursday overturned a lower court decision upholding a securities fraud class action against 3M over its production of “forever chemicals.” The order stems from allegations that 3M, the American corporation best known for products like Post-it Notes, Scotch Tape, and—most recently—N95 respirator masks, deceived potential purchasers [...]

The United States Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Thursday began a process for developing and issuing regulations governing the hardware and software used in self-driving cars. In issuing an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on Automated Driving System (ADS) safety, the NHTSA indicated that even though wide-scale deployment of ADS-equipped vehicles [...]

US President Donald Trump’s campaign alleged in a new lawsuit filed on Wednesday that poll watchers and observers were unable to “meaningfully observe canvassing and counting of mail-in ballots,” thus undermining “the integrity of the election result” and impinging on Pennsylvania’s constitutional right to a fair and free election. The Pennsylvania Secretary of State and [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Wednesday that they have signed an antitrust memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Korean Prosecution Sevice (KPS). The goal of the MOU is to increase cooperation between the US and South Korea regarding criminal antitrust enforcement and policy in both countries. Korea and the US have close military and [...]

Peter Debbins, a former US Army Green Beret, pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiring with Russian operatives in order to provide them with US national defense information. John Demers, Assistant Attorney General for National Security commented on the guilty plea: “Debbins today acknowledged that he violated this country’s highest trust by passing sensitive national security information [...]

The Pittsburgh Water and Sewage Authority (PWSA) pleaded guilty Wednesday to eight federal charges for violating the Clean Water Act. The charges include one count of violating the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System by discharging sludge into the Allegheny River, one of three major American rivers that meet at Pittsburgh. US Attorney Scott Brady announced [...]

The inmates of the Allegheny County Jail (ACJ) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, have received notice from Warden Orlando Harper that books from the outside would no longer be allowed inside the jail. Instead, the incarcerated population will have limited access to around 250 free books on tablets made available to the inmates. The jail’s previous policy [...]

Apple has settled with 33 states and the District of Columbia, agreeing Wednesday to pay $113 million to rectify its past practice of slowing customers’ old iPhones in efforts to preserve battery life. In January 2017 Apple released an iPhone 6 update—iOS 10.2.1—which sought to prolong battery life by “throttling” iPhone processing performance. As a [...]

Amnesty International on Wednesday issued a warning about US President Donald Trump’s refusal to cooperate with US President-elect Joe Biden and its dire impact on what it called the “human rights crisis” presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. The human rights organization condemned Trump’s refusal to cooperate, concluding that the lack of cooperation and its resulting [...]

GM executive and former United Auto Workers (UAW) Vice President Joe Ashton was sentenced Tuesday to 30 months in prison for accepting illegal kickbacks. In 2019 the US Attorney officially charged Ashton with conspiring to commit honest services wire fraud and conspiring to commit money laundering in connection with the kickbacks taken in pursuit of an [...]