The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has issued a significant state constitutional ruling, unanimously holding that Article I, Section 8 of the Pennsylvania Constitution protects private landowners from warrantless searches of posted private property. In doing so, the court rejected the federal “open fields” doctrine as a matter of Pennsylvania law, marking an important divergence from federal search-and-seizure doctrine.

The “open fields” doctrine, recognized under the Fourth Amendment, has long allowed law enforcement to enter and inspect certain land outside the home and its immediate surroundings without a warrant.

Johnson Johnson has announced a proposed $5.5 billion global resolution aimed at settling tens of thousands of lawsuits alleging its talcum powder products caused ovarian cancer, a major development in one of the country’s most closely watched mass torts.

The Supreme Court’s June 18 decision in Hunter v. United States is poised to reshape how courts, prosecutors, and defense counsel think about appeal waivers in criminal plea agreements. In a significant ruling, the Court held that such waivers are not categorically enforceable when enforcing them would result in a miscarriage of justice.

That holding marks an important shift in a plea-driven criminal system where appeal waivers have long been treated as a powerful tool for finality.

The Justice Department is elevating data security into a core national-security enforcement priority, with new public messaging and implementation activity around the federal government’s effort to restrict sensitive U.S. data from reaching foreign adversaries.

The EPA has finalized a settlement with Denka Performance Elastomer, LLC over alleged hazardous-waste mismanagement and chloroprene-related violations at the company’s LaPlace, Louisiana facility, closing out claims brought under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. While RCRA settlements are not unusual on their own, this one stands out because EPA framed waste-handling deficiencies as part of a broader set of environmental and public-health risks tied to the facility’s emissions profile and its long-running scrutiny from regulators, residents, and litigants.

That matters.

The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division has resumed a targeted Hart-Scott-Rodino review process, an important signal that federal merger scrutiny remains active and potentially more exacting for certain transactions. While this development is not tied to a single headline-grabbing court fight, it matters because the HSR process is the front door to U.S. merger enforcement: changes in how the government screens deals can directly affect closing timelines, regulatory strategy, and overall transaction risk.

The announcement from the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division suggests that parties should expect renewed attention to selected reportable deals during the premerger review stage.

The Long Island serial-killer prosecution is expected to reach a major procedural milestone Wednesday, when the defendant is sentenced in New York state court. Under the reported plea arrangement, a life sentence is anticipated, bringing one of the region’s most closely watched homicide cases to its formal punishment phase.

For criminal practitioners, the sentencing marks more than the end of a headline-grabbing prosecution.

Federal authorities have announced a $24 million civil fraud settlement involving a Dallas laboratory and certain owners and investors over alleged misconduct tied to COVID-19 testing. The resolution is a notable reminder that pandemic-era billing practices remain a live enforcement priority, especially where the government believes testing claims were inflated, medically unnecessary, or otherwise noncompliant.

Although the matter was resolved through settlement rather than a litigated judgment, the size of the payment underscores how aggressively the Department of Justice continues to use civil fraud tools in the healthcare space.

Two of the eight men charged in a highly unusual alleged terrorism plot have pleaded not guilty in federal court in Ohio, moving forward one of the more closely watched recent criminal cases involving alleged plans to attack a public event on the White House lawn. The defendants, Tycen Proper and Chandler Scaggs, are among a group accused in a purported drone-and-sniper conspiracy targeting a UFC event, with the proceedings before U.S. District Judge Edmund Sargus Jr.

The case has drawn outsized attention because of the alleged target, the nature of the conspiracy allegations, and the fact that multiple defendants are being handled in consolidated federal proceedings.

Thomas C. Goldstein, a nationally known Supreme Court advocate and co-founder of SCOTUSblog, has been sentenced in federal court to 72 months in prison for tax crimes and mortgage fraud. The court also revoked his bond and remanded him into custody at sentencing, an unusually sharp procedural turn that underscores how seriously the court viewed the conduct and the need for immediate detention.

The case stands out not only because of the sentence length, but because of the defendant’s stature in the legal profession.

The U.S. Department of Justice on July 9 announced prison sentences for Neil Suresh Chandran and Bryan Lee in a sweeping investor-fraud case that prosecutors said caused more than $45 million in losses to over 10,000 investors. According to the government, the defendants promoted false narratives about extraordinary company valuations and imminent buyouts, using those claims to induce investments on a massive scale.

The sentencings are notable not only for the size of the alleged fraud, but also for the victim count.

The Alabama State Bar has issued formal ethics guidance on lawyers’ use of artificial intelligence, offering one of the clearest signals yet that AI is no longer just a technology issue for law firms — it is a professional responsibility issue.

The opinion reportedly focuses on two especially sensitive areas: billing and client communication.

The Justice Department has proposed an antitrust settlement with Willow Bridge Property Company LLC, one of the country’s largest landlords, in a case that underscores a continuing enforcement priority: the use of pricing algorithms and shared competitively sensitive information in rental housing markets.

According to the government, the case centers on allegations that Willow Bridge participated in information sharing and coordination practices affecting apartment rents.

23andMe’s data-breach exposure grew again this week, as a coalition of more than 40 state attorneys general announced they will share in an additional $18 million resolution over alleged unreasonable security practices. The state deal follows a bankruptcy court’s approval of a separate $46.75 million settlement with private claimants, bringing the combined fallout to $64.75 million and underscoring how cyber incidents can trigger overlapping liability across private litigation, regulatory enforcement, and insolvency proceedings.

The underlying civil litigation has been centralized in the Northern District of California as IN RE: 23ANDME, Inc., Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, a multidistrict proceeding that has become a key docket for watching how courts handle privacy claims tied to alleged security failures involving highly sensitive consumer data.

A California-led coalition of 12 states has filed a federal antitrust suit in the Northern District of California seeking to block Paramount’s proposed $110 billion deal involving Warner Bros.