1. JD Supra Morning Brief: Same-Sex Marriage, Yellow Snow, NFL Concussions, Dawn Raids

    Since when did they start making the weekends only two days long? Sheesh. At least we’ve got a new Morning Brief:

    Tomorrow’s the big day! So what do we need to know today about the Supreme Court oral arguments in the same-sex marriage cases? (Bloomberg Law) 

    An 883-pound fish, yellow snow, and copyrighted grades of football players, all in the same update. Really – does it get any better than this? (Proskauer) 

    Trying to sort through the complexities of the NFL concussion litigation is giving us a headache (Barger & Wolen) 

    Can consumer watchdog CFPB “level the playing field” in the auto finance industry? And if they do, will it actually help consumers? (Ballard Spahr) 

    Repackaging and selling AP news articles is not “fair use,” says appeals court (Davis Wright Tremaine) 

    Agree to disagree? Not this time – environmentalists and fracking industry agree on voluntary standards (BakerHostetler) 

    Do mortgage lenders discriminate against women? Yes, says a new study (BuckleySandler) 

    Every company that does business in the EU could find itself the target of an unannounced antitrust dawn raid (McDermott Will & Emery) 

    How much does big pharma spend on research and development? A lot (McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff) 

    Abbott shakes off a lawsuit claiming Ensure doesn’t deliver its promised health benefits (Morrison & Foerster) 

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  2. Bankruptcy, Hugging, Class Actions, Public Art. It Can Only Be…

    Thursday’s JD Supra Buzz. For your reference, here’s what we learned in law today: 

    These Bloomberg guys make bankruptcy law fun! (Bloomberg Law) 

    Sacré bleu ! French lawmakers are considering a bill that would allow consumer class actions for the first time (Bryan Cave) (Comment dit-on « class action » en français?) 

    Stay in line, and keep your hands to yourself: hugging is not permitted at these schools (Cullen & Dykman) 

    Public art programs are doing pretty well in spite of the economic downtown, thanks to “percent-for-art” programs (Sheppard Mullin) 

    Sometimes it’s not so easy to talk business when you’re doing business. This update should help (Ropers, Majeski, Kohn & Bentley) 

    The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the legality of the University of Texas at Austin’s Affirmative Action policy (XpertHR) 

    POM Wonderful is still challenging the FTC’s administrative action against the company. And still coming up short (Ifrah Law) 

    It’s like a “Who’s Who” of international corruption and bribery (Morrison & Foerster) 

    Despite a strong push from key members of Congress, cybersecurity legislation is unlikely to pass in this year’s “lame duck” session (King & Spalding) 

    Selling a prescreened list of consumers who are behind on mortgage payments is illegal (and buying it is too) (Ballard Spahr) 

    The renewable energy industry is at a crossroads (Phillips Lytle) 

    The European Court of Justice just ruled that air carriers must compensate travelers denied boarding because of an airport strike or missed connections due to flight delays (McDermott Will & Emery) 

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  3. Freedom from Religion, Fracking under Attack, FBI Warrants, Fortune 500 Cybersecurity… Yes, It’s…

    … this week’s JD Supra Buzz. Here’s what we learned in law news:

    The Freedom from Religion Foundation has asked the U of Tennessee to stop praying before football games (TN Law Center) 

    Google has challenged an FBI search warrant seeking the unlock code for the phone of a man accused of running a prostitution business (Lawyers.com) 

    Is the price of an illegal song download dropping? (Mintz Levin) 

    Regulators and environmental groups continue to target fracking operations (Spilman Thomas & Battle) 

    Dear CEO: What is your company doing re cybersecurity protection? Signed, Senator John Rockefeller (King & Spalding) 

    The Green Card lottery opens on October 2, 2012 (Proskauer) 

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has had a very very busy first year (Morgan Lewis) 

    The NLRB did not like Costco’s social media policy. Not at all. (Mintz Levin) 

    The European Commission is lobbying for centralized bank supervision (Corporate Law Report) 

    The Center for Responsive Politics tracks the lobbying and political activities of approximately 20,000 organizations (King & Spalding) 

    A Colorado man who claimed to contracted a rare lung disease from making and eating two to three bags a day of microwave popcorn was awarded nearly $7.3 million in damages (Dinsmore & Shohl) 

    If you’re keeping score at home, it’s Panties: 1, Fair Use Doctrine: 0 (Greenberg Glusker) 

    Hold on – do you have any actual proof you’re the Libyan Embassy, or do you expect me to just take your word for it? (Ifrah Law) 

    Can employees take sick leave when they’re not sick? No, it’s not a trick question (Pullman & Comley) 

    Sean Connery can’t survive in a Daniel Craig world. Yes, we’re talking about HIPAA (Davis Brown) 

    California’s Proposition 37 is turning organic friends into enemies, six weeks before it goes to the polls (Is That Legal?) 

    Brazil is doing what it can to eliminate corruption ahead of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, but that may not be enough (Michael Volkov) 

    Free expression rights in turbulent world: Google blocks access to an anti-Islam video in Libya and Egypt (Foley Hoag) 

    Michigan Supreme Court upholds law barring medical marijuana providers from making a profit on the legal drug (XpertHR) 

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  4. Troops Get Jobs, Data Gets Kidnapped, Lawyers Get Paid, Fashion Gets Ugly. Must Be…

    … this week’s JD Supra buzz. What we learned in law this week, FYI:

    The Securities and Exchange Commission has shelved plans to reform money market fund regulations (MarketsReformWiki) 

    More than 100,000 troops are estimated to return to the workforce over the next three years (Spilman Thomas & Battle) 

    Worried that cybercriminals will hack into your servers and hold your data for ransom? You probably should be (Pullman & Comley) 

    Is $35,000 an hour for legal fees a reasonable rate? The Delaware Supreme Court thinks so. But why did it take them 110 pages to say that? (Sands Anderson) 

    Corruption and bribery are ugly crimes. So why does the fashion industry have to worry about it? (Sheppard Mullin) 

    Q: Can California businesses round employee time cards? A: It’s complicated, at least for now (Hopkins & Carley) 

    The EEOC is moving closer to including obesity as a disability under the ADA (Spilman Thomas & Battle) 

    The NCAA is digging deep in its investigation of the University of North Carolina football program. Very deep (Brooks Pierce) 

    EA Sports has agreed to give up its exclusive right to produce college football video games  (Winthrop & Weinstine) 

    Two years after the passage of the state’s medical marijuana law, New Jersey residents can finally register to obtain prescriptions (Duane Morris) 

    It ain’t over until you download the illegal copy of the fat lady singing (Is That Legal?) 

    Is copyright infringement becoming an obligatory stop on the campaign trail in this year’s presidential race? (Foley Hoag) 

    It’s never too early for college athletes to begin thinking about trademarks they’ll want when they turn pro (Sheppard Mullin) 

    Employers who health rebate checks in the mail have a lot of options for distributing the money. But generally only one of them is right (Katten Muchin Rosenman) 

    There’s no time like the present to give your assets away. But it won’t last long (Greenberg Glusker) 

    Do consumers stand to lose the most with the Apple v. Samsung verdict? (Howard Ullman) 

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  5. This Week’s Buzz: Toxic Substances, Gift Tax Exemption, NBA Needs Money, Bogart & Burberry, More

    What we learned this week. FYI:

    Manufacturers of consumer products sold in California need to comply with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control’s new Safer Consumer Products regulations (Allen Matkins) 

    Can’t give it all away? You can still take advantage of the 2012 gift tax exemption (but not for long) (Is That Legal?) 

    The NBA’s solution to shore up lagging revenues? More advertising (Loeb & Loeb) 

    Humphrey Bogart won’t be back on Burberry’s Facebook page any time soon (Kilpatrick Townsend) 

    There’s a new exchange for buying and selling intellectual property “unit license rights” (McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff) 

    Do business with Iraq? There’s a new tax reporting requirement for you (Bryan Cave) 

    Psst – wanna buy a used software program? Head to Europe (Patton Boggs) 

    It’s 2012, and workplace lactation rules still don’t serve the rights of employees or their employers (Davis Brown) 

    “Your money or your privacy” could become the new standard holdup line (Mintz Levin) 

    T-Mobile will get to build its “monopine” tower in West Bloomfield (Michigan) after all (Davis Wright Tremaine) 

    Insider trading defendants could claim that they were merely sharing information with “relationships of trust and confidence.” But they’re not (Morvillo Abramowitz) 

    The EPA is betting that fracking can be “green” by 2015 (we’re a poet and we know it) (Sedgwick) 

    Your mother was right: sometimes it’s best to not say anything at all (especially when you’re under government investigation) (Patterson Belknap) 

    TSA employees called up for active military duty are now entitled to get their jobs back when they come home (Xpert HR) 

    When was the last time you used that health and fitness app on your smartphone? Don’t worry, you’re not alone… (Fenwick & West) 

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  6. Today’s Law News Buzz: Massive Poker Settlement, First Loan Modification Fraud Lawsuit, More

    Here’s what’s hot in law news right now, delivered as seen on Twitter: