Minnesota News

In a blistering report, Republican lawmakers sharply criticized Labor secretary nominee Thomas Perez over what they said was a questionable deal he brokered while serving as head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

Mr. Perez was the driving force behind a quid pro quo that last year saw the City of St. Paul, Minnesota withdraw a Supreme Court case, Magner v. Gallagher, in exchange for the feds not joining two False Claims Act cases against the city. 

A powerful Washington bureaucracy is gearing up to finalize an antidiscrimination regulation that the Supreme Court was likely to rule illegal last year in Magner v. Gallagher—until the feds leaned on the city of St. Paul, Minn., to withdraw the case. The same bureaucracy is now withholding evidence of its participation in that deal, which included an agreement to drop two False Claims Act cases against the city. Coincidence?

Remember how the Department of Justice and Department of Housing and Urban Development convinced Saint Paul, Minn., to withdraw a Supreme Court case last year in exchange for dropping two False Claims Act cases against the city—so that Justice could avoid the high bench's review of legally questionable antidiscrimination cases? Now a Senate investigation has revealed that a high-profile nominee to the federal bench was involved in the quid pro quo.

Johnson & Johnson won a reversal of $1.1 million in punitive damages awarded to a man who claimed the company failed to properly warn of the risks of tendon damage linked to its antibiotic Levaquin.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Dennis Saylor denied a defense motion to stay more than 10 suits he is overseeing against the New England Compounding Center, which supplied the steroids linked to an outbreak of fungal meningitis in September and October.

The Department of Justice convinced the city of St. Paul, Minn., to withdraw a Supreme Court case earlier this year. The Obama administration apparently didn't want the High Court to rule on the legal theory underpinning DOJ's shaky antidiscrimination settlements.

After a judge cited Covington & Burling's "conscious disregard" for a former client and booted the firm from representing the state of Minnesota in litigation against 3M Corporation, Covington is fighting to salvage its role in the case.

Minnesota Attorney General has appealed a judge’s decision that booted private attorneys she hired off a case against 3M.

In a 14-page order issued on Thursday, a state court judge in Minnesota disqualified Covington from representing the Minnesota Attorney General in an environmental case against 3M. Siding with 3M's lawyers at Bickel & Brewer and Faegre Baker & Daniels, the judge found that Covington violated ethical rules by taking the case even though the firm previously represented 3M on the chemicals at issue in the Minnesota litigation.