U.S. First Circuit

In most cases, the Sherman Antitrust Act prohibits competitors from engaging in a group boycott. This law prevents companies from banding together to fix prices or push another competitor out of the market. However, if the "price" a group is looking to influence is worker's wages, that's a horse of a different color.

Judge Shelly Joseph faces obstruction charges after allegedly helping a man evade immigration officials as he left her Newton, Massachusetts courthouse in 2018. She argues that she has "absolute judicial immunity," but the First Circuit held that the privilege does not apply. At least, not yet.

In a recent First Circuit decision, Karth v. Keryx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., the renal biopharmaceutical company Keryx scored a win while raising the bar for investors hoping to prove securities fraud based on inadequate risk disclosures. The Boston-based company produces a single product, a drug called Auryxia, used to treat kidney disease. For all steps of the manufacturing process, Keryx used third-party contractors.

Feeling lucky? Online betting operators probably are after a First Circuit opinion rejected the Justice Department's interpretation that online state lotteries violate federal law. In 2018, the Department of Justice issued an opinion concluding that the Wire Act prohibited all forms of online betting or wagering, including state lotteries. Anyone wanting to take their long-shot odds for millions had to go to a convenience store.

The First Circuit Court of Appeals has sided with Harvard College in a recent decision on affirmative action in college admissions. The lawsuit, filed by Students For Fair Admissions in 2014, alleged that Harvard's "race-conscious" admissions process discriminates against Asian students. In addition to traditional recruiting and application processes, Harvard employs a system of "tips" for applicants.

A high school sophomore in Maine posted a sticky note in one of the girls' bathrooms with the words "There's a rapist in our school and you know who it is." School administrators, who became aware of the note shortly after it was posted, investigated. They concluded that the note was targeted to a fellow student who was the subject of rumors regarding sexual assault.