Major cases still loom at SCOTUS

+ Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni and the court of public opinion.

Get full access to Reuters.com for just $1/week. Subscribe now. The Daily Docket The Daily Docket A newsletter by Reuters and Westlaw By Caitlin Tremblay Good morning. SCOTUS released a big religious rights ruling yesterday but major cases still loom. Plus, a federal judge blocked Trump's mass layoffs; the FTC is probing Media Matters over Elon Musk's X boycott claims; and Jenna Greene looks at Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni and the court of public opinion. The long weekend is nigh. I hope it's a good one! See you Tuesday.   Major cases still loom at SCOTUS   REUTERS/Will Dunham As we head into the long weekend, let's check in with the U.S. Supreme Court, which will wrap up its current term in just over a month. Yesterday the court released a ruling in its highest-profile religious rights case of the term, but there's still a lot more to come. We are still awaiting rulings in cases involving birthright citizenship, gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, online pornography, preventive healthcare, Planned Parenthood funding, voting rights and more. Read the full list of cases to watch here. Two other major religious rights cases remain. Read more about them here. And if you're itching for some weekend reading, we've collected stories about this term's oral arguments and decisions here. This term has been punctuated by clashes between President Trump and Chief Justice John Roberts over the role of the judiciary. Late Thursday, the court let Trump keep two Democratic members of federal labor boards away from their posts while they continue to challenge their firings. The ruling contained a line that eased, for now, worries that the cases could open the door for Trump to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell at will. Read more about that here. The court has also acted in other cases challenging Trump's executive orders and actions, including in cases involving deportations, the transgender military ban, firings of federal workers and more. Learn more about where those cases stand here. Coming up today Ousted board members of the U.S. Institute of Peace face a deadline to respond to the Trump administration's move to pause a judge's order that said the terminations were unlawful. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in D.C. in her ruling this week denounced the removal of the board members as a "gross usurpation of power." At the U.S. Supreme Court, watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics must respond by 12 p.m. ET to the Trump administration's effort to set aside a D.C. judge's order requiring Elon Musk's DOGE team to answer questions and disclose documents about its operations.  Classmates.com operator PeopleConnect will urge the 9th Circuit to reverse a judge's decision to certify a class of California residents who say their rights were violated by the company's use of their names and photos obtained from school yearbooks without their consent. Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes. More top news U.S. judge blocks Trump's mass layoffs in blow to government overhaul U.S. Copyright Office director sues Trump administration over firing Ex-McKinsey partner who advised opioid maker Purdue Pharma sentenced to prison Exclusive: FTC probes Media Matters over Musk's X boycott claims, document shows Homeland Security blocks Harvard's ability to enroll international students Industry insight The FTC and the CFTC are on the hook to pay millions of dollars in legal fees after federal judges criticized their conduct in separate cases. Read this week's Billable Hours. Moves: Foley has two new corporate partners in Silicon Valley … Reed Smith hired two white-collar partners in Atlanta … Simpson Thacher added a finance partner in Boston … Dykema added a bankruptcy partner in Chicago … Barnes & Thornburg hired an M&A partner in Dallas … Neal Gerber Eisenberg rehired real estate partner David Theyssen. "This case is about precisely the sort of conduct, including concerted efforts to reduce output, which have long been condemned under the antitrust laws." —The DOJ and FTC, in a statement of interest, expressing support for arguments by Republican-led states accusing asset managers BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street of conspiring through climate activism to decrease coal output. Read more. In the courts U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston ordered the Trump administration to reinstate more than 1,300 U.S. Department of Education employees who Democratic-led states argued were being terminated en masse as part of an effort to dismantle the agency. Read the injunction. The Beastie Boys and Universal Music Group settled lawsuits accusing the parent of Chili's of using the legendary rap trio's 1994 song "Sabotage" without permission in social media ads to promote the restaurant chain. The Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans reached a tentative $179 million settlement to resolve over 600 sex abuse claims in its bankruptcy. Former McKinsey & Co partner Martin Elling was sentenced to six months in prison for destroying records related to advice the consulting firm gave Purdue Pharma on promoting OxyContin. Friday rewind From the legal industry: Northwestern University's law school dean Hari Osofsky will resign from her role, at a time when Osofsky and the law school face ongoing legal problems. Law school commencement speakers are urging students to protect democracy. The ABA plans to double the number of hands-on learning credits for law students, eliciting criticism of overreach. And former DOJ lawyer John Keller, who resigned in February amid a clash over the prosecution of NYC mayor Eric Adams, joined a law firm.  Diddy trial recap: Pop singer Dawn Richard testified on Monday that she saw Sean "Diddy" Combs beat his girlfriend repeatedly; she faced sharp cross-examination. On Tuesday, Diddy's personal assistant testified that he frequently saw Combs take drugs, including opiates during the day and ecstasy at night. And on Thursday, rapper Kid Cudi told the jury that Diddy broke into his home in 2011 after discovering he was dating Diddy's on-and-off girlfriend, Casandra Ventura.  Also of note: Google convinced the Federal Circuit to overturn its $20 million trial loss in a patent lawsuit over its Nest smart thermostats. The EEOC's Biden-era rule on abortion protections for workers was struck down by a federal judge. And the Trump administration's probes of Democrats Andrew Cuomo and LaMonica McIver show its readiness to target rivals. Column: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni and the court of public opinion For lawyers, there's a fine art to litigating in the press – of calibrating how to shape a public narrative without running afoul of ethics rules or antagonizing judges. It can be a thin line – and it's being tested by counsel in bitter litigation between actor-director Justin Baldoni and his erstwhile "It Ends With Us" co-star Blake Lively over allegations of sexual harassment, extortion and defamation, Jenna Greene writes in On the Case. Read more. Attorney Analysis Clark Hill's Mark Ludwikowski and Kelsey Christensen look at what President Trump's tariffs mean for the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement. Read today's Attorney Analysis. Additional writing by Shruthi Krishnamurthy. Contact Caitlin Tremblay caitlin.tremblay@thomsonreuters.com Sponsors are not involved in the creation of newsletters or other Reuters news content. 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