Resources

In a unanimous ruling in A.J.T. v. Osseo Area Schools, the Supreme Court held that students with disabilities suing under the ADA or Section 504 are no longer required to prove “bad faith” by their schools—a higher standard than other civil rights plaintiffs face.

On June 4, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order restricting the entry of certain foreign nationals to the United States, with the purported goal of protecting the United States from foreign terrorists, as well as other national security and public threats. The travel restrictions took effect on June 9, 2025, at 12:01 a.m. In line with the proclamation, the Department of State has issued similar guidance suspending the issuance of all nonimmigrant and immigrant visas to nationals certain countries.

On June 6, 2025, a U.S. District Judge in the Northern District of California approved the long-anticipated and landmark $2.576 billion settlement in House v. NCAA, transforming the landscape of college sports and marking s a complete shift in the business of college athletics. Schools must consider a host of legal issues that will surround their implementation of the Settlement and any revenue sharing arrangements moving forward.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from discriminating against any individual based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. But does that protection apply equally to white, male, or heterosexual employees? Or should they have to clear a higher bar to prove discrimination?  On June 5, 2025, the United States Supreme Court answered with a unanimous “no” in its decision in Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services. Ames eliminates the “background circumstances” rule, which mandated that majority-group plaintiffs in Title VII discrimination cases provide additional evidence suggesting that the employer was the “unusual” type that discriminates against the majority.

As Michigan public schools prepare their 2025-2026 budgets, they should be aware of the short-term borrowing options available to cover their projected operating cash-flow shortfalls.  

On May 1, 2025, the IRS released Rev Proc 2025-19 which updated for 2026 the limits applicable to certain health and welfare plans.

On April 24, 2025, the U.S. District Courts for the District of New Hampshire and the District of Maryland issued separate orders blocking enforcement of all, or large portions of, the Dear Colleague Letter (“DCL”) issued by the Department of Education (“DOE”) on February 14, 2025. The DCL related to the viability of various “DEI” programs in the wake of last year’s Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard.  

On April 17, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion in Cunningham v Cornell University, addressing the pleading standard applicable to prohibited transaction claims under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. This is a procedural ruling steeped in technical principles of statutory construction and interpretation of civil litigation rules. The hurdle for participants to survive a motion to dismiss in a suit against plan fiduciaries just got easier, so it is more important than ever for plan sponsors to manage litigation risk by making themselves unattractive targets.

U.S. patent claims have a preamble, and, in most cases, the preamble is not limiting. Jepson-style patent claims, however, do typically have a limiting preamble. In Jepson-style claims, the preamble can be used to describe the “conventional or known” elements or steps, followed by a transition phrase such as “wherein the improvement comprises” and then an identification of the elements that “the applicant considers as the new or improved portion.” In other words, the preamble can first recite the prior art and then claim an improvement over the prior art.

In a historic move, President Trump has issued the first-ever Executive Order aimed at modernizing the U.S. foreign military sales system—streamlining approvals, expediting deals, and strengthening strategic alliances.