Law & Courts

NEW YORK — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Oct. 16 denied Kenvue's petition for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc in the Tylenol autism and ADHD litigation. The order leaves intact a July ruling reviving hundreds of lawsuits that claim prenatal exposure to acetaminophen harmed children. In July the panel held that U.S. District Judge Denise Cote, who oversaw the consolidated cases in Manhattan, went too far in excluding the testimony of three experts for the families: Drs. Andrea Baccarelli, Brandon Pearson and Eric Hollander. Without that testimony her judgments for the defendants fell. Kenvue argues that trial judges are the true gatekeepers of expert evidence, and Reuters reported that it intends to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case. The ruling does not find that Tylenol causes either condition. The families must still prove causation.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Oct. 13 added three cases to its 2026-27 argument docket. In U.S. DOGE Service v. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (No. 25-1103), the government challenges discovery ordered in a FOIA suit by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The discovery would help decide whether DOGE is a covered agency, and it includes a deposition of acting administrator Amy Gleason. The government argues the D.C. Circuit ignored the Court's earlier separation-of-powers instructions. In Blanche v. Ozurumba (No. 25-1343), the justices will decide whether a Nigerian man who cooked at a separatist camp gave 'material support' to terrorists. The Fourth Circuit held he did not. In Berry v. United States (No. 25-7026), the question is whether a certificate of appealability can issue when the claim is foreclosed by the petitioner's own circuit but succeeds in another.

WASHINGTON — Two emergency applications are pending at the Supreme Court. Three cities and a group that provides legal services to immigrants have asked the justices to pause an agreement between Texas and the Justice Department. The agreement keeps in place a block on a Biden-era rule that lets immigration judges pause certain deportation proceedings. Separately, on Sept. 28 the Trump administration asked the Court to let the Federal Bureau of Prisons carry out a new policy on health care for transgender inmates. The policy would bar gender-transition surgery, hormone therapy and 'social accommodations.' SCOTUSblog reports that the prisons dispute is fully briefed and could be decided at any time. SCOTUSblog's summary did not say how the lower courts ruled in either matter.