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Today: Central Transport will pay $5.5 million to settle an EEOC sex discrimination lawsuit for refusing to hire qualified female truck drivers. New Jersey enacted the nation's first comprehensive Kids Code requiring platforms to design safety and privacy protections into products serving minors. Local governments in California, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wisconsin are dealing with active cyberattacks that shut down 911 systems, court services, and municipal operations.
Central Transport Sex Discrimination Settlement
Central Transport LLC agreed to pay $5.5 million to resolve a nationwide EEOC lawsuit alleging the company refused to hire qualified female truck driver applicants because of their sex. The settlement represents one of the larger Title VII employment discrimination payouts in the trucking industry this year. The EEOC's investigation found systematic hiring barriers preventing women from accessing driver positions despite meeting qualification requirements.
Covidien $88M Hernia Mesh Verdict
A Massachusetts federal jury awarded $88 million to a plaintiff who alleged serious injuries after receiving a Covidien Symbotex hernia mesh implant, marking the first bellwether trial verdict in the ongoing multidistrict litigation against the Medtronic subsidiary. Bellwether trials serve as test cases that shape settlement negotiations for the remaining plaintiffs in MDL proceedings. The verdict signals potential exposure for similar medical device manufacturers facing product liability claims.
YouTube Premium Class Action
A new class action lawsuit alleges YouTube Premium subscribers still see advertisements despite the service's promise of an "ad-free" experience. The complaint challenges whether YouTube's definition of "ad-free" matches consumer expectations when promotional content, sponsored segments, and platform-native advertising remain visible to paying subscribers. The case raises questions about advertising disclosure requirements under state consumer protection statutes.
Ulta Salon Meta Pixel Tracking
A class action accuses Ulta Salon of violating privacy laws by using Meta Pixel to intercept, record, decode, capture, disclose, and use the contents of website visitors' electronic communications. The complaint alleges Ulta embedded Meta's tracking code on its website without adequate disclosure or consent, allowing Meta to collect detailed browsing behavior, product searches, and purchasing data. Similar Meta Pixel cases have alleged violations of state wiretap statutes and privacy laws in California, Illinois, and other jurisdictions.
Supreme Court November Argument Calendar
The Supreme Court announced its November argument calendar, including St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy (challenge to Colorado's exclusion of a Catholic preschool from the state's universal preschool program) and Nielsen v. Watanabe (whether federal inmates can sue prison officials under Bivens for constitutional violations). In St. Mary, the preschool argues Colorado violated the First Amendment by denying it an exemption from rules requiring it to admit all applicants, including LGBTQ children. The case tests the scope of Employment Division v. Smith and whether Carson v. Makin displaces Smith's general applicability standard when government programs exclude religious institutions.
Challenge to Trump Birthright Citizenship Order
Plaintiffs who successfully challenged Trump's earlier birthright citizenship order returned to federal court in New Hampshire, asking U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante to clarify that Trump's new August 6 executive order exceeds the narrow diplomatic exception to birthright citizenship reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in Trump v. Barbara. The new order expands exclusions beyond foreign diplomats to include children of foreign embassy employees, international organization workers, "alien enemies," and babies born through "birth tourism" commercial transactions. The plaintiffs argue the Supreme Court's June 30 decision limits exceptions to children of foreign ministers and 19th-century tribal members, rejecting Trump's attempt to carve out new categories.
West Virginia v. B.P.J. Sex Discrimination Analysis
SCOTUSblog analysis warns that the Supreme Court's 6-3 decision upholding West Virginia's transgender sports ban weakened constitutional protection against sex discrimination by departing from traditional intermediate scrutiny standards. The Court omitted the "exceedingly persuasive justification" language from United States v. Virginia and did not require the state to avoid "overbroad generalizations" about sex-based differences. The opinion applied intermediate scrutiny without the heightened "intermediate scrutiny plus" standard established in prior sex discrimination cases, raising concerns that the Court has created a lower bar for government sex-based classifications.
NSA Appoints New General Counsel
The National Security Agency appointed Kerianne Tobitsch as general counsel in June 2026, filling a role vacant for roughly a year after the Trump administration fired April Falcon Doss. Tobitsch, who most recently served as a senior lawyer at the Department of Homeland Security, will oversee lawyers who review and approve clandestine operations. The general counsel role is a career civil servant position meant to remain apolitical. Tobitsch previously spent eight years at Jones Day, where she became a partner focusing on privacy and data security issues.
FAA Streamlines Drone-as-First-Responder Waivers
Over 1,000 public safety agencies received FAA waivers for drone-as-first-responder (DFR) programs between April 2025 and February 2026, more than the total issued in the previous seven years combined. The waivers allow Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations using AI-based autonomous drones deployed from launchpads across cities. DFR programs expand aerial surveillance beyond traditional patrol areas and generate footage that can be stored, shared, and analyzed, including integration with automated license plate reader networks. Flock Safety and Axon are major vendors, with Axon reporting DFR as one of its fastest-growing product sectors.
Trump Vaccine Schedule Executive Order
President Trump signed an executive order on Monday limiting childhood vaccine recommendations to 11 immunizations and advising against combination shots like MMR. The changes are not based on new scientific evidence and rely on debunked claims linking vaccines to autism and false assertions that multiple vaccinations "overwhelm" children's immune systems. By recommending only 11 vaccines, the U.S. becomes an outlier among high-income countries, most of which recommend 15 or more. Trump falsely claimed during the signing ceremony that the MMR vaccine is "quite lethal," despite no deaths ever being linked to the MMR shot in people with normally functioning immune systems.
New Jersey Enacts Kids Code and Social Media Safeguards
Governor Mikie Sherrill signed the New Jersey Kids Code into law alongside bills creating social media mental health warning labels and a state social media research observatory. The Age-Appropriate Design Code shifts the burden of mitigating online harms to platforms by requiring companies to build privacy and safety protections into products serving minors by design. The law includes a duty of care, private right of action, and attorney general enforcement. Advocates celebrated the law for prioritizing young people's safety over engagement and profit, requiring platforms to ensure minors can participate online without privacy exploitation.
Ceva Logistics Cyberattack Exposes Customer Data
A cyberattack on global freight company Ceva Logistics disrupted shipments for major European retailers and exposed customer data belonging to Steam users and customers of Bol, De Bijenkorf, Ace & Tate, and Ajax. The attack affected eight warehouses in Europe. Ceva informed Bol on August 1 that attackers accessed two Ceva systems containing customer names, addresses, postal codes, telephone numbers, email addresses, order numbers, tracking information, purchase details, and gift card messages. Valve notified European Steam customers that delivery information for physical hardware purchases may have been compromised because Ceva retains customer records for up to 90 days after orders.
Kids Online Safety Act Stalls on Duty of Care
The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) advanced out of the Senate Commerce Committee last week but faces uncertain prospects due to a divide between chambers on whether to include a "duty of care" provision. The Senate bill requires companies to act with reasonable caution to prevent foreseeable harm, exposing platforms to negligence lawsuits. House leadership opposes the language, citing First Amendment concerns and warnings that vague "harm" definitions will cause platforms to overcensor educational content. Critics argue the provision will require highly invasive age verification using government IDs and biometric data. House Speaker Mike Johnson has called the duty of care "overbroad" and warned it could violate free speech protections.
Senate Committee Votes to Hold Fauci in Contempt
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted to hold Anthony Fauci in contempt for invoking the Fifth Amendment during questioning. Because a full Senate contempt vote is unlikely to overcome the filibuster, any prosecution by the Department of Justice would bypass the standard procedure created by statute and precedent. Legal experts warn that indicting Fauci without following the statutory process under 2 U.S.C. Section 194 would depart from past practice and face constitutional challenges, though Fauci would have to endure a criminal prosecution to raise these defenses.
Revised GSA AI Clause Lacks Definition
The General Services Administration's revised AI Acquisition Regulation clause governing AI contracts fails to define "government usage context," creating ambiguity about what data the clause protects. The undefined term determines whether operational data reveals government use, affecting deployment architecture, aggregation levels, and agency involvement. Legal experts propose a functional three-part test for defining the phrase rather than relying on the FAR's existing price reasonableness frameworks, which are highly contextual but include analytical structures the AI clause lacks.