The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times

The Morning Wrap

March Agenda: Congress doesn't intend to reverse across-the-board spending cuts that took effect Friday, The Washington Post reports. But it is hoping to avert a government shutdown that could happen by the end of the month.

Wiping Away: U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Francisco on Friday took away roughly $450 million of the $1.05 billion in damages a jury awarded last August to Apple Inc. in its smartphone patent war against Samsung Electronics Co., The Recorder reports. The award stood as one of the largest ever in a patent infringement case.

OMB Chief: President Barack Obama will tap Sylvia Mathews Burwell as the next director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Politico reports. Burwell is the president of the Walmart Foundation.

D.C. Circuit Appears Skeptical of FCC in Tennis Channel Case

A federal appeals court in Washington today appeared poised to strike down a Federal Communications Commission decision that found the country's largest cable television provider discriminated against the Tennis Channel by restricting its distribution to a sports package.

A lawyer for the commission, Peter Karanjia, faced tough questions from a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, where Comcast Cable Communications LLC is fighting the FCC order. The agency ruling was the first-ever in two decades under a provision of federal communications law that Congress enacted to promote competition and diversity in cable television programming.

Judges on the D.C. Circuit panel expressed concern about whether the Tennis Channel's complaint is time-barred and whether the agency order could expand the power of the government to regulate the speech of other entities. One judge, Brett Kavanaugh, said the FCC "has a serious problem with the First Amendment here."

The appeals court didn't immediately rule in the closely watched case. Bloomberg L.P. filed papers in support of the FCC. On the other side, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association wants the FCC order vacated. A team from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher represents Comcast.

The Morning Wrap

Oil Spill: The civil trial against BP PLC over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill is starting on Monday in New Orleans, The Times-Picayune reports.

Sunday Blessing: Speaking at his last Sunday blessing as pope, Benedict XVI told Catholics he won't abandon them when he resigns, The New York Times reports. "On the contrary, if God asks me, this is because I can continue to serve" the church "with the same dedication and the same love which I have tried to do so until now, but in a way more suitable to my age and to my strength," Benedict said.

Sandy Help: Several lawyers in parts of Long Island hit by Hurricane Sandy are applying their expertise to assist their neighbors pro bono, even as they continue to deal with their own challenges, the New York Law Journal reports. "I try to let them know they're not alone," Long Island attorney Tracey Discepolo said. "I'm in the same boat."

DOJ Intervenes in Whistleblower Suit Against Lance Armstrong

For a couple of years, the federal government has remained on the sidelines of a lawsuit in Washington that alleges Lance Armstrong and others made false claims to the U.S. Postal Service in connection with the agency's sponsorship of a professional cycling team.

The U.S. Justice Department announced today, ending months of speculation, that the government is jumping into the suit to back the plaintiff, Floyd Landis, who rode with Armstrong on the professional team the USPS-sponsored between 2002 and 2004. The government alleges Armstrong's use of performance-enhancing substances was a violation of the USPS sponsorship agreement. This amended complaint was filed today.

"Lance Armstrong and his cycling team took more than $30 million from the U.S. Postal Service based on their contractual promise to play fair and abide by the rules—including the rules against doping,” Ronald Machen Jr., the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, said in a statement. “The Postal Service has now seen its sponsorship unfairly associated with what has been described as ‘the most sophisticated, professionalized, and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.’"

Lawyers who represent whistleblower said the case will be closely watched for what will likely be the battlefield of the dispute: Was the USPS harmed?

Appeals Court Affirms $775K Judgment for Injured MLB Umpire

Updated at 1 p.m.

The Wilson Sporting Goods Co., struck out in its appeal of a $775,000 judgment awarded to a Major League Baseball umpire who sued after being injured by a foul ball. The District of Columbia Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment in an opinion (PDF) released this morning.

Edwin Hickox sued Wilson in District of Columbia Superior Court after a foul ball knocked off his Wilson-made face mask during a Washington Nationals game in 2005. A jury sided with Hickox in March 2011 and ordered Wilson to pay $775,000 to Hickox and $25,000 to his wife. Wilson appealed, challenging the admission of an expert who testified for Hickox at trial, among other things.

A three-judge appellate panel upheld the judgment today. Wilson had pointed to flaws in the expert's testimony – such as the fact that he didn't do his own testing of the face masks at issue – but the appeals court found that any deficiencies went to the weight the jury gave that testimony, as opposed to whether it should be admissible.

The Morning Wrap

Layoffs: With layoffs running rampant at Allen & Overy, DLA Piper, and Eversheds, The American Lawyer asks whether U.S. law firms will be next. "These are not outliers. They're not anomalies," Zeughauser Group consultant Kent Zimmermann said of the recent layoffs. "It is something that's happening quietly in many, many firms in the industry."

Contraception Battles: Roman Catholics, evangelicals and Mennonites are flooding courts with challenges to a provision in the new health care law that requires employers to cover birth control in worker health plans, The New York Times reports. "This is highly likely to end up at the Supreme Court," said Douglas Laycock, a law professor at the University of Virginia and one of the country’s top scholars on church-state conflicts. "There are so many cases, and we are already getting strong disagreements among the circuit courts."

Stepping Down: Lisa Gomer, the general counsel of the U.S. Agency for International Development, is leaving the agency on February 9 amid an ongoing probe into alleged contract rigging, Corporate Counsel reports. Gomer’s attorney, David Schertler of Schertler & Onorato, said his client "did not violate any law." He added that she "cooperated completely" with the Office of Inspector General investigation, according to an emailed statement.

Former House Official Wants Public Corruption Conviction Overturned

Nearly nine years ago, Fraser Verrusio, then a policy director in the House of Representatives, accepted an all-expenses paid trip to the first game of the World Series. He's now fighting to convince a federal appeals court in Washington to erase his conviction on public corruption charges stemming from that trip.

A jury in Washington's federal trial court convicted Verrusio in February 2011 on charges that included acceptance of an illegal gratuity and failing to include gift information on financial disclosure reports. He was sentenced that year to spend the afternoon in a cell in the courthouse.

Verrusio's lawyers—including A.J. Kramer, the federal public defender in Washington, and a team from Baker Botts—filed their opening brief on October 5 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The case is one of two cases pending in the D.C. Circuit with ties to Washington's lobbying scandal and the exploits of Jack Abramoff.

The defense lawyers argue, among other things, that the trial judge, Richard Roberts, "greatly expanded" the scope of the federal anti-gratuities statute. The attorneys contend the U.S. Justice Department didn't prove that Verrusio used his official position to influence government decision-making.

The Morning Wrap

'Biggest Honor': Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney announced on Saturday aboard the USS Wisconsin in Norfolk, Va., that Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) would be his running mate, The Washington Post reports. "It's gone from the surreal to the real. . . . It was the biggest honor I've ever been given in my life," Ryan said.

USA, USA: The 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London concluded on Sunday with the United States taking home the most medals, according to The New York Times. The United States secured 104 medals, 46 of which were gold. China, which followed the United States in the medal count, had 88 medals, 38 of which were gold.

Robbed: D.C. Superior Court Judge Ronna Beck and two of her friends were robbed at gunpoint on August 3 when they left the Citi Open Tennis Tournament in Rock Creek Park, NBC Washington reports. The robbers stole about $100 in cash, a key to a Lexus, purses and wallets. Neither Beck nor her friends were hurt during the robbery.

The Morning Wrap

Aurora Shooting: James Holmes was seeing a psychiatrist before he allegedly entered an Aurora, Colo., theater on July 20 and shot 70 people, killing 12 of them, The Denver Post reports. It isn't immediately clear why the psychiatrist was treating him or for how long.

Social Media: Apple Inc. is considering an investment in Twitter Inc., The New York Times reports. "Apple doesn't have to own a social network," Timothy Cook, Apple's chief executive, said at a recent technology conference. "But does Apple need to be social? Yes."

Social Olympics: Corporate Counsel explores the limits the International Olympic Committee has placed on athletes' use of social media. "This is the first Games where we're really seeing such active use of social media to promote the Games, which is going to be a challenge for us," said Amy Savela, the U.S. Olympic Committee's associate general counsel for marketing.

Big East Conference Drops Lawsuit Against Texas Christian University

The Big East Conference notified (PDF) a U.S. District judge yesterday that it is dropping its lawsuit against Texas Christian University. The Big East accused the school of refusing to pay a fee it purportedly owed after joining a different athletic conference.

The Big East filed suit against the university in June in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. In a statement about the notice of dismissal, the conference said that: "TCU has fully discharged its obligations to the Big East and the lawsuit is amicably settled without admission of liability of any party."

The university also issued a statement, saying that: "The University is pleased with the amicable resolution of this matter and glad to have it behind us."