The Lawletter Vol. 50 No. 4

IMMIGRATION LAW: Gang Violence and Relief from Removal Fourth Circuit Update

 Suzanne Bailey—Senior Attorney

      With the widely reported drama surrounding escalated enforcement by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that not every apprehension is the end-of-the line for non-citizens who have unlawfully entered the United States. Some non-citizens are permitted by U.S. law to remain in the United States.

The Lawletter Vol. 50 No. 4

CIVIL PROCEDURE: UFOs, Aliens, and Helicopters: A Study in Improper Parties

Matthew T. McDavitt—Senior Attorney

       By federal complaint filed January 9, 2013, plaintiff Shirley Durante—clearly suffering from some unstated mental health issue—sued defendants: (1) Massachusetts real estate broker Todd Sandler, (2) UFOs, (3) Aliens, and (4) Helicopters, alleging that aliens from Jupiter and Mars were harassing her:

Shirley Durante . . . complains that helicopters, UFOs, and aliens have been harassing her with laxatives and bright lights which burn her face and eyes. This harassment is destructive to her property as well, damaging three car mirrors. It appears that in some unspecified way Todd Sandler and family of Randolph, Massachusetts, have something to do with this harassment. Durante has written to the Department of Homeland Security and Senator Susan Collins about this harassment, but apparently has received no assistance. She has also gone to the Maine state courts seeking relief from the harassment. She has now determined that her recourse is to file a federal lawsuit.

The Lawletter Vol. 50 No. 4

 Jason Holder—Senior Attorney 

ATTORNEY ETHICS: How to Make a Bad Situation Worse: Court Sanctions Attorney for Using Hallucinated Cases to Defend Himself Against Motion Alleging Prior Use of Hallucinated Cases

       In a cautionary tale for attorneys seeking to use artificial intelligence (“AI”) technology in an effort to save time and money, a New York trial court has sanctioned counsel for relying “upon unvetted AI—in his telling, via inadequately supervised colleagues—to defend his use of unvetted AI.” Ader v. Ader, 2025 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 7848, at *1, 2025 NY Slip Op 51563(U), 1, 87 Misc. 3d 1213(A), 240 N.Y.S.3d 701 (Sup. Ct. N.Y. County Oct. 1, 2025). The initial offense was brought to the court’s attention when the opposition “identified inaccurate citations and quotations in Defendants' opposition brief that appeared to be ‘hallucinated’ by an AI tool.” Id. at *3. Without admitting or denying the use of AI, the offending attorney initially suggested that the passages cited by the opposition “were intended as paraphrases or summarized statements of the legal principles established in the cited authorities.” Id. Rejecting this argument, the court noted that the “paraphrases” included “bracketed terms to indicate departure from a quotation (not something one would expect to see in an intended paraphrase) and comments such as ‘citation omitted.’” Id. at *4. Compounding matters, the cases cited relied upon for the alleged paraphrases of law “did not stand for the propositions quoted, were completely unrelated in subject matter, and in one instance did not exist at all.” Id.

The Lawletter No. 50 Vol. 3

 Anne Hemenway—Senior Attorney 

        In March 2025, the American Federation of Teachers ("AFT") filed a lawsuit against the United States Department of Education (U.S. Dist. Ct. D.C. Civ. Action 25-802 (RBW)) for denying federal student loan borrowers their rights to an affordable repayment plan and to debt forgiveness opportunities which are mandated in their loan terms. These student loan income-driven repayment plans were mandated by Congress in part by President Biden's Savings on a Valuable Education ("SAVE") Plan, 20 U.S.C. §§ 1070 et seq., and the Department of Education’s revised regulations which provided more generous terms for income-based repayment plans. See Missouri v. Trump, 128 F.4th 979 (8th Cir. 2025) (citing SAVE Rule, 88 Fed. Reg. at 43901-02). Other students represented in the pending AFT class-action lawsuit are seeking relief through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Buyback program. At the end of August 2025, the Department of Education had a backlog of 1,076,266 income-driven repayment plan applications.

The Lawletter No. 50 Vol. 3

Charlene Hicks—Senior Attorney

      Beginning with the United States Supreme Court’s decision in East River S.S. Corp. v. Transamerica Delaval, Inc., 476 U.S. 858, 106 S. Ct. 2295 (1986), courts nationwide have utilized the economic loss doctrine to preclude plaintiffs from obtaining a tort remedy for contract-based claims. In effect, a plaintiff cannot pursue a tort claim to recover purely economic losses.

The Lawletter No. 50 Vol. 3

Robert Westendorf—Research Attorney

      Marlean Ames, a heterosexual woman, was hired as an executive secretary by the Ohio Department of Youth Services in 2004 and was later promoted to program administrator. Ames v. Ohio Dep't of Youth Servs., 605 U.S. 303, 306, 145 S. Ct. 1540 (2025). In 2019, she applied for a newly created management position. Id. Although she was interviewed for the position, a lesbian woman was ultimately hired. Id. A few days after her interview, she was demoted from her program administrator position to her old secretary position. Id. The agency then hired a gay man for the now-vacant program administrator position. Id.

The Lawletter Vol. 50 No. 3

The Lawletter Vol. 50 No. 3

Brett R. Turner, Senior Attorney

              As I write this note, it is mid-October, there is a crisp cool snap in the air, and the college football season is in full swing. It is a good time to remember that in the United States of America, college football and college sports in general are very big business.

            A reminder of this point in the divorce context is Waldrip v. Waldrip, 2025 Ark. App. 29, 705 S.W.3d 8. The parties in that case were members of the Razorback Foundation, which provides financial support for athletics at the University of Arkansas. The Foundation raises money, in part, by granting donors the right to purchase desirable seating at University sporting events. Those who donate to the Foundation are given priority points, and those with higher amount of points get more priority in purchasing desirable seating.

The Lawletter Vol. 50 No. 2

Nadine Roddy—Senior Attorney

        The 401(k) plan is perhaps the most popular form of tax-advantaged savings and investment vehicle for retirement offered by American employers under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). Many plans contain provisions requiring arbitration of all disputes arising from the plan, and some of these provisions limit the rights and remedies of plan participants bringing suits in arbitration. The Sixth Circuit recently declared invalid a 401(k) plan’s “individual arbitration provision” requiring a plan participant to bring suit in arbitration only in their individual capacity, and not in a representative, class, or collective capacity. The provision also limited a participant to seeking remedies for losses to their individual plan account, rather than to the plan itself. The case involved two plan participants who filed in federal district court a putative class action against plan fiduciaries on behalf of the plan, themselves, and all others similarly situated. They claimed breach of fiduciary duties and sought all losses accruing to the plan, disgorgement of all profits, and other injunctive relief. Parker v. Tenneco, Inc., 114 F.4th 786, 792 (6th Cir. 2024).

The Lawletter No. 50 Vol. 2

Lee Dunham—Senior Attorney 

     In the wake of the rise of online vacation rental platforms like Airbnb and VRBO, the modern trend in drafting restrictive covenants for planned communities or condominiums is to include a provision specifically addressing whether, and under what conditions, short-term rentals will be permitted. Older covenants, however, did not contemplate the widespread use of properties as short-term rentals, and typically contain only broad provisions restricting the properties to “residential use,” or limiting “commercial” or “business” use.